Show and Tell -- Circle Time Revisited...

At times over the last few months, circle time has seemed like a burden or something to get through instead of a pleasurable way to get in some of the extras.  Consequently, I dropped circle time a few weeks ago.  With the holidays approaching and our current loop of Tomatis, I really thought getting school in would be very difficult.  However, I found that adding back in circle time helped me so much these last two weeks.  With just 30 to 50 minutes of effort, we have accomplished a lot of school.  I made a circle time shelf with everything we planned on learning each morning, and then we just naturally flowed into it after breakfast.



On the left of the first photo, we have audio books, so we can listen to Christmas stories during breakfast.  Then we do our calendar skills, look at a famous work of art, which this month is a different picture of Mother Mary and baby Jesus each week.  We then review our Spanish words for the month and work on narration skills by reviewing the Christmas story.  Lastly, we do our math worksheet.  This is working out great!  The rest of the day has been "school lite" with just reading lessons and a craft in the afternoon.  We then do our Advent story and activity with Daddy at night. The basics are still happening and a little bit of extras happen, too.  I feel like we are sticking with school but without a lot of pressure.  They are getting tons of life lessons (shopping, charity work, working on Christmas cards, preparing the home for Christmas, weeding out old toys to make room for new, baking, and of course, two hours of intensive auditory and occupational therapy each day for two of the little ones).  The big teen has managed to stick with his studies for the most part, too, despite doing Tomatis each day.  We have one more week of school and then about a 2 week break.

So what's working for you during this busy season?

To see more great Show and Tells, go see Mary.

Blessings, Dawn