For the mama out there who’s child is close to school age and the questions begin circling your mind- is he ready? does she know what she needs to? should he be reading already? how many letters does a kindergartener need to be able to write?- 

I want you to know it’s going to be ok. (If I knew how to put a heart emoji here I would)

It is ok for your five year old to have spent his entire life so far being a kid. It’s ok if she doesn’t know the alphabet in order before starting kindergarten. The first 5-6 years of life are so precious and important for you as a family to create, develop, and ENJOY your bond with one another. My heart here is to give yours freedom. Planning and creating activities is my JOY! I’d love it if you could enjoy them with us without stressing over plans or organization. Leave that to us and let’s just have fun this year! 

These first years at home together are for enjoying- whether you stay home or work or work from home- enjoy this season. If doing educational activities or crafts is enjoyable then do it! I’ve got lots of ideas I’d love to share with you 😉 …but if it’s not then let yourself off the hook. You are teaching more than you realize. When you read a book to your child, talk with your child, color with sidewalk chalk together you are making little investments. All those activities and zillions more come together to create a schema from which your little will put together ideas throughout her/his educational career. 

The big idea I want to get across is FREEDOM. I’ll plan out the year, give you directions, suggestions, and materials and you enjoy investing in your little. Don’t stress about curriculums and assessments- have fun and let me lead the way for you! 

This coming school year I plan to work on activities with my 4 year old Macie Jane and some modified activities with my 2 year old Sadie. There will be days we do lessons and crafts and there will be days when I look at my big girls and decide time is flying too quickly not to enjoy them so we’ll run away to the zoo or a park for the day. At the preschool age teaching our littles isn’t about strict adherence to a curriculum. It’s about appreciating the little time we have them little. It’s about enjoying experiences from which they can build ideas down the road. It’s about fun and a whole lotta love! 

That being said, there are 16 units planned for this coming year. Each unit includes lots of reading, fun crafts, journaling, sight word work, math skills, etc- basically a whole bunch of FUN! The units will be stand alone meaning you can do units 1-3 and if the baby gets a cold don’t feel like you can’t stop. Take a break and pick up on unit 5 when we start it. Catch-up on unit 4 later in the year, or the Summer. Additionally, if doing all the activities in a unit seem overwhelming don’t feel like you have to do all of them. Your family may decide to work on letter sounds, do a craft here or there, and read all the books and that’s great!

To get us excited I’m sharing the first 4 phonemic awareness cards for {FREE.} The cards are adorable and will introduce capital letters along with letter sounds. They’re intended to be printed out 2-sided. The reverse of the card includes 4 sentences/phrases (one for each day of the 4 day week) used to build phonemic awareness (hearing/understanding letter sounds.) These cards are part of the Daily Tasks I note in the unit plans. More details are available on the download. 

I hope you feel a weight lifted from your heart, mind, and shoulders! I can’t wait to help you create positive and enjoyable learning experiences for your family. 

With Love,

Carla