Organization

I'm just by nature an organizer.  But along with the organization comes an OCD neat-freak component.  I'm not a fan of torn-out pages or odd-sized pages.  But I also don't care for dog-eared, smudged books that barely make it through the year intact.

So... I tore apart Katie's books!  Ok, not really.  I used a supper-heavy-duty paper cutter and cut the spines off her Kumon books (they don't come with perforated pages) so that I could easily grab the page I want her to work on.  I placed the front cover of each book on its own manila envelope and then stuck the pages inside, so now all I need to do is grab the one she needs to work on for the day.  Nice, neat organization!

This will also come in handy when we need to take our books on the road.  Now I won't have to haul every book along, but can just pull out the worksheets we need.  I may do this to more workbooks!

My next order of business was to figure out how to keep track of each subject as we complete assignments. The State of Indiana requires that I show "comparable education."  Well, not sure how I can prove that one unless I can show my kids' work.

We'll see how it all works out, but for now I have a file folder for each subject where I can stick completed work.  At the end of the year (or unit/project might be better, we'll see) I plan to digitally scan all the pages so I don't end up overrun with paper as the years progress.  Between that and this blog hopefully we'll have enough of a record of our homeschooling that we can satisfy any questions that could ever come our way.  :)

First Day!

The kids have been looking forward to the first day of school for quite a while now - Katie more-so than Ethan, but both have been counting the days.  They were pretty pumped up to find out that today we'd get to go school shopping.  Really, we already had most things on hand, but there were a few items that I either thought would be good to replace or would be nice additions, so out we went.  Of course, everything we came back with was either pink or blue.  Not much deviation from stereotypes in this household!

I promised them both that once supper was done we might be able to do some school even tonight, so even though our school year technically isn't starting till tomorrow (July 1), we started early.

As I was gathering the material,s Ethan was supposed to be doing a few things in his room.  He saw me with a Math book in my hand and got this look of absolute horror on his face.  "Not Math, Mommy!  I already did Math in Kindergarten.  I'm in first grade!!"  I about died laughing!  Once we assured him that a person learns math concepts all through school, not just in Kindergarten and that this was not the same book as he had last year, he got this look of relief on his face.  "Oh," and off he went.

I know the excitement won't last forever.  I'm already having to remind Ethan we take the tedious along with the fun.  But I do hope and pray that we can instill a love for learning and a thirst for knowledge in both their little hearts.  We had a special dedication prayer for each child this evening as they sat at the table for the first time.

"Dear Lord, please bless our home and our efforts to raise children for Your kingdom.  Draw us all closer to You through this journey.  Amen."