Time for some structure
With more kids coming in every week, I’ve been spending more and more time on the floor, more time singing, dancing, making up stories, telling jokes, and generally expending my time and energy in places other than my blog. In fact, on at least a dozen attempts to write a post, when I sit down, I don’t know what to say. Writer’s block? I think I’ve just used up my creativity.
Our program operates under the Emergent Philosophy, where the children’s interests guide our curriculum. We love it because it embraces the children as individuals and teaches them that they’re opinions and interests are important. Talk about generating a sense of self-worth! … but I’m getting drained by the constant spontaneity. (In this picture, for example, everyone is facing a different direction, busily working away on different projects!)
Well, after 3 months in operation, I think we need to implement some structure.
The mornings at Buddings are starting to fill up, and the children are really into Free Play. They love playing with the kitchen set, having tea parties, cutting and flattening play dough, and most of all, playing in the lentil table, scooping and dumping containers of beans. Everyone has a tonne of fun, and we are not going to change a single thing about it!
What we are going to do, in the afternoons, is prepare a “highlighted activity” that we know the kids will love. It’s all about planning in that case, and our idea is to have a recurring activity each day of the week:
Monday – Concoctions (Cooking and Science)
Tuesday – Imaginarium
Wednesday – Stories & Games
Thursday – M&Ms (Music and Movement)
Friday – Messy Art Day (my personal fav! 🙂
The highlighted activity will be in one area, and the rest of the space will still be set up for Free Play, as it always has been, so the kids who don’t have the patience yet to sit through a whole story won’t have to. But, who knows, maybe if they come in for M&Ms one week, they’ll love it so much you’ll never have to wonder which day to schedule again! 😉
We’re new at all this, so there may be some tweaking as we move along, but this is our plan, and it’s starting on Monday, so here we go!
