January Home Preschool Plan

When it comes to preschool at home, I like a little structure, but not too much. For Q (my fifth-born) I've set a theme for the month and letter of the week plans, but haven't overly scheduled when we read which book and which days we do the various enrichment activities.

Here are a few of the things we are doing (along with a peek at the preschool spread in my bullet journal).

January Theme: Winter and Snow

Our Weekday Routine

Since last summer, Q has been accustomed to the idea of having a simple morning checklist: eat breakfast, use the toilet, and get dressed (in whatever order he was in the mood for). He knew he had to do those three things before he could ask for his little bit of daily electronics time. Around two months ago, I added "book with Mom" to his checklist, as I felt we weren't spontaneously reading enough. Now he is four, and has had over six months to get used to the idea of daily expectations, so I felt comfortable expanding on it slightly. His new morning checklist is:

• Use the toilet
• Dress himself
• Eat breakfast
• Book
• Desk activity (i.e.-scissor practice, writing, sequencing cards, etc.)

For the first few days, he accepted the additional expectation with curiosity. Then for a few days he complained about it, but I held firm: the whole checklist had to be complete before he was allowed any electronics time. Now he has accepted it, and will request it before choosing a book to read.

Below you can see the habit tracker I made for his morning checklist, along with a place for me to track how many accident-free days he has this month.

The Books

Picture books are the joy and the core of our preschool. Where we live, January is typically when we get our first big snow (though it seems late coming this year).
The first two books on this list are children's classics: first the story of a tractor trailer snowplow named Katy who works hard and rescues the city. My little engineers love the maps in the book. Next we experience a snow day through the eyes of a young boy in The Snowy Day.
Then we begin the beautiful modern classics. Poetic without rhyming, Kevin Henkes new series about the seasons of the year are sumptuously illustrated. Once we discovered that mommy and daddy cardinal were hidden on almost every spread, Winter Is Here became our newest "I Spy" book.
We learn what animals are doing in the winter through the poetic Shh! Bears Sleeping, and Over and Under the Snow. I like that I am not only teaching him that bears and some animals hibernate, but also that some other animals don't.
Perhaps it is redundant to have a second book about plowing, but my little boy loves vehicles, so when I saw the beautiful colors and the rhyming text in Good Morning, Snowplow! I wrapped it up for Christmas.
Lastly, I help him learn about the scriptures and making good choices by reading selections from The Friend magazine. My monthly favorite is the retold scripture story illustrated by April Stott (pictured above).

• Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keates
• Winter Is Here, by Kevin Henkes
• Shh! Bears Sleeping by David Martin
• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
• Good Morning, Snowplow! by Deborah Bruss
• The Friend, Jr. (plus pages 20-21)

I left space in the journal underneath each book to tally how many times we read each book. Some mornings I will choose which book we read, but often he will. I keep some of these, along with a couple other favorites, easily accessible in his room. Many of our other books are up on a shelf, waiting for their turn to be loved again.

Scriptures to Learn by Heart

To go along with our letter-of-the-week (see below) I have scriptures to learn with him. I choose one selection to focus on that week. I will read the scripture to him and encourage him to repeat it. When he does, I color in one of the hearts I drew to the left of the scriptures in the bullet journal.

• Kk "God is the King of all the earth." Psalm 77:7
• Ll "Love one another," John 15:12
• Mm "My heart is glad," Psalm 16:9
• Nn "Noah built an ark," Moses 7:43

Learning Letters

I've chosen to do a letter of the week, but only have up to three activities for each letter. My main theme remains "winter and snow." I just want to spend enough time with each letter that he learns the basic handwriting strokes and gets some practice recognizing the sounds in words.

Since his co-op preschool wrapped up in December with the letter J, our January letters will be K, L, M, and N. 

Each letter has three activities to do (on three different days): write it on chalkboard, write it on paper, and do an initial sound recognition activity (i.e.-which starts with the sound /k/: kite or window?).

