First Day Jitters

We are starting school today, but it isn't going to be pretty. The house isn't neat, let alone clean, there isn't anything that you might call a schedule, and we don't even have all of our materials yet. But we are starting school today anyway.

I'm leaning quite a bit this year toward workbooks. Being in the first trimester throes of nausea and exhaustion, and expecting, at the end of the third trimester, to have an infant to tend to, I thought I'd make this year as easy on myself as possible. Plus, the girls LOVE workbooks. So, they will have spelling, math, handwriting, art, and religion books that they can deal with mostly on their own. Not bad, especially since art and spelling have been somewhat neglected anyway. That frees me up to spend more time with the little learners, who don't have enough skills for independent learning yet, and for the fun stuff, like history and science.

As far as the schedule go, I think I'll print out a Managers of Their Homes style schedule, laminate it, and use wet-erase markers to schedule in stuff like piano sharing. Changes are easily made, the kids will be able to help with their schedules, and we'll have a bit of order to our school days. Of course, there is a fine line between order and spontaneity. The balance must be preserved.