I’m sure your newsfeed has been as full of first day of school pictures and posts as mine has been! Public schoolers and homeschoolers alike are excited about sharp new pencils, shiny new books, and a fresh start. And there is something almost intoxicating about the shopping isles full of school and office supplies in August and September, isn’t there? That’s probably how I end up with 500 pencils, 35 spiral notebooks, 25 glue sticks and enough staples to keep a first grader fixed to her chair for 4 hours, not that I’m actually considering resorting to such measures!
Anyways, as year round homeschoolers, we don’t actually start or finish our year according to the traditional school calendar (or any kind of schedule at all), but we do transition from our more laid back summer routine to one which involves more formal learning and extra out of the home activities. And we do refresh our school supplies, tidy up and reorganize our homeschool space, and take some “first day of school” pictures to commemorate another year (and join in the Facebook fun).
Things are a little more disorganized that usual this year and we are off to a slow start, but we are really looking forward to so many exciting changes in our life and home this fall. Part of this disorganization is due to the fact that something really life changing has been going on around here — my parents have sold their home and are temporarily living with us. We have never had family living local to us, and we are looking forward to seeing them more often (they previously lived about 10 hours away!), family dinners, and of course BABYSITTING!
Things will begin to settle down in the coming weeks as Grandma & Grandad move into own home and we gradually add in all of our planned activities (Kids Club, piano lessons, gymnastics, field trips, and possibly French class) and curriculum.
Little Sister is nearly 6 now and starting her first grade year which means I am going to be a lot busier as I learn to juggle a much fuller schedule teaching my girls, neither of whom are all that independent yet. I’m thankful that my toddler has mellowed out considerably in the last year, and hopefully she will continue to just go with the flow around here!
What about you? What kind of changes is the new school year bringing in your home and school?
We do year-round schooling as well. I missed the boat on doing our “back-to-school” pictures but I plan on snapping some shots this week.
I love our schedule and our flow into a new grade is usually low-stress and breezy (as I like it).
Thanks for sharing!
I admit, I snapped these pictures a few days AFTER the first day of school.
One of the things I appreciate about year round schooling is that there is no big day, or major routine change to get used to for back to school. Low stress and breezy 🙂
We do year round schooling as well, but this summer we did a lot less than usual because the weather was so good for swimming. No big deal, really – like you said, the flexibility is great.