I've used Handwriting Without Tears materials for many of my children in preschool and kindergarten, and was surprised to realize I must have let go of my official little chalkboard. I bought an inexpensive replacement at Hobby Lobby. The idea is to first show the child how to write the capital letter, letting it take up the whole space in the little chalkboard. Then you hand them a wet cotton swab to erase your work, encouraging them to start in the same place (usually upper left corner), and trace to erase. Then they turn over the cotton swab to trace-erase it with the dry side. Once they have completed erasing, they will see a clean pathway on their chalkboard to guide them as they write their own letter. This technique is called "wet-dry-try," and is quite effective with young children.

I don't have a workbook for the days where he writes a letter on paper. He just barely turned four, and I am emphasizing quality (correct strokes) over quantity, and it seems a little silly to buy a workbook when I only expect him to write the letter once or twice (after he watches me write one as a model). In the past I have sometimes used an index card or cut-down computer paper so that there is less wasted space.

Music

We have three songs this month. Our more "serious" music appreciation song is listening to "Fossils," from Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saens. It's actually written for young children, and is an excellent instrumental piece for them. I will periodically ask Alexa to play the song for us.
Then there are two songs to go along with our study of the scriptures at home and at church. We are beginning our study of the New Testament this year, so "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" and "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" are the two I've chosen to focus on this month. Sometimes we will sing a song together. Sometimes I'll see him playing quietly and play the music from my phone for him to appreciate passively.
We were also really looking forward to attending a children's "Lollipop Concert," but the tickets sold out, so we didn't get to do that.

• "Fossils," by Camille Saint-Saens
• "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus," by W. H. Parker
• "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus," by Janice Kapp Perry

Scissor Skills and Other Activities

Now that he is four, I've decided it's time to work on scissor skills. I keep the scissors and some strips of construction paper out of sight in his closet, and only get them down as a desk activity that I sit and supervise. The biggest challenge right now is to get him in the habit of holding the scissors the correct side up. I gently correct him every time, and he is getting better. The lines down the middle of the strips of paper proved more difficult than I expected them to, so I count it as growth to watch him studiously cut the strip of paper into confetti.

There are some cute books out there to practice scissor skills, but for now he just needs practice opening and closing the scissors. 

I also made a list of "Activities," which includes an outing, simple snow-themed crafts, developmental activities (like spreading peanut butter on bread by himself), and sequencing cards. I inherited a very old box with colorful cards to sequence. Rather than introduce him to all of them at once, this month I will get out the building a snowman set a few times, and have him sort them in the correct order. This is important as both an early math activity and an early literacy activity.

Our Family Study Schedule for "Come, Follow Me"

"It's so open-ended! What do we do?"
Exasperated and bewildered, my husband and I were attempting to reach an agreement for how we would approach Sundays, Family Home Evening, and scripture study in 2019.
As we flipped through a copy of the New Testament manual for home, it felt like trying to draw a map through a cloud. We could do anything, anyway we wanted. What could be easier than knowing what we want? What could be harder?
It didn't help that the nebulous ideas forming in my head were at odds with those my wonderful husband came up with. With so few guidelines to default to, we had to have an actual discussion with listening, persuasion, and decision making.
As we looked through the manual, we realized there just weren't enough chapters and discussion points to play the one-a-day game like we've done through years of Book of Mormon study. What were we supposed to do? We didn't want to plow through it all on Sunday or Monday. How were they supposed to contribute to their Sunday school lessons six or seven days later?
We finally settled on a structured, yet flexible plan that covered Sundays, a Monday Family Home Evening, the assigned reading and discussions, and what to do on weeks where we finished the week's assignments before the week was done.

Our Family's "Come, Follow Me" Home Study Schedule

SUNDAY

• Share church discussions at home.
• Recognize and praise those who did personal study in the past week
• (Invite sharing from personal studies)
• Select what 4-year old Q will be taught this week, selecting junior resources as needed
• Select a scripture or song to practice daily this week
• Read aloud a story from The Friend
• Family Council
• (Some weeks we may play a game as a family)

MONDAY: FAMILY HOME EVENING

• Song
• Prayer
• Begin the week's reading and discussion
• Object Lesson or Special Activity
• Treat

TUESDAY AND ONWARD

• Read and discuss one section from the manual each day until the week's reading is complete
• Repeat the week's verse or sing the week's song

REMAINING DAYS

• Read aloud from any of the following:
• The Ensign
• General Conference talks
• Or study from
• Bible Dictionary or Topical Guide

What is your family's plan for the new year?

