Back to Homeschool Blog Hop~ Day 5: What Is the Scariest Part of Homeschooling?

Here we are on the final day of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop 2015! On this day, I want to share something that some people don't know. Homeschooling moms are scared. Yep, you read that right! We are scared about certain aspects of homeschooling. Some things keep us up at night as we worry about them. Homeschool moms need a lot of courage to be able to tackle the fears that threaten to overwhelm them at times. So what are these things we fear? I asked a group of homeschooling moms this question, and I think you will find their answers enlightening and yes, encouraging--because I think you might recognize some of your own fears in theirs!

What are my biggest fears relating to homeschooling?

I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to the thought of teaching ninth grade. Why? Well because that's the beginning of high school! It's scary enough for a public school mom--but for a homeschool mom? Why, you are moving into a whole new level of homeschooling...and I can summarize it in one word--TRANSCRIPTS! I fear the year I have to start keeping transcripts! And all those high school classes! Oy! I fear it so much, a part of me is tempted to just enroll him into an online school for those four years! Who knows though...I just might do that!

I don't think there is much I fear outside of that relating to things I myself have to do! Math doesn't scare me anymore. A good curriculum takes care of that. Science doesn't scare me for the same reasons. But high school. Yep, high school will make me shiver in my shoes!

Another thing that is related to homeschooling, is that homeschooling will bring so much work, that I will battle to keep control of my housekeeping. I fear that once we start full time with both boys, that my house will just slip away and I'll drown in the effort to keep it under control. It's a real fear for me and something I'm working on dealing with now.

On a more immediate note, I worry that my son will be made to feel bad, because he's not confident with some areas of math like multiplication and division. Someone who might put him on the spot for some reason. Or just make fun of him because he's homeschooled.

What do other mom's fear relating to homeschool? 

Let's see what some of my friends have to say!

*Alicia: "My biggest fear is failing him, not preparing him for his future academically. So yes transcripts, graduation, college, trade school all of that."

*Diana of Busy Homeschool Days: "I fear of failing him. Am I focusing too much on academics and missing the heart? Or too much heart and missing a vital piece of academics? Have I created a huge gap in his education that will be difficult to overcome when he enters adulthood?"

*Kate: "I'm scared I'm not teaching my child her way so she will learn. We started with writing she is 3.... but that is where her heart lies with drawing and I just learned it's typically learned with lower cases first because of reading. So I feel like I started wrong by doing the bigger letters first. But this is helping her visually see the letter and recognize it. She is learning. So I guess it's not wrong. 
My second is because anything can be considered homeschooling, I fear without a curriculum for pre-k I'll fail or be lost."

*Jennifer: "I worry that I am not teaching my whole children to become whole adults."

*Stephanie: "In high school and college I kept having this nightmare that I was set to graduate and the administration office called me the night before I was to walk across the stage and said that I was one credit short. I think that's my biggest fear--missing something pivotal that will keep them from meeting their goals. I have come to realize, however, that God fills in the gaps and by the time they're in high school, they share some of the responsibility. Teaching that responsibility is where I'm focusing right now."

*Andrea: "Paper work! Just meeting standards, and balancing fun."

*Stacey: "Honestly, my greatest fear has nothing to do with my kids. I find it very difficult to maintain balance in my own life because so much of my time and energy is wrapped up in parenting and homeschooling. One thing I've learned about myself is that I need to have an identity outside of the role of mother to stay healthy, and it is far more challenging when we are homeschooling. I often worry about the imbalance in my life."

*Rebecca of Raventhreads: "My eight year old is a struggling reader, and I worry that sometime her grandparents or her friends at church will make her feel bad about it."

*Lori of At Home: where life happens: "I am afraid of two very specific things, other than the academic side of it.
1 - Acquaintances, not friends, will take things I say out of context and/or as an assault on our local schools.
2 - The girls will be bullied at church by public schooled students. There is one specific child. So far, Elizabeth has just batted everything right back at the young man with a smile and information that makes him stop and say "what!?!" Last night, she mentioned that she gets to sleep until she wakes up and the rest of the class started grumbling about having to wake up at 5:30 or 6. She also talked about getting take a lot of field trips and breaks during the year and they couldn't believe it."

