First day of school

Yesterday was our first official day of school, although we are easing into things slowly this year and adding subjects a little at a time.  Honestly, I've felt so overwhelmed and disorganized, I feel like this is the most un-ready I've ever been going into a school year.  Oh, I have all the curriculum, and I've put lots of time, thought and research into our choices for this year, but I just haven't had the uninterrupted time I'd like to sit down and plan our daily schedule.  The kids haven't been super eager about starting this time around, either, so that doesn't help!  But I know we will get there...it's just going to take some time to figure out how things will work best this year.  Last year was such a blur with the final months of pregnancy and adding a new baby to the family...I *think* this year will be better, once we get our bearings!

I made a special breakfast of baked oatmeal and coffeecake, which made for some happy kiddos.  We are also trying a new routine where we do our read-aloud time first thing in the morning after breakfast.  I hope to write more about that in a future post.  Two days into this new routine now, and the kids say they really like it.

And I also love love love the basket I found at Marshall's to hold all our read-aloud books, plus a few others! :)

This boy is starting 2nd grade...can you believe it?!  

I am also in disbelief over the fact that I have a 6th grader.  How can this be?  Wasn't he just starting Kindergarten a year or two ago?!

And then there's Julia...always ready to pose (plus she was happy that her sign had an ice cream cone on it).

The three musketeers...

Julia decided they needed to do a silly pose, so this is what happened!

Our first day went okay, once we got into it.  It had a bit of a rough start, but I think I may have set my expectations too high for the first day!  (Today, our second day, was much better.)  Sam and Julia had some independent reading time and they seemed to enjoy that.  Both of them have been tackling longer books lately, which I think is fantastic.  Sam is currently reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Josiah did a handwriting lesson and I was very impressed at how much better his writing is looking now, then even at the end of last year.  

Meanwhile, Julia was engrossed in Calico Captive.  She had started this book a while back, but set it aside while reading some other books from the library.  Yesterday she picked it back up and really got into it...in fact, she just finished it before bed tonight.  She loves books with strong heroines and adventure.  Last spring she read Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, and loved it so much that she later went back and re-read it...and it's a pretty big book!  I'm so proud of the bookworm she is becoming. :)

So that's just a quick peek into our first day of school.  We will do two more days this week, then take Friday off to go to a fair with friends.  And then hopefully by next week, we'll be tackling all the subjects we need to each day.  Stay tuned for another post soon with details about this year's curriculum and plans!