Preparing for another school year

We're all geared up to begin our 7th year of homeschool next week! I know it's early by most public school standards, but we like to start early in order to have more flexibility to take time off throughout the school year without falling behind in our schedule. It's important to me that we completely finish our grade level by the time we take a summer break.

So I've finished my planning and organizing in preparation for school on Monday. We will again employ a 6 week on/ 1 week off schedule this year after having great success with it last year. So, the first thing I did before I even started my subject planning was print out a 2015-2016 school calendar and figure out, roughly, when we would take our breaks over the course of the next 10 months.

Parking lot counting activity

Okay, so this was not my own idea, but it's so brilliant and simple that I wish I had thought of it. A friend posted it on facebook, and it looked really easy to make, especially considering we have two little boys (we have lots of toy cars) and we do a lot of online shopping (we have lots of delivery boxes).

This week in toddler art...

Asa and I enjoyed our art projects this week. In fact, they were so fun that the big 3rd-grader wanted to take part as well :)

First, Asa colored on sand paper. He enjoyed the rough texture and the way coloring on it wore down the crayons (I bought a pack of Target-brand crayons for 39 cents specifically for this activity.)

First week in review

Our first week of school is over!

All in all, things went really well. There were no tears (mine or Asher's), and I enjoyed each day. Let's hope this feeling stays with us through spring. :)

First day of school in photos

His favorite food is "all types of meat"?? Was sure he'd say it was pizza.