*Kym of Homeschool Coffee Break: "I worry about figuring out college entrance and scholarships. I have basically NO CLUE how to help my kids hunt down all the scholarships they might be eligible for, and have ZERO experience with SATs or ACTs. (This is even after reviewing a college prep resource a couple years ago.) I am sure that we are missing out because we don't have access to the Guidance Counselors at the public school whose job it is to steer kids through the college application/entrance stuff."

Wow! See? We have fears and worries just like anyone else--because we DO realize the great responsibility that we have taken on as caretakers to our children's future. But we will walk boldly forward with courage, asking God to guide our decisions and lead us every step of the way!

***

Well that's it! That's the last post for this week's blog series! I hope that you have enjoyed it and have found something helpful in what I've shared. If you missed any of this week's series you can find a complete list and links of my posts on the anchor post for the series. Now I encourage you to visit some of the other homeschool bloggers participating this week! You can find the full list on my anchor post...or you can try some of these lovely ladies:

Erin @ For Him and My Family

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama

Nicole @ Some Call It Natural

Crystal @ Crystal Starr

Bonnie @ Write Bonnie Rose

Shawna @ Tenacity Divine

Carol @ Home Sweet Life

Kelli @ Adventure Homeschool 

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning 

Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road

***

What are some of your greatest fears relating to the homeschooling experience? Do you relate to any that the ladies here have shared? That I shared?

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Day 4~ Four Important Lessons I've Learned from Four Years of Homeschooling

Crazy enough, we are going to be starting our FIFTH year of homeschooling this fall. FIVE! I can't believe we are already five years into this crazy adventure! It seems like just yesterday I was excitedly buying our first ever homeschool curriculum. Finding that "perfect" match. Getting the box in the mail and gleefully looking through all that pristine material. Just ready to go. Flash Forward to 2015 with my Organized Chaos I call Picking My Curriculum and it's easy to see how far I've come! So the real question is...what have I learned? I have picked four things I have learned about homeschooling--one for each year we have under our belt. These four things have shaped the direction I go with homeschooling today--and I'm sure in the future!

Over the last four years, I have learned a lot. I could probably write a hundred day series on things I've learned. But I want to really narrow it down to the one greatest lesson I learned with each year of our homeschooling. Lessons that I took into the next year, and carry with me now as we head into our fifth year of teaching. I think they are vital to my success...to OUR success as a homeschooling family and I hope that you will benefit from them as well.

1. Kindergarten: Foster a Love of Learning

Oh my. How we enjoyed our Kindergarten year. I really did "score" with our curriculum when I decided to go with the My Father's World: God's Creation from A to Z. We fell in love with unit studies and being able to explore a subject over the course of a week. We enjoyed the books, the arts n crafts, the simple science experiments, and all that we created. 

I learned the value of "rabbit trails" as we put everything aside to learn more about something that had caught Little Britches attention. Learning was FUN. It was exciting. It was rewarding. We enjoyed working on our projects because there were no limits to what we could do. We even worked in a few Five in a Row units as they matched what we were doing. It was all about exploration and just showing how school lets you learn about anything you want to learn about, as much as you want to learn about.

Lesson #1

The year was all about learning to love...learning! And I think we succeeded and it set a great foundation for our homeschool adventure.

2. First Grade: Learning Style is Not One-Size Fits All

First Grade had its challenges as the curriculum shifted to be more "grown up". It had more reading, and yes more writing. I was eager to "stuff" as much into first grade as I could--to get Little Britches soaring ahead in all areas. That didn't work as well as I had planned. I discovered that reading didn't come "naturally" to Little Britches and he only wanted to do as little as possible. Book work--well book work was like a bad word. 

I discovered in this year that his learning style was NOT all about reading and writing like my own style was. No, his learning style was hands-on and "audial" minded. So I had to change my perspective. I could not teach him the way I would teach myself. This was mind blowing to me and changed everything I did from here on out. I had to let some of my "expectations" for First Grade go because, well, they were unrealistic. They were set for someone like me. Who learned like someone like me. And I had given birth to someone who DIDN'T learn like me.

Lesson #2

The year was all about learning about LEARNING. The lessons that I took from this year shaped the way our next years were set up. It changed everything from how I "structured" our day, to what curriculum we chose, to how much of it we do. Figuring out his learning style was my lesson for the year.