A Chilly, Child-Swapping Temple Day in Philadelphia

We could see the skyscrapers of Philadelphia when we noticed it: isolated clumps of gray snow on the shoulder of the freeway. Southeast Pennsylvania had enjoyed some snow earlier that week, and while it was warm enough that most of it had melted, it was also cold enough that not all of it had melted.

Traffic wasn't in our favor, so we pulled into the underground parking garage shortly after the 10:00 session began.  After donning coats and informing me he would be back at 1:45 my valiant husband took the five children up the elevator to the "arrival center" building. His mission: to entertain the five children at the nearby Franklin Institute so I could have some time in the temple.
I took the central elevator straight up to the temple entrance to luxuriate in 3 1/2 hours of peaceful pondering and temple work.
At 1:45-ish, I took that same elevator back down to P2. As soon as the doors into the parking garage opened, I heard the familiar, obnoxious sound of one of my children pretending to vomit. Sure enough, my family was making its way across the parking garage to the van just in front of me. My 3-year old was the first to notice me, and happily walked with me over to the van. The children started clambering inside (not that we were going anywhere yet), while my husband tied his tie and pulled on his suit coat that had been hanging in the far back of the van.
Cory gave me a parting kiss, then carried his temple bag to the central elevator, and I turned to face five children who were ready for a late lunch (Dad had fed them popcorn). With coats back on, we decided to try our luck at the 7-11 a block away.

We walked out of the shelter of the "arrival center" and into the chilly wind blowing down the street. Not sufficiently cold, the children prodded and kicked every patch of dirty snow along our path.
At a four-way stop the children clustered back together and a considerate driver waved us across.
I had never before been in a convenience store with an L-shaped layout. We had to squeeze past the line at the checkout to see what our options were. The most promising option was 2 slices of pizza for $2. When the line cleared out, the cashier came over to help us. He pointed out that a full pizza (8 slices) was $5.55, so we ordered that instead. While it was baking, I generously encouraged the children to get a small hot chocolate ($1 each). My high schoolers sensibly started filling their own cocoa cups, while my younger children pleaded for slurpees. I thought it was foolish, but we believe in allowing the children opportunities to make choices and experience consequences, so I just reminded them of how cold it was outside, and allowed them the option of a small slurpee instead.
When we purchased the food and stepped outside, the chilly wind began chasing us down the street. My 3-year old clutched his prized slurpee and shivered. There was no way I was carrying a pizza while helping the children cross all the busy streets it would take to arrive at the lunchroom tucked inside the Franklin Institute. I gave them the option of either eating in the park or in the van. It was unanimous, so we hurried as discreetly to the elevator as a family of seven carrying a pizza and drinks in the temple courtyard possibly can.
After eating, we gathered up the trash in the van to save for the first rest area we would encounter on the drive home. Then we went up to the surface and walked briskly down Vine Street, noticing at least one father in a dress shirt taking his young children into the Free Library of Philadelphia. It's fun recognizing families out in town that you've recently seen at the temple.
The high school boys promised to stay with each other and meet us by the enormous statue of Benjamin Franklin at a given time. The rest of us got downstairs just in time for a planetarium showing. I let my middle schoolers go in together, with instructions to find me in the adjacent train exhibit as soon as it was done. Then little Q and I spent a happy half hour building an enormous train track.

We met up successfully and made it back to the parking garage about 20 minutes before I expected us to, which allowed us to leave almost as soon as Cory (who had remembered to validate our parking ticket) came down. We left the Philadelphia around 4:30 and it was dark before we were in Delaware.  For our first half hour, we discussed our pondering and impressions for the day, and navigated our complicated route out of the city and onto Delaware 1.

I read to Cory most of the way home. We finished Mary Poppins and got a good start on Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George. The kids mostly watched shows we had downloaded to our tablets, but T prepared his lesson for today, and Q napped for over an hour.
We were reminded our family was responsible for the sacrament bread, so when we stopped for gas, we also bought a loaf of bread.
When we pulled into our driveway a little after midnight, the three children in the middle row were all asleep. We nudged the older ones awake and carried the youngest in. By the time we had brought in all the luggage, all of the children were asleep in their beds.
Another successful temple weekend. Lots of driving, not too bad on sleep, and no regrets.

