Summer School | Goals

Working through more of our weekly curriculum, I realized it would be good to lay down some goals for our summer for reference later. Most of what we are doing this summer is in preparation for the Fall. Getting in the habit now of planning weekly lessons, as well as working these activities into our daily schedule is one of the major goals I have with this summer adventure.

Most of the following goals are meant to foster learning in areas that Miss J is already showing interest naturally:

1. Character Traits (Fruit of the Spirit)

• Basic understanding of concepts 
• Memorize Galatians 5:22-23 (and maybe a couple other verses too like John 3:16)
• Ability to connect the concept to what it looks like in real life, for example:
• Patience: waiting for mommy to finish feeding Miss M, before getting a snack without yelling, demanding, etc.
• Gentleness: playing carefully with Miss M, not hitting or being rough
• Kindness: sharing toys with friends 
• Love/Peace: saying "I'm sorry" when you have hurt someone

2. Letter Sounds 

• Miss J already knows the ABCs and quite a few of the sounds. As a pre-cursor to reading, I want to focus more specifically on letter sounds beginning with the most frequently used. We will also include some daily reading lessons in a limited capacity depending on how she connects with the material. 

3. Numbers 

• Miss J already has a good handle on numbers 1-15, both visual recognition and counting. For summer, we want to work on counting to 20 along with the ability to recognize the numbers when not saying them in order. 

Summer School | The Fruit of the Spirit

We kicked off our summer preschool curriculum this week...well, I am calling it our curriculum, but really it is a lot of fun activities to drive home some basics in building character in Miss J. I feel like most often we are in behavior management mode, trying to get her to act a certain way when the real problem is heart change and we want this summer to be more focused on pointing her little heart to God. Do we want a child that behaves appropriately, is polite, and plays well with her sister and others? Absolutely! But just like me, as an adult, it will take heart change to build a solid foundation for good behavior to thrive. Enter the Fruit of the Spirit.

Source: beautifullyrooted.com via Amanda H. on Pinterest

Now, it's pretty clear to me that Miss J will not be able to exhibit all of these qualities from the heart because as the verses allude, they are gifts from God...it's the Spirit working inside us that allows all of us to produce this fruit. BUT, what I am hoping for is the opportunity with each week to present her need for a Savior. My hope is that with each Fruit we talk about, I am able to present all or part of The Gospel to her...and that a seed is planted in that little heart of hers. Because, seriously...I don't want to raise some drone of a child who just does what I say out of fear/behavior modification/consequences. I want to raise a daughter of the King who is going to change the world because of her love of Christ! Yep...so those foundations need to be built now, while her heart is pliable and open for me to help direct the course. I am praying for big things for her!! (And truth be told, it wouldn't hurt for me to be reminded of these as well! ha!)

In addition to the spiritual lessons each week, we will also be throwing in some regular preschool activities related to reading, writing, and math. It's never a bad thing to work on fine and gross motor skills...and since my girl looooooooves to get her craft on, there will be plenty of that as well!

Week 1 | Introduction

Verse Introduction | Wall Chart and Coloring/Painting Page

Lessons | Used these links for wordings or examples about good fruit/bad fruit and what each character trait means.
Known by Our Fruit -- Object Lesson
General overview of the Fruit of the Spirit (great wording for each week's lessons for individual fruit)

Song | Fruit of the Spirit by Go Fish Guys


Craft | 
Paint fruit and basket. Miss J glues fruit to basket. Printables here.
Coloring Pages - Printables here.
    


Activities | 
Fruit matching game - Fruit Pictures here -- Laminate and use for game.
Letter Sounds - Letter F

Reading Readiness - What is Different? Picture Matching
Pre-Printing Skills - Practice Tracing Lines



Praise System | Fruit of the Spirit Tree

While I don't want this to be about behavior modification, learning to identify the "fruits" (aka character traits) by her behavior will be important for laying this foundation. The Fruit of the Spirit Tree will be used as a way to praise Miss J when my husband or I see her exhibiting one of these traits. For example, when she shares a toy with her sister, she can hang the Kindness fruit on the tree. When she waits her turn for something without complaining or yelling, she can hang the Patience fruit on the tree and so on and so forth.  My hope is that she will be able to put together what each quality looks like in life rather than just a word on the page and it will begin to click.