Preperation in Leighland...

So there's only a matter of weeks left before the schools close for the summer...and until the 'Lil Monster graduates from Nursery eeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!!!!!  I can not believe my teeny tiny baby is preparing to start school!  Where have the last 4 1/2 years gone?!

While sadly, I did not marry a rich man and so need to work to help pay the bills, bills oh and er...more bills....I am lucky that my sucky job allows me to work evenings so I get to be a stay at homeish mummy (yep, only in Leighland!!)  While I can not wait to have a whole entire 6 weeks one on one time with my Monster, I'm dreading the expense of keeping her entertained for so long!! I'm also dreading the seperation anxiety that will come at the end of those 6 weeks - especially when it sinks in that she's not just going to be away from me every afternoon, but that we'll be apart all day!!

So what can I do to both keep her entertained all day and prepare her for full time school??

Well, I'm arming myself with an arsenal of mostly free summer activities and school prepping exercises.  In the run up to the holidays I'm going to get the 'Lil Monster to help me make a diary which we will use to know what activity we will be doing on which days.  As usual I've been pinning away like mad and keep coming across free printables for meal planning and monthly calanders etc so I decided to make my own A5 sized daily planning printables  - which can be downloaded here should you wish to use them - then we're going to fill each day with 1 or 2 of the activities, at least 1 school prep activity and as the 'Lil Monster is the worlds fussiest eater and going to be staying for packed lunches, I'm going to start introducing her to nice healthy snacks etc...

I've started buying bits & pieces of coloured paper, sticky letters, googly eyes etc and Key Stage 1 work books etc so we'll have quite a bit of stuff to mess about with on rainy days!

I'll be starting Halloween & Christmas preparations soon - maybe even a garden party towards the end of the summer if we get nice enough weather so watch out for my handy hints, tips and printables coming soon!