Mandy's Monthly: September 2010 Challenge-- Teach, Learn and Share

Everywhere you look you see "Back-to-school" signs and slogans.  And why not?  School is back in session.  Summertime play is over and it's time to be a student again.

The same goes for me.  I've taken a four-month break from my personal challenges that I started back in the springtime.  In March and April I pushed myself in new ways.  Although it wasn't easy, I felt better completing those monthly goals and pushing myself to do more than the ordinary. 

The time is now to get serious again.  I've been feeling like a lazy human being for the past few weeks.  Vivian and I are both annoying each other lately.  She's been acting out quite a bit and I find myself ignoring her more.  That's not good!  We need to shake things up again in our routine!  Tonight after an enlightening conversation with my husband just before dinner, I came up with a plan to revamp "Mandy's Monthly" again.  I'm kicking things off with a September "Back to School" challenge for myself - to teach, learn and share.

I must admit that part of the inspiration for this challenge came from my friend Jennifer who is a former teacher.  She has a wonderful blog here in Pensacola where she is sharing ideas on how to teach your child at home, called "Learning Time Monday."  She just shared this post on learning about the letter "A".  Jen is doing a week long session about the letter A this week. 

I'm not sure I can (or want) to do one alphabet letter for an entire week like Jen is doing.  But I love her idea of going through the A-Z letters to teach your child new things.  So my plan is to go through the entire alphabet in one month, during this month of September.  I will find new things and activities to share with Vivian and myself almost every day of this month. 

However, instead of starting with A and going to Z, I'm going to do it backwards.  Why not, I mean most of what I do is completely bass ackwards anyway?!   Just ask my closest family members and friends!  ;-) 

Tomorrow I'm starting with Z and planning to take a trip with Vivian to the local Zoo.  I hope that seeing all the animals and being outside will encourage me to think of what to do next for Y, X, W and more..... because I'm making this up as I go along....

This won't just be about kids activities though!  (Don't freak out - I'm not turning this into a homeschool site!)  No, part of the challenge will also be to apply the learning to myself - as a 32 year old woman (wife, mom, writer, etc.)  What can I learn?  What can I teach myself?  What new things can I share with others?

By doing it this way, I can't copy off my friend Jen.  I would like to but that would be too easy and this should be a challenge, right?!  I'm not a teacher like her.  I often don't feel like teaching, talking, playing or even doing a damn thing with my daughter or with myself. 

So that is why this is a challenge for me!!  The closest I've come to teaching was being a substitute for four hours at my mom's school after I graduated from college.  (My mom was a teacher for 30 years -- I have no idea how she did it!!)  Those four hours of substituting were nearly the longest hours of my life!  They consisted of fourth graders - nine year olds acting like thirteen year olds when they were really just babies who could barely make it the bathroom on time.  No thank you!  Not for me. 

I'm also vowing to spend LESS time on social media outlets (like blogging and facebook, etc.) this month so that I can dedicate the time to fulfill this project.  When I looked at all the minutes and hours I was spending on the computer, it really disgusted me.  Instead I'm going to restrict my time or "treat" myself whenever I want to learn, read and receive inspiration. 

Therefore, this is going to be tough!  Less reading about my friends' updates and more focused on ways to make 26 days out of this month all about the 26 alphabet letters; then devise a plan to make it fun, educational and cheap (or better yet, free).  Uh-oh, I may be in serious trouble! 

I'm going to write about my progress and take a few photos here and there.  I can't promise that I will write here everyday.  (But I will keep a small hand notebook where I write about the things we do).   However, I can promise that I will share weekly updates, condensed versions of my plan and cool insights that Vivian and I discover along the way.

I'm looking forward to this new challenge.  I need it!  Vivian does too, I can tell.   We both need to step back and reconnect with each other the way we did when we first moved to Florida and were out exploring our new community.  This will be good, for both of us.

I think I'll even grade myself at the end.  Hopefully I'll achieve an A or B merit.  That wouldn't look good if I flunked out of my own challenge.

So let the learning begin.