2 Hour Church = 1 Hour Primary

As a member of my ward's Primary presidency, I was eager to see how the new two-hour church schedule would affect Primary.
In a sense, there will be nothing new (during the Sunday block). There will actually be less (for example, no more Sharing Time).
The most dramatic thing I noticed about the new schedule is how it shifted the proportion of time spent in different areas.
To me, the new proportions emphasize three very important things:

1. Taking the sacrament. Even young children who ignore the speakers take notice of the sacrament. The entire sacrament meeting will be half of a child (or adult's) church worship experience.
2. Singing Time. As you can see in the circle chart I made, learning and singing gospel songs is nearly a quarter of a child's church experience each Sunday. (The chart I made includes the 5 minute opening with singing time, but there are several songs sung in sacrament meeting to balance that). For many children, the gospel is best learned through music. Music has a power to touch hearts in a way that lectures cannot. Gospel songs are also more likely to be hummed and remembered into the week. In fact, once a song is thoroughly learned, its power can unexpectedly reenter a person's life years in the future.
3. Class time. A 20 minute class is superior to a 20 minute sharing time in many ways. By being in a small class setting, young children are more likely to feel the love of their teachers, have opportunities to participate, and therefore pay better attention.

What are your thoughts about these changes?

My Daughter's First Baptism Trip (and How Youth Serve in the Temple)

I would have liked to have been there for my sons' first baptism trips, but it made more sense for their father to go. When my daughter turned 12, I was looking forward to the opportunity to enjoy that milestone with her.
A snowstorm cancelled the ward trip that had been scheduled for her birthday. As the closure date for the Washington DC Temple neared and our ward still didn't have a new appointment, we took matters into our own hands and drove up with a couple family names.

The temple workers assigned us to tag-along for a ward baptism trip (though I think they would have preferred for us to have called for an appointment a few weeks in advance). We were very fortunate, because we were able to see some recent changes in action. The priests from the ward were called ahead of the group to get special instruction so they could take turns baptizing the youth in their ward. Then the temple workers spoke to the young women. In addition to being a proxy for baptism, the young women were able to serve by passing out towels and bringing the paperwork for completed baptisms to an assigned area.
I could tell my daughter was itching to volunteer, but as we were tag-alongs and this was her first trip and there were lots of others ready to take that opportunity, I persuaded her to wait for another trip.
I'll admit, when I had read about these new opportunities that youth would have, I didn't think much of it. To me, they seemed like little things. Watching the youth in action completely changed my perspective. This was their temple trip. They weren't passive assistants to the adults who do the real work. They were doing the work. Temple work had become their work.

5 Things We Love about Elder Ulisses Soares

Do you have a strong but quiet man in your ward or family? That's what I imagine Elder Soares to be like.
Why?

Well, with all the conference talks he has already given, I thought I would find lots of stories about him to share.
I was wrong. It turns out that in most of his talks he didn't share a personal experience at all! When he does speak, you can tell he loves God, the church, the scriptures, his wife and his family. 

1. We like his name. If you need to spell it, remember that it is spelled like the English word “soar,” with an “-es” attached. For pronunciation, I’m trusting President Eyring, who pronounced it “swahrr-ez.”
2.  He was born in Brazil. My husband served his mission in Brazil, so it’s definitely our family’s favorite South American country. After two years of eating black beans and rice (and some of the most amazing fresh fruit), he still sometimes we occasionally visit local Brazilian restaurants, because nobody makes black beans as tasty and satisfying as they can. But that isn’t the only foreign country Elder Soares has ties to. He has also lived in South Africa, and served as president of the Portugal Porto Mission. He also speaks four languages: Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish.
3. He filled out his mission papers at the age of 11. This probably says more about his bishop than about him, but it is a unique way of planning for your future.
4. Elder Soares loves his wife. In fact, his love for his wife and their family might be his defining characteristic. “The couple rarely says ‘I’ and ‘me’ when discussing their respective lives—opting for the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us.’” In fact, we love his wife, too! She was first invited to visit the church when she was eight or nine years old, but her parents didn't allow her to be baptized until she was seventeen! That didn't slow her down. Only a few years later she was a missionary serving in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro mission. After her mission, she married another convert to the church who had served in the same mission: Ulisses Soares!* 
5. Elder Soares is humble. He said so himself. Kidding! (Although he did once give a talk titled, “Be Meek and Lowly of Heart.”) Actually, the real reason I believe Elder Soares is humble is that in the seven times he has spoken in General Conference, he has only shared personal stories twice. For some people, a microphone is an invitation to monologue, but when Elder Soares takes the podium, his focus is clearly on scriptures, doctrine, and Jesus Christ. He knows it isn’t about him.