3. Second Grade: Sometimes You Just Have to Let It Go

Second Grade arrived and once again I had a great curriculum planned. I was SURE I had learned my lessons from the previous year and we were going to take new strides in our learning. It was going to be the year that we really conquered challenges and blazed through our lessons. We were older. We had two years already under our belts. We could do this. Annnnnnnddddd, I discovered that didn't work out so well. 

It seems I actually DIDN'T remember what I had learned from the previous years, and in that moment, a new lesson had to be learned...that sometimes, you just have to let things go. This was true of our math and science. We also discovered we had outgrown the "box". We were still using a boxed curriculum as our core--My Father's World~Adventures in US History, but we were struggling to keep up with it. You see this year I began my adventure as a reviewer with The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, and we were getting all sorts of things to work into our school year and this was actually working well for us. But I was trying to cram it all in to my "concrete" schedule of what HAD to be done. School was becomming dreaded. Attitudes were flaring. We just could NOT do it all. So I learned the power of letting things go. 

Lesson #3

I actually DIDN'T finish the curriculum that year. It was so hard for me to stop, but I knew it was for the best. I was forgetting the two previous lessons I had learned--that I needed to foster a love of learning and that learning styles are NOT one-size-fits-all. We were getting off track again. 

So the lesson for that year was that it is OKAY if you have to walk away from curriculum. Even if you LOVED it. Even if you spent a lot of money on it. Sometimes, you just have to let it go for the sake of maintaining that love of learning and moving forward.

4. Third Grade/Preschool: Don't Measure Success by Comparing Your Child to Another

Third Grade. What a year that was. Our first year where we pieced our curriculum together instead of using an All-In-One. What a challenge that was to put together, but how liberating it felt to do! We let go of some things that we did the previous year, and embraced some new ideas and a new routine. We now had a preschooler to throw into the mix, as Baby Britches was eager to join in. 

We discovered that Little Britches FINALLY got that love of reading and excelled with flying colors. He ate up books and discovered he loved junior biographies. His love of history boomed. His love of science exploded. He diagrammed sentences with ease. But we struggled in math and writing. We had to make changes. So we did. I found a new writing curriculum (I actually let go what I had planned! Woot!) and he started doing well to the end of the year. He is hoping to continue with it for the new year (and we will). 

But math. Math is our struggle. Or rather it's MY struggle. Because I kept comparing his math skills to that of other kids his age. Oh how hard it was to hear about public school kids who were kindergartners, learning how to do algebra. And first graders knocking out complicated multiplication problems. Little Britches hates multiplication. He hates division. So I compared him and found him lacking. Then I remembered (AGAIN!)--learning is not a one-size-fits-all thing. Yes, he struggled in some aspects of math--but you know he rocked through others (whiz at graphing, measurement, story problems, geometry, decimals). And yes he might struggle with math more than some, but he has a brain for history like you wouldn't believe. And his grasp of science--fabulous.

I had to learn to stop measuring his success by comparing him to other children. No, his success was to be measured by what he HIMSELF had achieved. What he WAS achieving at that moment. HIS accomplishments. HIS growth. THAT'S the success that mattered. 

One of the reasons we chose to homeschool, was to remove the standardized testing from his school years. So he didn't have to be compared to everyone else and found lesser (or yes, even better). And I had forgotten this in my effort for validation of my OWN success as a homeschool teacher. 

Lesson #4

His success as a student, is not based on what someone else has achieved. He was succeeding in what we were giving him and attempting great things. He worked hard and was a great student. And I had forgotten that in my effort to make sure he's "up to speed" with what society says he should be able to be doing. Comparing him to other public school children, other private school children, other homeschooled children. 

This applies to myself as well. My success as a homeschool teacher, shouldn't be determined by whether or not my children are up to par with public school children of the same age. That's not the criteria our family chooses to have. I must also stop comparing myself to what other homeschool moms are doing and how their children are achieving. And I forget that. ALL. THE. TIME.

I hope that YOU will not compare yourself to me and what I do.

      Unless you are going to tell me that you totally understand the comparing thing and do it too. 

             Then it's okay to compare yourself to me. LOL

As we enter our fifth year, I wonder what lesson I will learn. I know it will be something important--the last four years have shown me that. I am actually in the process of creating myself a little printable to put in my teacher binder that have these four lessons on it. I need to see it every day. To remind myself that if I can remember these four simple things this year--we will probably have the best year yet!

