Tomorrow…
Which is still too soon for me. 🙂
I’m dragging my feet on it this year. Qade is going into second grade and as such his subjects are ramping up. I didn’t get as much “remedial” stuff done this summer as I had wanted to so that means that I know I have to be tough and stick to the schedule and make sure things are not falling through the cracks. Yes, we use a video teacher, but it still means a lot of work for me. So I’m kind of dreading it. Qade is not always the easiest to teach. However, I’ve split things up a bit more this year with a “homework” time in the late afternoon for us to finish up seatwork. Hopefully having things spread out more will help him focus when he doesn’t have so many things to do all at once. And hopefully having a written schedule will help him know what needs to be done when. But still *sigh* I ordered a maze book for Myles that will be here later in the week and he will work on “tricky mazes” as he likes to call them while Qade is doing his homework. I think that’ll help both of them be diligent. I also scheduled iPad time for AFTER homework for very strategic purposes. 😉
Myles is thrilled to be starting school again, and in fact can’t wait! I’m so happy that he loves to learn! He told me, with a big grin, today, “I can’t wait for school to start tomorrow!! I want it to start today!!” I appreciate his infections enthusiasm because it helps me to keep my chin up a bit and ignore the sinking feeling in my tummy.
I should be over this by now, it’s not our first rodeo, but each year I dread school. Maybe it’s something I’ll always have to fight to overcome. Because deep deep down I’m so thankful that I can teach my kids!! I’m thankful that Stuart is a provider for our family so that I can stay home and be the main influence in their lives. I’ll never get over that. And deep deep down I’m happy to have more structure to our days and help our kiddos learn new things.
We have a designated “school room” this year though there still isn’t an actual wall between it and the boys bedroom, but I think it’s going to help with organization and focus. And it’ll be barred from the twins so they won’t be in there competing for attention.
Ella is going to be doing some preschool with me this year. I told her she would learn to write her name, and she informed me that, “I don’t know how to make letters.” So I assured her that’s why we were going to be doing school so that she could learn to make letters. She seemed amazed and excited about that idea. 😉 The Answers in Genesis preschool program that I used for the boys is no longer available, so I found some of the 3 year old Abeka books on Christianbooks.com and got those for her. I don’t like to make preschool to intense, but I want her to be doing a little something each day. I’m fine with the books we got her, and I think she’ll enjoy it. She likes to watch one of the boy’s Bible lessons each day and I think that’s great too.
Along with school this year, one of my goals is to teach the kids to:
Load the dishwasher (at least their plastic dishes)
Sweep the dining room (they can mostly do this already)
Fold and put away laundry (the boys do this already)
Wash the table
Set the table
That’s totally doable and since it’s already built into our schedule it’ll be good. 🙂 We’re continuing on with the “stay up night” tradition. I sometimes get weary of it, but it has become very important to the kiddos and I’m happy to have an excuse to focus exclusively on each of them as they get to stay up for a little longer one night a week.
I tend to stress myself out too much over it all. I know we’ll fall into a routine quickly and things will work out and we’ll adjust on the parts that don’t. I just have this running commentary in my head of all the things I “need” to do like work on training Thor so he doesn’t eat my birds, get a chicken coop, prepare the yard for gardening, pull weeds, feed animals, scoop poop, feed little people, try to get the overflowing cabinets and closets organized and cleaned up, get projects done, take twins photos…. it’s never ending. I know everyone else has one of those impossible to turn off reels playing in their minds too, so I shouldn’t complain. Instead I’m going to get a grip on things and try to start out the school year strong! 🙂
Hi, by the way, it’s been awhile since I’ve written. In case you didn’t notice.