Can We Start School, Please?
Monday, July 9, 2012 at 9:30PM 
The kids and I are looking forward to school starting for many reasons. Summer break is needed and enjoyable, but there comes a time when we NEED to get back to business. Our first "official" day will be Tuesday, July 24. Miss B's birthday is July 23 - so we can't start then!
It's good to have a sense of purpose, and by the end of our summer hiatus I'm not feeling very "purposeful"!
The school year is "roughly" planned... I have some large goals for us as a family and for each child, and I've made sure to plan more wisely than I have in the past. In short, I'm ready to get started!
The Top Ten Reasons I'm excited to start back to school.... in pictures!
I love school supplies. This year I've organized supplies upstairs in our schoolroom, but we spend a lot of time downstairs in the family room and kitchen, so I've put a Lazy Susan of supplies on our bookshelf in the family room. Mason Jars make wonderful holders for pens, markers, pencils, etc... It's easy for one of my kids to grab a jar and head to a quiet spot with their notebook.
History is my favorite subject, and it's a subject I feel that we do well and consistently. We will be starting Story of the World Volume 3 and notebooking our way through. I shared how we notebook our way through the Story of the World in a vlog last spring.
I've mentioned notebooking a lot, haven't I? If you haven't read Jimmie's ebook, Notebooking Success, you should. I have also been creating our own notebooking pages; most recently I made pages to be used with Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. I'd like to start math notebooking this year... I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
I always look forward to deepening my relationship with my children through new educational discoveries. It seems that we grow closer each year as we learn together. This is my favorite thing about homeschooling.
We've all been focusing on our health through exercise and a better diet. Our membership to the YMCA has been one of the best investments since we started homeschooling. Miss B is old enough to use the adult workout room, and all of us like to swim laps. GMan will be playing baseball at an instructional facility this fall, and I KNOW he's excite about that, and so are my husband and I.
Personally, I want to get into a routine of swimming a couple mornings week before the school day starts.
Using Heritage History living books excites me a lot! I'll be sharing more about these books with you in the coming months, but for now let me say I'm excited to have the hunting for books DONE FOR ME and have them on the Kindle and iPad for easy access. It will also be nice to have them organized by time period. BONUS! This all coincides with The Story of The World, too.
Each year since we started homeschooling we've tried to go somewhere NEW and EDUCATIONAL with the kids that isn't within driving distance. It's not easy on the budget, but I'm willing to scrimp in other areas so we can make these trips. So far we've hit New York (The Erie Canal and Niagara Falls), California (San Francisco) and now it will be Denver.
I am our church's delegate for Ambassadors in Christ (the annual convention of Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ), which is held in Denver. We are going to take the opportunity to go as a family and then explore the Denver area.
We do travel to Florida each year to visit my parents and an occasional road trip in the Southeast, too. I love that we can take full advantage of a flexible schedule and expose our children to the best our country has to offer.
I'm looking forward to teaching a LEGO class for second and third graders in our co-op this fall. I'm not exactly sure what it will look like yet, but I do have a LEGO Pinterest board going and a lot of ideas brewing in my head. I know I want to use this LEGO lapbook, for sure!
This one is purely for ME... I'm SUPER EXCITED about going to the BEECH Retreat in Southwest Florida. I know several friends who will be there, too - and I can't wait to meet so many blogging friends in real life. My dear friend, Melissa (who I met last year in NYC) will be there and I'm also looking forward to meeting Jen, who will be my roomie! There are a lot of bloggers that I have admired from afar who I will have the chance to get to know. That's exciting!
Music is always an integral part of our homeschool, but this year we will have more music activities than usual. Both children are taking piano lessons, and Miss B will be a member of the Spivey Hall Young Artists' Choir. I'm so very excited for her and this opportunity. We will also be listening to our Maestro Classics' CDs, using Music For Little Learners, and learning about composers. I will always be a music educator at heart, that's for sure.
I'm ready to get started! We have a week of music camp to finish and an anniversary getaway for my husband and I, then we're off and running.
What are you looking forward to this school year?
*image credit
Reader Comments (14)
Ten great reasons, Mary :) Sounds like a great year ahead!! I LOVE school supplies and getting organized too!
I've considered Heritage History...I think I might go take another look right now...
I love your list!! I'm excited about many of the same things this year.
I am shooting to start next Monday, July 16, although I know that will be a short day because of a ceremony I have to attend that afternoon. We're all so ready to get started here. Last week, my little boy who'll do kindergarden this year asked me when we were going to do homeschool again.
I was looking at that retreat. The location alone would made me go! Too bad it is so far from me.......but how cool you and Jen are roomies!!!!
I am also incorporating math note booking into our week. I would love to know what resources you are using. I will look for them on your Pinterest page. Please don't be offended if I repin!!!
I love Legos, I want a Lego group too.
GREAT list. (And love your graphics for each one!) We have some of the same things on our list. Guess great minds think alike? ;)
I am considering doing a math journal this year, too, especially on our Living Math days. I would be interested to see what you have in mind.
You sound ready to go. I'm rather frustrated because I haven't really been able to look into the next school year. I have all the curriculum, but since I am still plugging away at the previous year of school, I haven't been able to get at it. I will though!
As for next year, I am excited to see how the kids enjoy a different approach to school. The family classes, rather than individual, seems to appeal to me.
Lots to look forward to here! :-) I can't wait to meet you IRL at BEECH in Jan/Feb. It's gonna be so great.
We used to live in the Denver area. We took our kids back last year for a week of field trips and seeing family and friends. May I suggest seeing the Denver Mint (you need reservations) and the Butterfly Pavilion. They were both great! Blessings on your year!
Mary, do you know where I can p/up a few mason jars cheaply? I know many say yard sales, but I don't usually frequent those. Thank you for the Heritage link. I'll hold onto it as I promised myself not to buy any more curriculum this year :) I can't agree more with #4! This has been the biggest blessing for us. I'll never forget how I started to lose my oldest daughter's heart while she attended the public elementary. She actually morphed into someone I didn't recognize (or like!) Then I answered the call to bring the chicks home and now I get to know their hearts deeply. Have you visited The Creation Museum? I think that one tops our list (keeping my fingers crossed). Thanks for sharing your top ten!
Everything sounds wonderful. No wonder you are excited about school. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm.
Oh I love the way you have shared in pictures! So much to get excited about. And how smart you are to have a membership at YMCA. Y'all are going to enjoy watching swimming in the Olympics for sure :) This is such a fun list.
I love your list Mary! I am looking forward to our new year for many of the same reasons. We haven't stopped doing school, but many of our "new.next" curriculum levels will start next month after we wrap up our current stuff. I plan on getting several Maestro Classic cd's this year!
What a great list Mary. I love it. Especially #4 and #3. I just grabbed your Notebooking HP pages. How awesome are they? Looks like a wonderful, exciting year ahead. Can't wait to read all about it.