***

Well that's day 4! I hope you will continue check in tomorrow for the final post in this series--it's going to be another one of my collaborative posts--I think you will enjoy it! Now I encourage you to visit some of the other homeschool bloggers participating this week! You can find the full list on my anchor post...or you can try some of these lovely ladies:

Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm

Meg @ Adventures with Jude

Dawn @ Double O Farms

DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Steph @ Indy Homeschool

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Tawnee @ Adventures in homeschooling

Lisa @ Tales of a Homeschool Family

Jennifer @ Organized Home Organized School

Callie @ Mama's Coffee Shop

***

Do any of the lessons I shared resonate with you? Have you learned any major lesson this past year?

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop~ Day 3: What Picking Curriculum REALLY Looks Like in My House

It wouldn't be fair to have a Back to Homeschool Blog Hop series without me spending at least a day talking about curriculum. You know, like what I'm going to be using, how I'm going to be using it, who it's for, my goals...all that jazz. But guess what? I'm still undecided! You see curriculum planning isn't this need and tidy system in my house. Nope. It looks FAR from that, so in an effort to keeping it real, I'm using today's post to show you how MESSY curriculum planning can be...physically AND mentally!

Planning and picking curriculum at my house is NOT organized. It’s not something quick. It’s not something easy. It USED to be that way when we did an all-in-one curriculum—just order it, pull it out and go. But once we switched to a pieced together curriculum (starting in 3rd grade), suddenly things got a bit…overwhelming. Or at least it had moments. And this year—with throwing a kindergartner in the mix…it’s a bit more chaotic than usual. Okay. It's a LOT more chaotic.

An aspect of piecing a curriculum together that is the most mentally challenging is just the evaluating and weighing of all the choices. 

My oldest (age 9 1/2) enjoys independent work, hands-on work, and is an audial learner--preferably with a video attached. So I need to find programs that incorporate a lot of audio/visual lessons, limited reading, and quite a few chances for hands on stuff.

My youngest is a visual and hands-on learner who wants to do everything together. This means I can't necessarily use the same things as I did with my oldest--which means I have to go through everything I have AGAIN and evaluate it again. 

We also want to be together for subjects this year--so this brings another element of adapting material to be okay for a 4th grade level AND a kindergarten level. This brings its own set of challenges--but I know will be great once it's worked out.

Mentally, figuring out the curriculum for each child can be..well, overwhelming. That's why I pray about our curriculum so much before I even start sorting and planning it out. I ask God to put me in the direction I need to go that will provide the best for each child. And it has always worked out!

Okay--physically. Physically preparing for curriculum.

So what does it look like?

Imagine organized chaos...and that is what you will find in my house right now.

It looks like planning forms to work out a skeleton idea…

These help me make sure I don't forget something...most of the time. And I usually end up doing about three sets before it's finalized...ish.

It looks like piles of catalogs to see if I had marked anything interesting that we might use/need…

only a FRACTION of the pile I look through...a fraction!

It looks like a crate with file folders of subjects and unit studies to be better organized and filled to be ready to go…

Don't be fooled. This is crammed and in no way orderly.

It looks like a pile of geography curriculum to organize and prepare…

The materials for Expedition Earth which the boys will be using this year.

It looks like a bookshelf full of possible curriculum choices for the year…

This is about as orderly as it gets...and I promise it won't be staying this way when I'm done with it! LOL

It looks like a collection of USB drives, full of digital curriculum I need to look through and inventory…

Yeah. Like I'm ever going to have time to inventory these...

It looks like a big pile of chaos as I sort through our old Kindergarten materials to see what I want to use this year…

now THIS is organized chaos at its finest!

It looks like various websites of curriculum to be analyzed and weighed…will we use them or won't we?

Am I going to use Visual Learning Systems for Science this year? Still undecided.

It looks like a big binder that will become my right hand…

I read that first page every time I open the binder...

So there you have it.

Maybe my planning is like yours. 

You related to my photos didn’t you?? Ah, my kindred spirit!

Maybe your planning is the kind that is organized and systematic. 

I bow to your fine skills. Would you like to come plan mine?

The thing that matters is that come September 7th, it’s going to be decided, and ready to go! 

