Difficult week

After Monday, things went downhill for various reasons, a bunch out of my control that had a huge impact on us. I was feeling very disheartened yesterday, and even somewhat this morning, but I'm starting to find the determination again. Hopefully next week will not bring with it too much craziness and unexpected bad news!

Let me think about next week while I'm here:

*Monday: Ds has a dentist appointment. I mustn't forget like I did this past Thursday. Fortunately, it's close by and they call if you don't show up--they kind of worry something happened to you! lol--so we were able to still get in on Thursday. I would hate to be late AGAIN. Other than that, we have to drop off school plans for Bob (ugh, these plans are driving me crazy but they're due Monday) and pick up some resources for him. And do as much work as we can before ds's dentist appointment and insist on at least an hour after lunch (which will be after the appointment). Although, if the appointment runs late, we have to get those errands done, so the afternoon work session might not take place.

*Tuesday: Morning--work time. There is an open house thingy for the school board my kids are registered with and to which we will go--that starts after lunch. We'll also have to go to the library. I hope to find the DVD I took out last week, and due today, which I have looked for repeatedly today and can not find! With the open house, the afternoon work session will not happen.

*Wednesday: Morning--work time. Afternoon--French class. Again, no work session. Argh.

*Thursday: Morning--work time. Afternoon--I was hoping to make it to a park day, but after having 3 afternoons of no work, maybe I should have work time instead. Especially since we'll have Friday afternoon off for a mini-birthday party for ds. Although, part of me thinks that if we've got every other afternoon this week off, maybe Thursday should be off, too! I think I'll see how the morning work goes for the first part of the week. I don't want to make it a coercive thing of "If enough work gets done, then we can go to park day." But, maybe it can be a discussion topic on Thursday, if they want to go--"This is our only opportunity to work in the afternoon. What do you all think about the work getting done so far this week? Would going to park day be reasonable?" Or some such. I should look through my mini Choice Theory Language book and see what would be good.

*Friday: I might insist on work, just because work has been difficult to fit in. Ds will have the day off because birthdays are days off of school work here. :D We'll do some sort of fun thing in the afternoon. Although, I might have to cancel morning work or make it really short--I have to be home by 3:30. Hm. I'll have to think about this. Maybe work Thursday afternoon with the knowledge that Friday will be a fun day out of the house. Ds has been asking to go to the local amusement park in the mall--I think I might just surprise him with it. I really don't like going, so it'll be an extra special surprise. I'll even take an unusual route to get there. hehehe.



Bob's school plans:
Argh, argh, argh. I thought they would be simple enough to do. No, no, you have to go through chunks of the provincial government's program of studies and say what you will use and how you will meet them. Plus you need to provide a rough plan of the year AND have a list of assignments the student will do for marks. SAY WHAT? This is proving to be more challenging than I thought! I've been making his ELA very detailed, but I'm going to try to skimp a bit on the social studies and science, and his phys. ed. plan has another week before getting in, so I can talk to him more about it next week and we can work it out together. I'll share more later maybe about what he'll do specifically in each subject.

Other than those specifics, part of my goals tomorrow is to work out goals and routines/schedules for the week for all of the kids. I have been neglecting pulling out things for the littlest one--and it's been showing. I either need to get things well enough together to show her something new or make sure to pull out different things each day for her to do. A refresher of beginning practical life and sensorial activities would be good for me.

Really, what I need to do most now is get *myself* organized: goals, priorities, vision, action steps and follow through. The lack of these is, I feel, my biggest block for the kids right now. That ever important inner preparation that Maria Montessori stressed in her teachers. I'm taking up the challenge. :)