And...We're Off!

Homeschooling, that is.

We took a 2 month break but August 3rd was our official start date.

Let me talk about "starting school."  

I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever feel ready to start school.

My personality is such that I want to be totally organized, with all my ducks in a row, before I start school for the year. 

But...I never have all my ducks in a row.  They are, in fact, running all over, hiding under bushes, and jumping into mud puddles.  Metaphorically speaking.

I have learned through the years that I need to pick a date and start.  If I don't, I can delay forever, waiting to feel totally organized and ready.

So I picked August 3rd. I also decided, based on past experience, to start very gently.  August is basically our "ramp up" month. I'm assigning relatively little to the kids (except for Naomi, who is the eldest and is, among other things, charging through Driver's Ed online).  But just getting into the habit of working on school is valuable, and I'm also discovering where some glitches are.

For example, Kevin spent hours over the weekend upgrading most of our computer to Windows 10. That is a good thing, long term, but there have been some glitches and I may have found a new one today in that Timez Attack, a wonderful math practice game, isn't working on one of the computers.

So yes, we are starting another exciting year of homeschooling. The older 6 are officially in school, and Sarah (age 4.5) is doing a little casual learning. She is excited about letters and even reading, though she can only read her name, Mom, and Dad at this point.  She doesn't know how blend sounds together, but she is very close to figuring that out.