Okay, that’s not true either, it was for my own good.  I have been out of town, visiting my family in the Vancouver, Canadaarea.  I know lots of public bloggers who go on vacation and talk about it for weeks leading up to it, post pictures while they are there and everything.  But I’m not one of those bloggers.  I have a friend who posted on Facebook that she was going to a neighboring town and when she got home she had been robbed.  Sooooo, I promise to tell you about all of my trips AFTER they are over and I’m back at my un-ransacked home.

I promise to post pictures of the trip as well.  Maybe tomorrow.  For now let me fast-forward to the beginning of our school year.  Here are pics of the first day (yesterday):

Cowgirl is not trying to flip off the Brits.  Just making a backwards k for kindergarten! (Still snickering, Becky!)

Farmer Boy starting 2nd grade.

Shooter in 4th.

And you know how homeschoolers seem to do so many things differently – my kids also insisted that I have a “first day of school” picture.  They each took one, this is the 4th grader’s version.  It’s not better than the other kid’s photos, but it’s the only one I’m not obviously talking in. 

You would be laughing about that if you knew me in real life. 

It was a little hard for the kids to get up early but we don’t bother to shift our schedules too much before we actually start.  Also, we get up pretty early in the summer anyway.  But it was still an hour earlier, which can make for a tiring day!  Something new we began – the kids have a list of chores to complete before breakfast which include making beds, getting dressed, combing hair, tidying rooms.  There are also two rotating household chores on the list (sweeping, swishing toilets, tidying bookshelves, helping empty or load the dishwasher).  Everyone thought it was really fun – we’ll see how long that lasts.  But they love checking off the boxes and carrying around their lists.

I was concerned about how much time it was going to add to have  Cowgirl in the mix this year.  Although it was a very involved day, I was still relieved that putting it all together did not change things as much as I was worried it might.  Cowgirl’s work is shorter and less involved, just as a kindergartener’s attention span is!  However, the literature is so appealing that the boys want to be included in her read alouds.  We started “The Boxcar Children” and a book of mother goose rhymes.

Farmer Boy actually did his math work independently today and did not complain when it was time for reading.  He also really enjoyed being included in our new kindergartener’s read alouds and helping her with her phonics work.  We started a new Language Arts program (Primary Lanuage Lessons) and Sequential Spelling, which I’m psyched about!  They are wonderful because I can use the same lesson for all three children, customized to their own level of best work.

For Shooter, instead of setting ahead of time how many pages he is to read a day, I asked him to figure that himself.  His first book this year is Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest, by Ann McGovern.  I chose it because it was on the list of “Books To Build On” by the authors of the “Core Knowlege” series of books, and because we are studying a lot of medieval history this year.  But I digress – so Shooter announced that the book had 10 chapters and he would need to finish two each day in order to be done on Friday. 

I was using this book as a test run, really.  Although it was short (128 pgs) and a good subject for Shooter, I wasn’t sure how he would do with comprehension, since some of the language is old-english-y.  On page six, Robin says “Mark well where I am going.  I’m off to the Fair to try my bow against such bold and ill-mannered knaves as thou.”

He read the entire book twice yesterday. 

I’m tired, but love getting back into the school swing of things.  The kids were in bed early that night, the house was clean, the clothes laid out for the next day, the meals planned and prepped ahead.  Ahhhh.  The chaos and relaxation of summer is wonderful, but I’m ready for the schedule and order of autumn.  I hope all of your families have a great back-to-school experience as well.