The start of a new school year!

When I tell people we are starting a new school year this week about half of them wonder if our kid's report us for child abuse. Seriously?

Let me introduce you to a wonderful concept of almost schooling year round. ; )  We start mid July (usually too hot to be outside anyway) and end our school year mid-May. We take a good eight weeks off for summer break. (I think we got in 9 weeks this year.) The best part is that we take a week off for a fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break (two weeks), winter break, spring break, and we take another 5 random days off during the year too. This is the only way I can survive! 

Now my kids may say they don't want to start back, but what kid will admit they do? I'm sure to remind them when we get a week off that this is because we started back to school a month earlier than our public school friends. They love it!

I'm looking forward to using some different and new programs this year. To name a few off the top of my head-Winston Grammar, Lighted Lanterns, Classical Catholic Memory, Math-U-See, Catholic Heritage United States history/geography program for the fourth grade. All of these are being used with both boys except the last one which is for Tyler.

The first day went by fast, but it was an exhausting day. I didn't get any breaks from teaching except for our lunch break. I don't like to "teach" that much as I think it is best that children get their information from books and make their own connections with the material.  (And I need time to do daily chores during the day.) It was the first day though and I think things will go smoother as the days go by and we find our school rhythm again. That certainly was missing today and I suspect the schedule needs some tweaking, but I will need some time to figure that part out. Buying a coffee machine was brought up as a solution too. I may make a quick trip to the gas station tomorrow morning for some happy juice (coffee flavored sweet cream)!