1 more week

I can't believe we just have a week until our first official day of school. Of course, I'm one of those moms who feels like even though we took a summer break, we were still learning. But as far as a structured day and checklists are concerned, we're only a week away. I feel like I spent more time "planning" during this last month than I ever have during a break, I've got so much to finish up this week. Wouldn't you know that my first day of the "I'm down to the wire now" week would be consumed with a 3 year old's fever and earache and a scooting baby who is trying to figure out how not to keep rolling over into hard furniture which bumps that precious little head? So, no last minute school preparations for me today. Hopefully everyone will rest well tonight, so we can start fresh tomorrow.

This year will be organized by a schedule on the wall, lining out each person's duties and times to accomplish them. The kids will also have checklists I made on Excel. They get a sheet for each week that shows their daily chores and school subjects. After they have checked the boxes under each weekday, they will give it to me to file for my records and get a clean checklist for the next week. I have also been recording every chapter book they have ever read, so I will continue to do that.

This week I'm supposed to make a list of all the books that I want them to read this year. I already have stacks of books ready to list, so I just need to get it organized. The bulk of their books will coordinate with our history lessons. There are also some good fun ones and inspirational books, too. I had also planned on getting our timeline ready this week. I got one of those huge paper rolls that you use on craft tables to use as our timeline. We have done a Konos timeline before and have used The Timechart History of the World, which is an incredible book fold-out timeline. I would like to do something this year that we can write on ourselves. If it works like I hope it will, we will continue to use it from this time forward. I've got to back-track everything we've studied so far and plot that before we start on this year's history. OK, maybe that won't get done in time. It may stay a work in progress for a couple more weeks. And lastly, I've got to finish organizing my third grader's binder that will house all of his phonics, copywork, handwriting, and spelling.

My 3 year old's favorite book at the moment is The Little Engine That Could, so at moments like these, it's automatic for my mind to say... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!