REFERENCES

• Hear President Eyring’s pronunciation of “Soares” during the April 2018 solemn assembly.
• Read about Ulisses Soares' family's conversion, his mission, and courtship in LDS Living's article, "5 Things You Should Know About Our New Apostle Elder Soares."
• Elder Renlund reviews the homemade Brazilian pizza made by Elder and Sister Soares in a caption in the September 2018 New Era article, “Take the Savior’s Hand.” (The online version is unfortunately missing the photograph and caption).
• An interview with Elder and Sister Soares was published this April: "Meet Elder Ulisses Soares: Committed to Serve and Testify Worldwide."
• An infographic of his life was published in the September 2018 New Era.
• The talk, “Be Meek and Lowly of Heart,” was given in October 2013.
• You can see all the talks Elder Soares ever gave by going to the General Conference homepage on lds.org. At the top of the page is the option to select a speaker. Scroll down until you see his name (it’s currently number 15).

* Elder Soares was six when his family joined the church, so he will say he grew up in the church, but his family was converted.

Sometimes We Struggle with Small and Simple Things

This weekend was our stake's turn to help with the hurricane clean up in North Carolina. I had been wistfully watching clean up efforts for years, wishing one day my children could be part of that kind of service.
Many members of our ward signed up to serve. So many, in fact, that it was decided that the home ward would only have a sacrament service today due to the lack of teachers and leaders. It felt good knowing there were so many true-blue service-oriented members in our ward.
My two oldest sons decided to go. So did my daughter. When it came down to which parent to send, there really wasn't even a discussion. The parent who bought all the mallets and crow bars was obviously the one who could most effectively handle them, and that parent wasn't me.
I helped pack a bag of travel food, and helped my husband rearrange the garage so we could get to all the tools.
When it was time to see them go . . . without me, I was surprised by how sad I felt. Part of it was being left out of an adventure with my husband. We travel so frequently together that it felt unnatural not to. But I knew another part was my desire to be part of this special service project, to be part of something big and uncommon and memorable and noteworthy.
My job was to stay home with the three year old.

Our short church meeting today was mostly testimonies. The first was given by my 10-year old's Primary teacher. In his testimony, he mentioned the Bible story of Naaman the leper. Naaman goes to the prophet to be healed. The prophet doesn't see him in person. Instead, he sends his servant out to tell the leper to bathe seven times in the river. Naaman is insulted, and might not have obeyed if his diplomatic servant hadn't suggested that if the prophet had asked Naaman to do a mighty thing, that Naaman certainly would have done it.
Brother S. went on to compare that to small and simple things the Lord asks us to do. He must have been inspired, because that resonated strongly with many members of the congregation, myself included. I would have been happy to wear the yellow t-shirt and work with the other Helping Hands . . . or at least have taken pictures of them working. My small and simple assignment was to stay home with my youngest two children. It wasn't difficult. I've done it many times before. But it was not what I had hoped to be doing.

My mind went back to a conference meme I saw this week. Maybe you've seen it. It had a photograph of President Nelson with the message: "You thought last conference was exciting? Buckle up!"
I had idly wondered to myself what other exciting things could possibly happen that hadn't already happened. Most of my ideas were improbable, if not unlikely. Then, during sacrament meeting, I had a startling thought: what if no new exciting thing was announced during conference? What if we went in with high expectations of excitement, only to be told to read the scriptures as a family, serve our neighbors, and keep going to church? Could we handle that?

At this point, I would almost be more surprised if the October 2018 conference didn't have surprises than if it did have surprises. Either way, the Lord is at the helm. Either way, these are his servants that he has sent to us with a message. Are we willing to hear, even if it is a small and simple thing?