I think.

     I hope.

          Maybe?

Pray for me…

***

Well that's day 3! I hope you will continue to check in this week for more of my posts during this Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! Now I encourage you to visit some of the other homeschool bloggers participating this week! You can find the full list on my anchor post...or you can try some of these lovely ladies:

Joanie @ Simple Living Mama

Aurie @ Our Good Life

Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind

Jenn @ Treasuring Life's Blessings

Kemi @ Homemaking Organized

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Katie @ DailyLife

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Kim @ Homestead Acres

Melissa @ Mom's Plans

Annette @ A Net In Time

***

What does curriculum choosing look like at your house? Do you do it orderly? Or is it a bit more like my style?

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Day 2 ~Tips for Rookie Homeschoolers

So you think you want to homeschool....are you nervous? Excited? Both? You've waded through all the curriculum and found the perfect one, right? You've already filed the paperwork you need, so you are ready to go...right? You are excited about this new journey for your family--and have great expectations about how awesome it's going to be! Your children are going to love it! You will thrive in your new role...right?! Boy you sure sound like me and about every other mom and dad who decided to take the leap into the homeschooling adventure! But you know what? There are a few things you probably want to know--or should know--before your journey starts. Tips from "veteran" homeschoolers, that just might save your sanity as you get started!

Okay. In all honesty, I still consider myself a rookie homeschooler, even though we are entering our 5th year. I sure don't have it all together and I am still learning every single year, more and more about what it takes to be a homeschooler. But, I do believe that anyone who has been homeschooling ANY length of time can offer tips to anyone just getting started. It's more like helping them not make the same mistakes we did--so they can have a easier and better starting year!

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Day 1~ It's all About the Prep...

Welcome to Day 1 of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by The Schoolhouse Review Crew and the Homeschool Blogging Connection! This week is going to be a blast as I share with you five days of posts all related in some way to homeschooling. It's always a challenge to think about what I want to share with you, and I don't always want to share the same things every year. Last year I loved my topics for the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop, and my traffic stats told me that you did too! I am hoping to have another great week of posts this week as I cover topics like picking curriculum, tackling our biggest fears, advice for homeschooling rookies, and more! Today I want to kick off the week sharing something that I've learned about homeschooling over the last four years.

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

It's all about the prep.

I have learned that for me, a key to having a great year is all about the preparation I do before our year even starts.

You see...I am a dreadful procrastinator. 

Yes. It's true.

And this horrible trait can carry into my homeschooling routine if I let it. Don't even ask how many times of the years I've been frantically printing off the material I need for the lesson we were supposed to start 10 minutes ago.

So I learned something wonderful...spending the three weeks prior to our first day of school going through all the proposed curriculum for the year, and preparing FOR all of the subjects and projects in advance...makes my life so much easier.

I have found this especially true for the younger grades. In the K-3 years, it seems like there is a lot more to be cut out, printed off, looked up, and borrowed from the library. This is especially true if you are using a program like Five In A Row, My Father's World, or anything else with a Unit Study system. Even if you are using a different style, there is still a good amount of prep work to be done--even if just planning out the work for the week.

I have learned now, that if I go ahead and lay out and prep for at least a month's worth of curriculum, I will have a much smoother school routine. One of the best investments I made was a big box of file folders from Costco. I usually get a box of the plain manila folders AND a box of the colored folders. With 100 count per box, these two boxes have me set for anything I need! 

So how do I organize?

Well it depends on what child I am putting together stuff for and what curriculum I am using. 

Little Britches is doing a lot of independent work this year, so my folders are by SUBJECT this year and I've tucked into them odd ball things that I want to work on. We are reviewing Super Teacher Worksheets right now, so I have a lot of them printed off and tucked into the folders to use as supplements for our main curriculum. For our history, we will be doing some notebooking, so I have printed off pages that I want to include for each chapter.

With Little Britches working on 4th grade level stuff, I just don't tuck very much away for him. But Baby Britches is starting Kindergarten this year. I have a LOT of folders going on for him!

We will be using a plethora of curriculum for him (more about that later), and I have folders for each. We will be doing a lot of unit studies through My Father's World and Five In A Row (FIAR), so I have every unit study labelled and I immediately print and file anything that goes with what we will be learning. If I find a cool printable about France, I tuck it into our Madeline FIAR folder. A craft idea about kangaroos? It goes into my Kk-Kangaroo folder for MFW. 

