Summer School...kinda

I have once again decided that the TV is on for far too long every day in our house. I no longer have the excuse that I have an unpredicatable baby. I no longer have the excuse that our schedule is inconsistent because of all of Eli's doctor appointments. None of us are sick. And I certainly no longer have the excuse that the weather is cruddy causing us to be stuck inside all day. Summer is upon us and we are breaking bad habits and getting into a routine. Hence summer school.

I'm not really expecting to teach Colin more than we're not watching TV all morning. However, I'm hoping that this will also help ease him into preschool a little by providing practice at sitting still and focusing on specific tasks. I guess I could also call it "Art Time" because we're basically doing different art projects everyday, but I call it school because I'm a dictator like that.

So far, we've practiced writing his name (he traces over the letters I wrote), cutting with scissors, and I'm trying to introduce a different letter or number everyday. So far, I've let Colin take the lead a little bit in terms of what medium he wants to play with - markers, paint with brushes, finger paints, etc. If I get myself really organized, maybe we'll have some fancy projects to talk about on here. In the meantime, he's enjoying his school time, he's not asking to watch TV every 5 minutes anymore, and he's more eager to play outside after his 20-30 minutes of focused time with me. I call that a success.

And if you're wondering what little Eli is doing during all this quality Mama-Colin time...

But don't let him fool you. Eli really does love to *read* books more than stomp on them.