Last week we purchased all our curriculum for the first semester of 1st grade and preschool. I told the boys they were not allowed to look at it yet so that it would be exciting and new when school starts. We are starting lessons on Wednesday and I am mapping out our first week of lessons today. I have books and papers strewn about the kitchen table and I could not keep the boys away from the books any longer. They are so excited to work in their new books! I guess that is a good thing.

(They also received "back to school" haircuts)

This year we are starting school at a set time in the morning. Russell is an early riser so I am going to take advantage of that and hopefully knock out some one on one time with him before Max wakes up. Russell will also be working more on his own in different subjects. He will be doing more reading and writing out answers to questions about the reading. This should allow for some one on one time with Max. I am also not going to plan our weeks out too far in advance this year. Last year I planned out almost an entire semester before we even started lessons and learned that it didn't work out how I had hoped. I found myself taking a lot of time in the evenings to rework our schedule to make it work for us better, so this year I will plan a week in advance so I can easily change/add to our schedule as needed. This will hopefully save a lot of scribbling out in my planner and changing dates on worksheets. Our first few weeks will be review and getting into the swing of things and figuring out what order we want to do our different subjects in.

Russell is wanting to have another art show this year, and Max is showing interest in this as well. They have been talking amongst themselves and have decided they want to have a joint show. The date and time for this will be announced on a later date...

First day of school pictures coming Wednesday....