I also have subject folders for Baby Britches since I am going combined studies for history and geography this year. If it's something I think might work, I tuck it in the labelled folder.

By doing this method, I can keep myself from having to do that last minute hunting and printing. I even put books into the folders so I don't have to search for them later. 

So where do I keep these folders?

I purchased a TON of the plastic crates Wal-Mart gets in this time of year, and then filled them with the hanging files. I labelled each hanging file by subject or curriculum and insert my file folders in them. These crates are then stored in our big cabinets that my husband got for us last year. 

Okay, so that's the paperwork. But what about the planning?

Well I have found that I can make about 3-4 weeks of lesson plans in advance. Any more than that and I find we end up throwing half of it out the window. So I work through lesson plans and figure out how much I want to do each week and jot it down. THIS year I will be plugging it into my Homeschool Planner program--so that Little Britches can log in and print off his lists each morning. If that doesn't work out, I will be going back to the My Student Notebook routine which worked well for us too. 

Once the first weeks are laid out, I try to set aside time every Sunday evening to pull all the file folders and papers that I'm going to need for the week. This method saves so much time! I started it at the beginning of the year last year...but then fizzled out. I am determined to stick with it the whole year this time!

Paperwork. Planning. What about those stinky craft projects or science experiments that pop up?

Well, as I am planning, I make note of any of the materials that will be needed and try to gather what I can in advance. I store them in a Ziploc bag or manila envelope in the file they belong. This lets me just grab and go, rather than scramble and delay. Experiments and crafts become MUCH more feasible this way. I do the same with things that need laminated. If I think "I need to laminate this" and then don't do it right then...well it doesn't get done. So while I am going through everything, I get that laminator hot and ready! You can read all about why a laminator is on my list of must-haves for a homeschool mom in a post I did early last year.

Supplies! Let's not forget supplies!

As I am prepping all the files, I also inventory my supplies. I am notorious for buying things we really don't need each year---just because. This year, we aren't buying new crayons. Why? Well over the course of the previous school year we bought two new sets and everyone has new crayons still! We also aren't buying any pencils. Why? Because I hit up Costco last year and purchased a large supply of the Ticonderoga yellow pencils--we have PLENTY of them left.

But there were things we did need. Glue, colored pencils, thin line markers, pencil case, ruler, notebook paper, and composition notebooks. But because I had actually gone through my inventory BEFORE going crazy at the school supplies sales, I didn't spend more money than I should have. I store all the extras in a nice plastic three-tier drawers set. 

A supply that is so important that I tend to forget is my ink and paper for my printer! I usually have paper on hand (thank you Costco!), but the ink I do not. (Actually, I think I need to order some before the year starts!) It is dreadful to be in the middle of printing and run out of either of these things! 

My Teacher's Binder is my best friend.

Once all of this is done, I put together my binder. It has lesson planning sheets for each child for a week at a time. I note on these sheets if I need to check the files, or if I have already gotten together the materials I need. I rely heavily on this binder and it's my go-to every Sunday night as I peek at what the week will bring. You can read more about my lesson planning routine in last year's Back to Homeschool Day 4 post that I did.

Long story short...a successful low-stress school year really is all about the prep!

When I stay on top of my weekly preparation, things just go so much more smoothly. This is especially true when we are also reviewing curriculum for the Schoolhouse Review Crew. If I have it laid out in advance, it eliminates the forgetting that all too often happens. This year, I think I will especially need to stay on top of it, since it's my first year with full time TWO students doing school. So tonight, you will find me working through our pile of curriculum and pulling everything that needs to be filed, printed or laminated. This is what my next three weeks is going to look like in preparation for the first day of school on September 7th!

***

Well that's day 1! I hope you will check in later this week for more of my posts during this Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! Now I encourage you to visit some of the other homeschool bloggers participating this week! You can find the full list on my anchor post...or you can try some of these lovely ladies:

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Amy @ Homeschool Encouragement

Missica @ The Open Window: An Autism Blog

Misty @ Year Round Homeschooling

Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Heather @ Only Passionate Curiosity

Clarissa @ Counting Our Blessings

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Monique @ Living Life and Learning