I wanted something that I could use every day as a general guideline for what to do. Since I wasn’t using anyone else’s system, I had to come up with something on my own.

Book

I wanted to start with something that would get their attention every morning and help them focus on what we needed to learn that day. The best way to get their attention has been with books.

Each day we read a different book, sometimes two – it just depends on the theme, what I’ve already got, and what else we have planned for the day.

Flashcards

The tutoring program that I pulled the alphabet outline from suggested that the flashcards be created with them. We did that for the first five or six weeks, but then I decided that the homemade flashcards weren’t really cutting it so we ordered some on Amazon. The homemade ones were fine – don’t get me wrong. I really liked that we could come up with our own word for them too. They were just so flimsy, and Lucy thought that since they were made on plain white 3×5 cards that she could draw on them.

Song/Video

This started as just a song. There are only so many (tolerable) kids songs out there though, so it evolved by week two into a song or a video (or a song-video). At first, Nixon hated the songs. He would cover his ears and growl at us for singing. We laughed for the first couple of days but then he started telling us to stop singing and that was upsetting Lucy. That turns into a bit of drama every time, so we made some changes, but kept trying new songs. After a few weeks, I found some songs that Nixon actually really likes and now we sing those ones a lot. It’s fun!

Tracing Page

I added these during week 3. I didn’t know before we started how proficient either kid really was with writing anything, so I didn’t start out using them. Once I watched them color and hold a crayon a few times I though they could probably handle them so we added them in.

I found a few different websites with tracing pages so we usually have three different ones each week. They’re all the same letter, of course, just three different pages, and we do them in my perceived view of easiest to hardest. Sometimes the kids love them and sometimes they grumble about them, but both kids are already getting better at writing their names and we haven’t even gone over any of the letters in either of their names yet! (I’m writing this page at the beginning of week 6.)

Activity

This is the part I like the most.

I try to center the activity around the theme for the day, but also try to add in a variety of activities. I’ve put together a binder for each kid that has a sheet protector in it for each letter. I found some alphabet wall decals on Amazon and ordered two sets. Instead of putting them on the wall, I put them on paper and slid those pages into the sheet protectors in their binders. We’ve been adding other pages and by the end of the year, they’ll have completed tracing pages and one coloring page for each letter. That means that one activity a week is a coloring page. I’m mixing it up with the other two days each week.

Play Time

Then we have play time. Lucy and Nixon are both learning how to get along with each other and it’s interesting to watch. Lucy is bossy and right in the middle of the Terrible Twos, and Nixon isn’t afraid to say “No.” They’re learning to share, not take things away from each other, and take turns when they both want the same thing. Usually they work it out on their own, but Jared and I are here to help if they need it.

All Done!

That’s it. That’s our daily outline. The play time is usually the longest part of the day, and somewhere in the middle of play time we have lunch. Because it’s just my brother and nephew, there’s no rush for them to leave so we enjoy eating lunch together, Jared helps me put the twins down for their naps, and then when it’s time for Lucy to have resting time, then Jared and nix head home for a nap.

The consistency of the schedule has helped them know when play time is. They both know that we don’t play with toys until after preschool is over so getting started is rarely an issue.

The order we do these things in also works for us. It’s fun to get them up and moving during the song so that the activity is a little more energetic than the book and flashcard portions of the morning. Also, at the beginning of the year, the flashcard portion is really short – we only have a handful of letters to review so it only takes a couple of minutes.