I'm ready for school to start!

I finished purchasing my curriculum last night and I've been making lesson plans this morning. I'm so excited for this year because I think the girls are really going to enjoy the curriculum I bought. I will admit I am a bit overwhelmed though. Teaching 2 girls and trying to keep the other 2 occupied at the same time is going to be interesting! It's been busy enough just keeping everyone occupied for the summer.

I am sure you will do fine. Sounds exciting. I applaud you for homeschooling. I woudl never have the patience for it, altho I am learning to get more patience.

I'm right there with you.....excited and feeling overwhelmed! I keep looking through all the books and look forward to getting into it all. Are the girls excited or dreading it? Kristen had makeup work still to do (from placing behind in math when we started) and has already begun.....AND is already giving me a hard time. The boys are much easier to teach. Conner is excited to start and Cade said he doesn't care when we start as long as it's not tomorrow.

I might start half days next week and then go to full the next. I had originally planned to start when the public schools start on the 23rd but then remembered that it's Kristen's first day back at the homeschool iceskating class so that's smack in the middle of the day and I don't want the first day back to be chaotic.

How do you do your schedule? Will you have them both work on Math at the same time etc.? Or do they just both go at their own pace. I've found the hardest part is figuring out when to do what because they all three work at a different pace. Cade is more self motivated than the others and works independantly more. Conner is only first so obviously it is mostly mommy led. Kristen could work independantly but I almost have to watch over her constantly and tell her to get to work.

Are your kids easy to teach? Do you ever feel like "what in the world did I get myself into?" We were thinking of putting Kristen back into public school (to save the mother/daughter relationship) but I just couldn't do it because she would still have the same issues and at the same time wouldn't be getting a good education.

Sorry for all the questions....just realized how long this reply became...

ETA: Meant to also say......Good luck! Hope you have a wonderful school year!!!

This post has been edited by mammag on Aug 10 2006, 12:59 PM

I'm excited, too. Six days! But, I'm not homeschooling.

Jenn I'm sure you will make it a great year. You're such a good mommy.

My girls....well....Meg is really excited-surprisingly so, which is nice. Maddie is pretty much indifferent. My schedule this year is going to be a bit different because of the curriculum I'm using. I'm doing a unit study (based on the Little House on the Prairie books-so much fun!) that I can adapt to both the girls' grade levels. We will be doing Science, History, Language Arts, Health, Art, etc, all from the same study guide, and both girls at the same time. We are so excited! I do have to supplement math, grammar, handwriting and spelling. Those they will probably do at different times unless I feel they can work on something independently. It's just too hard trying to make them both understand a different principle at the same time, kwim?

So lets see, our day will go something like this. We start right after breakfast. First we will do our unit study and that will probably take an hour or two. Then, we will work on, say, math for one, and handwriting for the other, since handwriting can be done alone. Grammar we work from the same book so that will be done together. And then I will probably have one work on spelling words while the other reads and then switch. Art will be thrown in a couple days a week and music on the other days and whatever else I happen to be forgetting right now. It sounds so nice and orderly when I talk about it but I can guarantee you it won't work this way. This is what will really happen. I'll have Lissa screaming at my ankles and Brianna asking "When can I do school Mommy?". Maddie will be crying over her reading, and Meg will be sitting there saying "I don't want to do spelling anymore!". Art will be forgotten on a regular basis and I will get so tired of the thumping on the piano I will go insane. Ugh! I can just picture it now.

My girls *can* be easy to teach, but not always. Megan is a bit more of a struggle, simply because she has so much energy-She likes to be moving ALL the time. I can't imagine what they would do with her if she was in a traditional school. Maddie is easy to teach, but she is dyslexic so some things present more of a challenge for her and on certain days we will both be in tears before lessons are over. Yes I do have times when I wonder what on earth possessed me to do this crazy job. Today happens to be one of those days, and I haven't even started the year yet! Do you belong to a home school group? I joined one last year and the support I have found there has been invaluable. It really helps to have feedback from people who are going through the exact same thing you are going through!

Wow-my response is getting out of hand! If you have any other questions please feel free to ask. I may not have all the answers, but I can certainly lend a sympathetic ear!