Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And can't tell where to find them.
Leave them alone, And they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them

Why is this verse on the top of my mind? Just as Little Bo Peep lost her sheep, so did I lose mine... well, they weren't my sheep exactly, just the ones I had been hoping to see at the Sheep and Wool Festival. That's right, folks, the Festival was a no-go. I showed up and it was not there. According to the Fairgrounds Police, it was the previous weekend. Ha! So I was not a little disappointed. But life goes on and I am bravely carrying on with Sheep Week. We will go to the sheep shearing at Mount Vernon this Saturday instead for our family field trip.

I have come up with a new homeschool schedule (which will not surprise anyone who knows me) and the current version is this: The school week will run from Tuesday through Saturday, so that we can do the field trips as a family. Sunday is church and a day of rest. Monday is Housecleaning Day. That means all the laundry, scrubbing the kitchen floor, and so on. Gets you off to a good foot for the week! We had a very busy Housecleaning Day yesterday and now today are ready for our Sheep "unit." The other portion of the schedule has to do with the time of day we do school. Previously, I got up in the morning and tried to do school first thing with Natalie while her sisters played upstairs. This didn't work very well for two reasons. I never got breakfast, so I was prone to be cranky, and Natalie didn't get her running around and playing outside time until the afternoon, which doesn't work out at all! Morning is unquestionably better (they are more likely to sleep for naps, plus it is not so hot and the sun is not directly overhead first thing in the morning). I had planned things that way because I was thinking about the first grade daily schedule which is Head/Heart/Hands and Head always comes first thing in the morning when they are fresh and most able to learn. But, of course, the Kindy crew wakes up in the morning fresh and ready to play! Lots of will-directed activity is what they need, not sitting still for stories and handwork projects. So I have changed my mind and now our plan is breakfast, outside play time, lunch, naps, snack, school (3:30 pm), inside play time, dinner, bedtime. I'll keep you posted on how this new agenda works out.

This morning we went to Jefferson Patterson Park for our morning playtime. In the afternoon, the plan is to do Little Bo Peep as a puppet show and then give the children handfuls of clean raw wool to card and/or tease into great fluffy piles (see more on this in Toymaking with Children). For the puppet show, I am using Making Magical Fairy-Tale Puppets by Christel Dhom. I will make a Little Bo Peep with a thread on top of her head for hanging, and a cluster of 4 or 5 little sheep hanging from a branch to form a mobile, like she shows. Little Bo Peep will be in my right hand, searching all around for her sheep (see my notes from Suzanne Down's workshops -- posted to the Yahoo Group -- for more on puppetry with dry wool figures as well as how to tell nursery rhymes) and then the sheep will be in my left hand. I have a lovely green silk scarf with embroidered flowers to put over my lap. Then Little Bo Peep can be added to the mobile with the loop on her head to hang over the school table for the children to see. I love dry felting... and I should have plenty of time during the childrens' naps to make the figures and prepare for school (this is the other great benefit of doing it in the afternoon).

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