When I glanced at the calendar this morning, I thought "My goodness, it's July 13th already ?". It seems that the old saying is true, again .... time flies when you're havin' fun ! Summer vacation is almost over ... and we have had a lot of fun ... but how did summer vacation pass so quickly ??? (It seems I have been wondering that very thing for over 30 years now, around this time every year.)
So, it's time to get ready for school again.
I have several lists to fine tune. The first is a list of titles (or book topics) to buy (hopefully) from the used book store in the "big city". And then I have a list of things to buy at the Homeschool Expo coming up in two weeks. I try to buy most of our materials at the Expo so as not to have to pay shipping, worry about minimum orders for free shipping, and without having to find the best deal in a stack of a gazillion catalogs or websites which makes my head swim miserably. I hate to shop, so I try to keep it as simple as possible. HA !
I have yet to make a list of supplies we will need this year -- notebooks, pencils, paper, and more. So I'll need to do that too. Or maybe one of the Cherubs will handle assembling that list instead ?? And perhaps a Cherub can handle shopping for those items as well. It would be a good "life skill" experience --- shopping for school supplies in the crowded stores with all of the back-to-school-crazies who need very specific school supplies listed on a very specific list. Well, I'm just sayin' .......
I have been assembling firm plans for each of the Cherubs for this upcoming school year off and on all summer, and will soon begin entering them into my MOST FAVORITE school tool, the Simply Charlotte Mason Organizer . If you have not checked into this wonderful organizer, I highly highly recommend it. There is a wonderful video tour that shows how it works step by step, and a free 30-day trial so you can see how it works first hand for your homeschool. For the last two years, this Organizer has made a 500% improvement in our schooling and in my own homeschool-mom-sanity. (HA !) And no, I am not employed by Simply Charlotte Mason. For the Charlotte Mason Homeschool Carnival's Planning Bash last year, I did a very detailed post called Planning At Beck's Bounty, and described how we use the SCM Organizer.
The deadlines are set -- July 24 & 25 is the Homeschool Expo, and August 1st our cousins (the "M" family) will arrive for a visit (Hooray !! We are really excited about this because we did not think they were going to get to come down this year !). The pressure is ON to be completely ready for school no later than July 31st -- books bought and ready for use, final plans made and entered into the Organizer, notebooks set up, supplies "at the ready", and the freshly-painted-and-reorganized school room finished. After the M family's visit, we
Our official "First Day Of School" will be Tuesday, August 18th. Our school schedule is going to be a bit different this year; our school days will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We decided to keep this schedule because DadToCherubs is "off" from work on Sundays and Mondays, and so we hope to continue spending more time together as family because our schedules will match. We will go to church on Sunday and then will continue with our "family activities" on Monday. We actually tried to keep this "schedule" all summer, and have all really enjoyed spending more time with DadToCherubs on his days off. I don't know why I never thought to match our schedule to his before, but it just never occurred to me until this summer.
It's time for me to get back to work ... it rained a lot last night, it's a cloudy morning, and the green beans are not quite ready for picking and canning ... so "outside" is not calling to me quite so loudly as usual ... yet. HA ! Perhaps I can get a lot finished before the sun begins to shine ..... perhaps ....
Have you started on your homeschool plans for this year ?
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