Organized and Ready for School

After procrastinating for weeks, I finally got it together and organized all of our new school supplies and curriculum.  When I first started homeschooling my children (this is our third year), I had a very narrow view of what it would look like.  I ordered a bookshelf for the kitchen, a lamp for the kitchen table, and planned on having the kiddos do lessons in there on my laptop.  It didn't take long for me to realize that we had far more options than basically recreating the typical school environment in our kitchen; even I had been somewhat brainwashed into believing that that was what school should be like.  In mere weeks, we found our groove.  Little G enjoyed working in his room, so we got him a table and chairs set.  Reezle preferred the comfort of the couch, where she would curl up with the big pillows and our older cat, Sticky.

The kiddos both have backpacks and lunch boxes, even though we homeschool.  It's so much fun to take lessons to the park or the beach when the weather is nice, or to a little coffee shop to sit by the fireplace when the weather is chilly and cabin fever is starting to set in.  We don't have to worry about whether our school can fun field trips; we simply take field trips whenever we like.  The zoo, the aquarium, the arboretum, orchards, farms, and even homeschool skating events are on our calendar, and it will be wonderfully, blissfully uncrowded.  I don't miss having to cram our entire family life into school vacation dates.  I don't miss homework.  I don't miss feeling like strangers were raising my children.  I love picking up and going wherever we want to go, whenever we want to go.  And, since most of our family is out of town, we don't have to worry about scheduling visit around a school schedule; we take school with us.  School is anywhere that has an internet connection!

I digress.  We're grateful for the opportunity we have to do this our way, and I tend to get a bit excited about it.  On to our school spaces.  Top left and bottom right is Reezle's setup in her room.  Because their school is web-based, they each have a good computer of their own.  The shelves are much fuller now, with her reading materials and hardcover books.  Top right is some of Little G's setup, which includes some of his own extensive collection of books and a new yellow dry-erase board.  K12 actually supplies dry-erase boards, but my kids wanted the fancy, colorful ones and I caved.  They literally use them until they wear out, so I'm cool with it.  They're great for math and spelling practice.  And finally, bottom left is the bookshelf in our living room where we keep the printer, extra books, flashcards, math games, extra paper, and any DVDs or CDs provided by K12.  I realized quickly that keeping everything in one central location was going to be impossible.

Our various organization locations

The kids were so excited to have their materials that they asked me for writing prompts to earn their supplemental workbooks.  They can be prolific writers when they have incentive, heh.  Both of them filled about four pages each, front and back, with really cute stories.  And yes, my son has blue hair and my daughter is wearing rabbit ears.  I pick my battles.

Getting an early start

We're doing a more family-centered, independent model of K12 this year, and we have the same teacher for both children, which usually isn't the case.  Our current teacher was Little G's teacher from last year, whom he was crying over losing as his teacher as the school year drew to a close, so both of the children are extremely happy about this.  I am very happy as well; she is wonderful and very much dedicated to her students and their success.  I know this confuses people; I homeschool, but my children have teachers.  I could make this post very lengthy, or you could research K12 for yourself here.

I will be writing much more about our homeschool journey soon!  But right now, the kids and I have cucumbers and zucchini to pick from the garden.  I'm hoping last night's epic thunderstorm and rain helped things grow.