It's almost time!! This will be my 22nd year of homeschooling. Or if you count actual school grades, my 17th year. Anyhow, it's a long time. I'm just coming out of a rut of school dread and I'm actually looking forward to this year. And while I don't wanna sound annoying cheerful (because if you are not looking forward to school, I totally get it.), I am thrilled to finally feel a bit of enthusiasm.
"Back To School" doesn't just mean back to school around here. It pretty much means clean up, strategize, plan, reorganize, restock, and re-plan.
I make endless lists.
I shop what I already have.
I shop the libraries.
I read reviews.
I shop the internet.
And used books sales.
And I spend money.
Then I lesson plan.
Lots of lesson planning.
I take inventory of socks/underwear.
I buy more socks and underwear and spend more money.
I reorganize the school storage.
I shop the back-to-school items.
And I spend more money.
I make goals for each kiddo.
I re-do the chore schedule.
I plan a special breakfast.
With juice.
And fun snacks on the side.
And it's all a surprise.
Including one BIG surprise for each kid.
It's a HUGE day. And it's a bunch of fun.
Here's a peek at some of the new things for this year.
~No matter what I've tried, I can't seem to convince my kids to re-use a cup. I've assigned special cups to each kid. I've bought everyone water bottles. I've put cups in designated places. Nothing. We are still washing 20 cups a day.
Just when I was ready to give up, admit defeat, and move on with my life, Nikki introduced me to these. Sip And Straw Lids. And I think this just might be the answer! The only problem is that the straws are all the same. So I bought extra straws that were all different. We'll see....
~This year we have 2 college bound students and 1 high school student doing part-time concurrent enrollment at the high school. This means 3 of our kids will not be home for several hours of the day and each has a different schedule.
I took them out of the kitchen clean-up rotation leaving only 5 younger kids to rotate the weeks. BUT I'm having LB help every night with her younger sibling on duty and the college kids will be responsible for the whole weekend's kitchen work together. So basically it means the youngers will only be on duty Monday-Friday (rotating every week) and will have a helper every evening.
~I'm changing our writing curriculum this year to Write Shop. This was a considerable portion of my book money. I have 2 kids that will do the older version and 2 kids doing the Jr version. Then I have one that falls in the middle and will do a little of both. To save some money, I didn't buy the teacher's books. I hardly ever buy the teacher's book for anything. I think I'll be ok with the older version, but looking over the younger one has thrown me for a loop! I'm still hoping to wing it without spending more money on it.
~LB's big surprise is a fancy calculator. I had to buy this used on EBay because Oh My Word they are super pricey! But she has been using the same little pink calculator I bought her at the dollar store 6 years ago. And besides having to re-write the numbers on the buttons with a sharpie, it works great. However, it can't be programmed with ACT formulas so it was time to upgrade.
~My Mally Girl is getting the last 4 Moody books in the series she loves.
~And Zekey is getting his first paint-by-number in hopes of helping with some fine motor skills.
~Another big change this year is that we are switching to more traditional text books for some subjects. The reason being that our younger kids are getting older and needing to be better test takers. Text books, complete with quizzes and tests, will offer more practice at this. It doesn't matter how smart you are, if you are a crummy tester it's not going to land you a scholarship. My boys need some practice in this area.
~2 of my boys are getting new back packs. Christian will use his at school, but Jes really has no school related back pack needs. I'm sure he will fill it with all matter of boy junk and be thrilled to have another area of personal space.
~Now Lane will be starting college. But as far as I can tell, she already has every practical need met. So this year I bought her 2 cases of juice. She loves having juice for after work and I rarely ever buy those little bottles. Juice is a BIG deal at this house!
~There's LOTS of new traditional type school supplies waiting, plus some that are a little different that we've never tried before.
Our party is scheduled for Monday. And for the first time ever, their daddy will be home to celebrate too! I'm looking forward to showing you his real pictures instead of my iPhone pictures this year!
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