Back to School Countdown

I had a little mini panic today. People all over Facebook and Twitter were talking about their first day of school and I immediately wanted to hyperventilate as I thought about our fast approaching first day!! *breathe in, breath out*

Originally planned for next Monday, hubs and I agreed to move it to the following Monday because of some things on the calendar that will make starting school next week extra difficult. So I get an extra week! Yay! And I feel like I need it, too. I still need to order our history curriculum and I’m not mentally ready or prepared to take off with our new schedule and there’s a million tiny little things I want to get done before we begin. AHH!!

*breathe in, breathe out!*

I’m actually feeling much better after a very productive day though! So much better. I spent today pouring over the table of contents of each lesson book and creating a spreadsheet for our first semester. (Number of lessons divided by 36 weeks gives a minimum number of lessons per week, plotted all on a row in a spreadsheet makes for easy lesson planning at the beginning of each week.) I still need to order our history curriculum but at least now I have a rough sketch for each week and I’m prepared to make more detailed lesson plans for our first week back to school.

We also rearranged and cleaned the school corner today and there’s really only a few minor things I still need to do in that area. For example, I still need to print & laminate coins for our calendar activities, plan and create a “Pursuit of Education” trivia review game (think Trivial Pursuit meets homeschool for multiple grades.) I need to print and laminate handwriting sheets for each of the kiddos. {Side-Note: I’m doing something completely “radical” and letting them choose their handwriting method (Dnealian, Zaner-Bloser, etc.) and printing off the alphabet in that style for them to refer to during lessons. I don’t mind which they choose, the only catch is they have to *DO* it. Radically crazy, right? Letting them choose their handwriting style? I mean.. IMAGINE THAT. ;)}

Unfortunately, I have to wait for a new toner cartridge to arrive so all printing is on hold until that comes in. Until then I have time to fill in the lesson plans for our first week and plan our trivia game (for use either mornings or weekly, I haven’t decided.) I’m really going to put some thought into that project. =) I think I need card file boxes for each child, tabbed dividers for each subject and then we can create flash card style question cards throughout the year as they learn, to be added to the box. Cards need to get shuffled frequently to keep them mixed and they’d need to get a score piece for each subject to win. How does that sound for starters? Yeah.. I’ll keep working on it.

So…I’m still not ready but I am also OH. SO. GLAD. that I still have two weeks!