A New School Year - First Day

We're ready!

Shiny new books, shiny new binders.

School room tidied and organized.

Timeline ready to be added to, desks ready to be piled high with school books.

Table ready to be covered in paper scraps and glue sticks.

Silly boys with sharpened pencils (or rather, pencil disguised candies).

Sweet preschool girl with excited first day of school smile.

(First day of school shirt...colored by Leah, ironed on by Mommy.)

Smiling boy and smiling breakfast.

Starting school off right...Bible study with Daddy.

And, they're off...lots of learning going on.

Happy First Day of School!

We've done these iron-on shirts before and they were a hit, so I thought I'd give it another go as a first-day-of-school project.  The boys all drew their own picture and wore their shirts for the first day.

Gabe also lost his first tooth the day before.

Chris and I made these pencils and crayons for the kids also.  I set out the boys' Bible study books with them in the morning instead of real pencils, hehehe.

We're trying a new schedule this year.  We've always been able to keep our mornings free and get school done in the afternoon during the girls' nap time.  This year Leah doesn't nap any more and Anna's nap is from 2:00-4:00 PM...any earlier than that and she won't fall asleep.  And that's just not enough time to get in the amount of school that we have with all these kids.

So, our new schedule is approximately as follows:

7:20 AM: Boys eat breakfast
7:30 AM: Hymn & Bible Study/Faith Reading

8:00 AM: Book Basket (Girls wake up, dress, eat)
8:15 AM: Math, Writing, Spelling, Copywork, Science Workbook, English

Break When Finished (about 9:30ish)

1:30 PM: Reading

2:00 PM: History, Science, Art/Music, Spanish

Break When Finished (about 3:30ish)

7:30 PM: Read Aloud

8:00 PM: Awana Study, James Study

I also wanted to have some time in the mornings for going out and doing other things I enjoying doing in the mornings...MOPS and Women's Bible Study at my church.  We may have to tweak our schedule a little, but hopefully I can keep up with my morning activities for another year.

This week was a little crazy because the boys had piano camp at our church each morning which started on our first day of school.  My good friend picked the boys up and brought them home afterwards and we celebrated the first day with world cake and swimming.

I had wanted Chris to cut the continents out of the fondant for the boys to put the cake together later.  I had to run to the store while he was making it and when I came home, he had already put it all together.  He just couldn't keep himself from making so many details and doing it perfect.  It sure looks great!

I hope your first day is great also!