Homeschool Prep....

This week has been a very busy one. We're starting up our home school on Monday, and I've spent this week tossing out old workbooks, old papers, old pencils. I weeded through our stash of preschool and Kindergarten books and passed them to my friend Sheri. I unpacked three boxes of books from ABeka, along with a huge Sonlight box and smaller boxes from SMARR (high school world lit) and Education Explorations (boys' physical science). I labeled all the new Sonlight materials for the boys' world history books with little yellow dots so I can tell each grade by their particular color which helps greatly when we have Sonlight materials from grade Kindergarten to ninth grade on our shelves. I grouped the books for this year's studies on readily accessible shelves.

I've figured out the instructor's guides for E's SMARR World Lit, for the boys' hands-on physical science, for the boys' new language arts program from Sonlight, and for the boys' new spelling program. I dug out from our shelves a vocabulary book on Greek and Latin roots, an art history book by Usborne that's simply gorgeous, and the thick poetry book that the boys will use with their world history program this year. I sorted each boys' books into their own drawer and stacked E's materials on her bed for her to organize as she likes.

I got on the computer and wrote up the kids' new course schedules, their weekly schedules, and their weekly spreadsheets that I'll fill in each Sunday night for the next thirty-six weeks. I handwrote out their Course of Study forms and mailed them to our school so they'll be in each child's file for future reference. E's school schedule binder is ready to go, as is the boys' schedule of assignments. I'll start scheduling on Sunday afternoon; the first week always takes longer to schedule as I'm not completely used to the new curricula.

I've lined up our wonderful math tutor to teach E and T on Fridays, and T and J's piano teacher is set to come on Wednesday afternoons. (I'm trading writing lessons for the piano teacher's daughter every other week, so we only have to pay half.) Class Days will be every second Thursday, and I'm hoping to attend our Lady Bereans Bible Study at Lake Murray on the weeks we don't have Class Days. E is signed up for Brave Writer's online Literary Analysis course (on Great Expectations) which will run for six weeks starting August 27, and she'll probably take another in the spring on Pride and Prejudice; these classes will allow her the experience of discussing works of literature.

The school year starts for us on Monday, August 20 so that we can take a three-week Christmas break and a two-week Easter break. Class Days start on September 13, so we'll have a few weeks to adjust to our schedules before we have to throw Class Days into the schedule. E will be taking Biology Lab and Self Defense. The boys are each taking PE and art, and for their third classes, T will take Chess Club, J Cooking, and B "Fun Science." I'll be teaching Intermediate Writing (college prep) and Advanced Writing (honors) to high school students.

So the school table has been scrubbed down and a new centerpiece graces the home school table that Keith made for us years ago. All the drawers are filled with reams of paper; pencils have been sharpened and placed inside pencil cases. Teacher's Guides are stacked neatly beside the globe, ready for instruction on Monday morning. Workbooks, spiral notebooks, sketch books, pencil cases, binders filled with worksheets, etc., are all in the proper drawer for each student. Even the chandelier above the table has been dusted, and the CD ROMs are lined up neatly in their holder on the computer desk. Even the science program has been loaded onto the computer, ready for lessons.

School starts on Monday. And we are ready.