Slowly but Surely

I'm trying to gear up for school. Where has the summer gone? I thought I'd have much more accomplished by this point. But who am I kidding??? I have five kids! Two under age 4! Most of my time is spent making sure everyone has 3 square meals (plus snacks - let's not forget the all-important snacks!), wading through piles and piles of laundry, keeping the bathroom floor clean of pee and the kitchen floor clear of cheeto crumbs...

Yes, I do all these same things during the school year, and manage to cram in some school time. I think what happened to summer is that I replaced school with "enrichment." We've visited the library every week, had lots of fun at the pool, gone to free movies, entertained family, and escaped to the mountains. All very wonderful, but I forgot to leave myself any time to clean, organize, and prepare!

So now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty. Today the Big 3 are purging their "cubbies" - the catch all baskets that hold everything from last year's math tests to nature journals to old birthday cards. I'm taking inventory of our school supplies so that I can have a list ready for next week's sales tax holiday. I'm also praying over and planning out the last details of our curriculum for this year. I've been following a hybrid of The Well Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason for years now, but every new school year brings doubt and worry that we're not covering all the bases. (Thus my current books in the sidebar - need that little pep rally to wash away the doubt.)

A (3) is already excited about school. He'll be turning four in August and I plan to do lots of K-4 activities with him this year - he's ready to learn to read and soaks everything up like a sponge. It will be so fun to watch his mind grow this year. Today while we were organizing in the playroom/schoolroom he found his preschool number cards. I couldn't talk him into waiting, so we did some math:I had him help me put the number cards in order. Then he placed the "dot" cards under the proper number. Then he made race car "trains" to equal the numbers on the cards. He had a blast. (Reminds me of those "more bars in more places" cell phone commercials, LOL) He had just as much fun driving the cars over the number line to clean up...