I only have a minute right now but wanted to suggest a couple things. First – don’t do anything formal for the Kindy child. Read to them, let them color, paint, play dough, puzzle, get outside, build with blocks, cook with you in the kitchen, do chores with you, etc. Their formal learning can wait a year. Really. Let them join in with the big kids to listen to stories or play with materials, but don’t stress over kindergarten.
Second, streamline and simplify subjects you want to cover for the first half of the school year. You don’t need to do history and science and literature and composer and artist and poetry and Shakespeare and…. all at the same time. Choose what needs to be very regular (like math or learning to read practice). Then choose what to do a few times a week (maybe history and science). Then decide what other things you want to have happen occasionally. Maybe September is picture study because you can handle looking at a picture together for 5 minutes one or two times a week. Then October maybe you choose nature study because you’re running out of nice weather to get outside and be. November could be poetry study and you read aloud one poem daily for a week at a time (on gratitude or fall perhaps?). December could be hymn study where you sing and listen to Christmas carols all month.
Mostly, accept that reading is enough. Let those who can, read on their own. Listen to an audio book together (or you read aloud, or do a bit of both) Look at books with beautiful or interesting or informative pictures. Even if all you do is math, reading, and having them narrate it will be a wonderful enriching year.
I promise.
This year I had baby #9 during the school year. Every baby has been born during the school year except my oldest. Really. And my 4 year old had surgeries 15, 16, and 17 during the school year this year too. Sometimes life is the lesson. It’s okay. They will be that much more prepared for real life because they are living it every day. ((HUGS)) Enjoy it! Soak up those baby snuggles when they come. Laugh a lot. Rest. Live.