First Day of School // 2020

Happy First Day of School!

Yes, I realize it's May 4th. And no, I'm not crazy. 😉

See, we finished our 180th day of our 2019-2020 school year last Wednesday.

We took Thursday off for E's 7th birthday.

We took Friday off for our summer break. HAHAHAHAHA! 😂😂😂

And we started our 2020-2021 school year today (Monday)!

I had already scheduled our current school year to end the last week of April. Then we were going to take the month of May off to enjoy all.the.summer.fun while the public schools were still in session, and start back with our new school year the first week of June. This is what we did last year, and it worked well for us! It allowed us to have lots of downtime and flexibility in our year.

But then COVID-19 happened.

Plans changed.

I didn't see any reason to finish up our school year and take the month of May off only to sit around the house and stare at each other, as we've been doing so very well for the past two months during quarantine.

So we all decided it just made more sense to roll right into our 2020-2021 school year this week... after a 5-day weekend/summer break - LOL!

The good thing is we're pretty much just continuing with all of our current subjects through the summer, so I haven't been in a major rush to nail down our "official" curricula for the new year. We had planned to join an Upstate area co-op this fall, but those plans are currently way up in the air as our family's health and safety may mean we buckle down for another year together at home on our own, especially with a new baby due in 7 weeks! I'm TOTALLY on board with that game plan, but will continue to seek the Lord's direction in this decision. Until then, let's move forward with our new school year!

Check out these beautiful kiddos! They are my 3/5 of my heart! 💖

My sweet LO is in 8th grade. EIGHTH GRADE, y'all! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see the growth she has this year!

We are shifting gears BIG TIME as she will be taking several honors courses this year for high school credits. It will be a whole new world for her as the requirements and obligations for her academically will increase dramatically this year. I'm confident she's up for the challenge, though!

Then there's this guy. My 5th grader! Chase could not BE more ready for his final year of elementary studies! I'll digest the fact that he'll be starting middle school next year MUCH later.

Chase had a great year in 4th, and I have big expectations for his 5th grade year! He's super strong in Math and his English skills have grown so much this year. His cursive handwriting is lightyears above his print handwriting (I tell him this all the time - LOL!). He LOVES drawing and writing/illustrating comics. He still has aspirations to be a professional gamer when he grows up.

Look at this cute face! E's in 2nd grade and I'm so excited for him!

I mean, really, I just love this cutie-pie! He's grown SO MUCH over the past year, and I know he's going to continue to thrive in 2nd grade! He is a reading machine, has THE MOST impressive handwriting, his math skills are off-the-chart, and he is always wanting to do his very best work. It's such a joy to watch him learn!

Oh - let's not forget the (current) youngest and soon-to-be big brother, Squish, who will be turning THREE in less than 40 days! I just love these crazies and the incredible family God's blessed me with!

And they're not weird at all.

Okay, 2020-2021 school year... Let's Do This! 💙

Back to HOMESchool!

I'm so excited! We still have a few weeks of summer left, which we plan to wholeheartedly enjoy with plenty of trips to the pool, the movies, the museum, the park... lots of play dates and fun still ahead!

BUT... we've also officially started our THIRD year of homeschooling! LO is now in 4th Grade and my sweet Chase is now in 1st Grade! And of course my littlest one, E, is in Pre-Pre-K -- haha!

It's been a great start to school... once I was finally able to get my classroom in order! I'm such a neat freak and have such insanely ridiculous OCD tendencies that it seriously must take me about 12 times longer to do a few simple things than your average person. I seriously have issues. But at least I admit it, right?? ;)

So I took a few minutes today to take a few pictures of my classroom now that it's (A) clean and (B) set up for our new year. I know it won't stay this clean and organized for more than a few days hours, so I had to document it while it wasn't embarrassing!

I haven't edited the kids' first day of school pics yet, but I hope to share those really soon!

Enjoy a little glimpse of our Home Sweet Homeschool!

First up: The reason I do what I do. These three are my heart.

This year we will be focusing on learning to tell time on analog clocks, so I decided to hang one above our white board.

I'm not afraid to reward hard work with candy, so here ya go! Skittles are also super helpful with our math games! Yum.

I love my rolling cart from IKEA! I'm using it as individual bins for the three kiddos. Can you guess which one belongs to each kid? Shocker: You may notice -- Chase is phasing out his Mario addiction!

I love organized, color-coded paper. Special props to LO for her mad sorting and organizational skills!

LOVE artwork by LO. Such a fun addition to our schoolroom.

Classical Conversations timeline cards! We love these things!! And I'm madly in love with them in these binders!

And all the organizing Type A OCD folks unite in glorious song! Check out these art supplies, my friends!

{{deeply inhales}} Breathe it all in, folks. The glorious goodness of organized Crayola. Is there anything better?

Lots of art supplies! I may be hating myself for this later, but last year I kept all of the art supplies out of sight in my homeschool cabinet. The kids (LO) were constantly getting into it and (LO) leaving the door open and (LO) making it a disorganized mess and (LO) never putting things away, so I decide to embrace their (LO's) huge love of all things crafty and create an art center right in the middle of our schoolroom in plain sight. I'm hoping I'll have the ability to keep an eye on E to make sure these don't end up drawing on walls, curtains, furniture, etc., but we'll have to wait and see!

I'm literally in love with these storage canisters from Oriental Trading of all places. Math games beware! We are stocked in the ping pong ball, marble, and math die categories! Bring on the fun!

I {heart} organizing!

Whew. This one is gonna be a biggie this year! LO will be adding Essentials afternoon classes with our morning Foundations classes with Classical Conversations. I don't know a thing about it yet, but I did know enough to basically leave an entire bookshelf free for all of the materials we'll be using. :)

I decided to add a few things on the walls this year -- just for fun! LO & Chase already know the Presidents, and LO knows all of the states and capitals (assuming she remembers them all from when I taught them to her in 2nd grade), while Chase knows all of the states. I guess it's time to start teaching E his US geography now!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ginormous laminated map I hung up outside of our pantry (there was no room for it in our schoolroom). I found it at Hobby Lobby for like $9.99 I think -- but I used their 40% off coupon and it was literally the best homeschool purchase ever! I'm excited to start working on our European geography this year!

Never one to shy away from the camera, I had to include a goofy pic of my silly E! This pretty much sums up how I feel about finishing the prep work for a new year of homeschooling, knowing that all of my hard work will soon be destroyed by eager little learners! I couldn't be more thrilled!!