Another School Year Begins!

Written by Rachel, August 17, 2012

In my life this week…
We began a new school year this week and the kids started another semester of piano lessons.  I have been working on our schedule for extra-curricular activities and plans for what we will be studying for the first month of school, before we begin our Classical Conversations classes in September.  My baby girl also asked to learn to mow the yard for the first time! She did a great job!

In our homeschool this week…
We are getting back to the basics this week starting our school year with Bible, handwriting, math, reading, and spelling.  I am also reading some history and we are beginning some Latin memory work to prepare for our Latin & Science club.  Here is a link to this year's curriculum selections!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
My husband's fabulous quote from many years ago:  "You don't have to have the entire year ready on the first day of school!"  Truly, although I had most curriculum selected, I don't have a plan for the whole year ready on the first day.  I used to teach elementary music and would feel so stressed at the beginning of each new year.  In our home school, I used to feel the same way, but I have realized the peacefulness of not starting every subject on the first day!  I even waited until Friday to complete my selections of one more order of literature curriculum because we already had plenty of other material to read this week!  I wanted to have the school supplies and work spaces cleaned and organized and have the materials ready that we needed for the first week.  I even have to see how some new materials are working for the children and just plan those subjects a day at a time until I get a good "feel" for their pace.  Here is a link for a post about the school areas of our home.

My favorite thing this week was…

I have taken photos of our children at our front door on the first day of school every year since we started in 2006.  Here is our seventh "First Day of School" photo!

I have spent months considering math programs and materials for the kids since I felt that we needed a change.  It was music to my ears on Monday (our first day of school) when one of my children said, "Mom, I have never liked math and this math is fun!" That really put a smile on my face!  It was actually difficult to make this change because we have used the same math curricula for six years and we have met the author on multiple occasions!  However, I finally came to the conclusion that those were not good enough reasons to continue using the same materials.  I will have to write more about this decision at another time.  Right now, I can say that I am glad that I let go of my "fear" of switching math curriculum and we are enjoying Teaching Textbooks!

 I am reading ...
This week I completed reading aloud The Door in the Wall to the children and we picked up The Fallacy Detective again.

I am working on...
I finally pulled a bunch of junk out of our basement storage closet and re-organized it so we can walk into it again now!  It really has been a mess for a year since we had to move everything for work that was done on the basement floor.  We could still go through things and get rid of a bunch of stuff from that closet, but we literally have not been able to walk into it for months! So this is a HUGE improvement!  My daughter can now reach her craft kits again and I can reach my books for Paperbackswap.

I am grateful for...
A fairly smooth first week of school and fabulous weather this week!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
I just have to post this photo again.  It is one of my all-time favorite photos because it documents the  official very first day of our home education journey!  Time does fly by, but I am so grateful to my husband and my God that I have been able to enjoy the blessings of this journey for six years and counting!

Hop on over to the Hip Homeschool Hop or The Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weekly Wrap-up.  Have a great week!
Rachel