The start of a new school year...

Well it's Day three of the 2012-2013 School year. Jason {5} is in 1st Grace Brooklynn {4} is in kindergarten Cosette {3} is in preschool Ethan {1} does his very best to destroy the house while I do school with the older three. ha! I was going to wait till next week to start. But... Jason was begging to do school. I already had all our stuff. And everyone else had already started... so why not. We are done by lunch, so they still have the whole afternoon to enjoy the last warm days of summer. It's going MUCH better than I expected so far. Of course we have only finished day three {holding my breath} but I really have been happily surprised with how much the kids are loving it, how much they are into it, and how well it is going. Don't get me wrong. It is HARD, but not are hard as I thought. And I've had an easier time letting things go than I did last school year. For example. I start out my morning with a cleaned up house {thanks to working hard the night before} but by the time the morning is over, the entire house is trashed {from Ethan and Cossette playing and pulling every single thing out while I'm doing school} I let it go. Don't worry about it. When school is done, Ethan goes down for his nap and the oldest three get to play and I go around and clean everything up again. Last year I tried to keep the house reasonably picked up through out the day, laundry switched around and all that stuff. This year I have the mind set that the morning is for School. If I accomplish nothing else but school, that's all good. Just giving myself that freedom has helped me loosen up and go with the flow. The mornings are made up of Jason and Brooklynn doing: Reading practice History Science Music Catechism Handwriting Cossette knows her letters and the sounds they make, but isn't quite ready for putting sounds together to make words. So we are working on sight words and working on her numbers. Jeremy does math with Jason and Brooklynn in the evening. I've always hated math. And yes, I'm quite sure I could handle teaching kindergarten math. But hey! When your husband loves math and minored in it in college, WHY would you not have HIM teach it!:) Then in the afternoon I do my house work, or do all my errands and appointments. Tuesday was running over to my parents to pick up chicken. Wednesday was Cossette's ear doctor appointment. Today is an afternoon with my mom and sisters. We are going to hang out at my sisters house and walk over to my brother and sister in laws house that is close by and in the midst of being fixed up so they can move it! So yes, no dull moments around here. But it's good. I love the schedule. The rhythm and flow of life in this new stage. And no, it's not all perfect. I get frustrated at times. I feel overwhelmed at others. But all, in all. I feel super lucky when I see the other kids in the neighborhood walk off to meet the school bus in the morning that I get to keep my kids home with ME and that we get to spend the entire day together. Blessed much!!!!