The First Day of Easing Back into School

What does back to school look like for a homeschooler? When your take away the new clothes and back packs and bus stops and tardy bells. . . what do you have left?

Yesterday, we began to ease back into a more intentional, slightly more formal routine of learning at our house. To put it in layman's terms, we went back to school.

While I love homeschooling, preparing to school four kids at four different levels can overwhelm me. I'm a planner, but it seems no matter how much I plan, I always need just a little more time. Some pieces of our homeschool this year are all mapped out and ready to go. Others are a work in progress.

For me, the key is to pick a day, and ready or not, just get started. Easing back into school works for us.

So early yesterday morning, I baked muffins for breakfast, and Mike brought me roses for our special day. I got each child started on Bible and Math. Together, we began setting up their organizational notebooks. I started a new read-aloud book with them, and they started new books on their own. Wenxin practiced cursive and phonics. The girls worked on spelling. Nathan did a little science. We quit by lunch.

New Latin books arrive sometime today. Grammar books are en route as well. I still haven't ordered the math practice sheets we use or an MLA handbook to get Nathan's papers ship-shape in preparation for high school. 

But the key thing here -- the very important part of this story -- is that we've started. We're back to school.

Shared at WFMW and Sunday Snapshot.

Here's our first day back to school photo -- in true 

homeschool style, complete with bedhead and one kid still in pajamas.