School's In!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
So I got our school books and stuff on the Sunday night before the Wednesday we were scheduled to begin our homeschool year. Mind you, this is the VERY FIRST TIME for me at homeschooling with the exception of K-4 with E.
Total Panic.
I am a planner, so I spent the entire next day freaking out and staring blankly into all the books I was to have a 2 week lesson plan for by THE NEXT DAY. Seriously. Then my friend who I ordered books with (she got hers at the same time as me) posts on FB that day how "Today is our first day of school!" and junk. What? Apparently I lack serious fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-and-have-a-blast-doing-it skills. HOW IS SHE ALREADY STARTING SCHOOL WHEN I'M NOT EVEN SURE WHAT A POCKET CHART IS? (btw, I found out what a pocket chart is and I am totally in love with them and want like a bagillion of them. idk why but they look so exciting to me!)
So the next day I spent most of the day reading homeschooling blogs and desperately searching for something that could bring me a smidgen of peace about not having everything perfectly together and planned and organized and so on. I also gave my friend a call because I had a million couple of questions and she totally eased my flailing about by telling me that everything would be fine and that she didn't have any fancy shmancy pocket charts or a chalk/dry erase board and that she only ever needed the magna doodle a few times if any. Nothing to it.
Well, I guess I am just not as entertaining and creatively talented as to be able to teach my kids with no visuals, so I had to at least get a dry erase board. And pocket charts are definitely on the way.
After all of that, we made it through our first week of school! Successfully! Actually, it was better than I even expected, to God be the glory. It wasn't that I was worried about school not going well, it was the fact that I had only 2 days to prepare and because I am...well, the way that I am, I just didn't know what to expect.
Then the thought of my babies learning to read while they sit snuggled up in my arms brought tears to my eyes and filled me with more joy than I have ever had. I know this will be the best thing I have ever done.
EVER.