Planning for the new Semester

Here in Australia, most kids will be starting a new school
year at the beginning of February.  We follow the American
school year, so LD will still be in first grade and DD is still
in preschool.

Since we take days off as we need to, I generally continue
at half speed after the holidays (getting together for play dates
or going to the pool at the drop of a hat).  Still, I've been
spending time getting ready for the new semester. I made up a
new workbox planner (using my comb binder). I've been
laminating various things for DD's preschool workbox
(such as a new pin map of Australia, a cute activity on the
origins of cookie ingredients, etc.). We'll be doing a unit on
science experiments again this January and I've hunted down
lots of experiments that LD (and DD) can do.  Since they're
so young, I don't have a particular theme, I choose
experiments based on whether I think they can do it relatively
independently (and if it will engage them). We'll also be doing
a unit on biomes/animal habitats.

This next semester, I hope to really step up our German
studies. The kids did really well at the beginning of the year,
but I wound up putting a  bit more emphasis and consistency
on LD's  piano.  Now that piano is fairly established (he can
practice independently some of the time now), I think I'll be
able to add German with  more regularity (daily for 10 minutes
or so). If you have any good resources (with simple German
words/sentences), I would love, love to hear from you!  My
kids are too young for a software program.  Mostly I'm just
playful with them (and use German while we chat about and
play with things).

Anyway, I'll post more about our school studies once the
holiday fuss has died down!