Anna Be.

I'm going to unpack and organize my office. We moved into this house two years ago, but my office is still full of boxes and in complete chaos.  don't believe me?  Suspect I'm prone to exaggeration?  WRONG. Photo evidence: At first I used pregnancy as an excuse.  Then I used Mamie as an excuse.  Now I'm out of excuses. I'm a working writer, and I need a functional workspace. (I'm writing this on the couch, but every few words I get interrupted by a toddler climbing into my lap.) In my "new" office, there will be a table just for Mamie's art projects and other work! Besides that, Mom and Dad finished baby proofing upstairs for me last week, so she has plenty of safe places to play while I work. So what's the plan? I'm starting with 15 minutes a day.  That's what I commit to, 15 minutes per day for the whole month of April.  I expect to see big results in 30 days, but no single day should be too overwhelming.

I don't know how long I've been saying Mamie would start Montessori when she is 2. For the last 18 (+9?) months, I've been saying a lot of things like I have some idea what I'm doing here. As it turns out, I am NOT ready to send my wee little Mimsy Borogove off to her studies just yet!  (And there's not a program nearby that would accept a barely-2-year-old for less than five full days a week.) Still, I feel like I should be teaching her something, I should exploit the sponginess of her little head while I still have some influence. So I had this idea: Why don't I do Montessori homeschool lessons with her until she is three? Yes, groan. Now I have this idea, I've started doing research, bought a book, set up a notebook for planning lessons. Am I just going to stress myself out, will I deprive her of important practical lessons like grass-eating and writing on the sofa with crayons? I guess I'm secretly afraid if I don't follow professional rec...