The Night Before Homeschool

The kids are in bed and I just finished cleaning up the kitchen.

Tomorrow is the first day of home-school. 

(*keep reading to find out why we didn't start today.)

The kids are SO excited. 

And you know what? 

I am too!

I appreciate everyone's vote of confidence.

My sister, Monica, said it best:

"Jill, if it looks stupid, it is! 

You don't have to do everything... 

that's the beauty of home-school."

She's right. 

Poetry about pollution is not a vital lesson for a first grader.

So what if I spent wasted a lot of time and ink 

and paper printing pages upon pages of materials

that I'm not going to use? 

(I was able to recycle the paper, 

don't worry- no polluting going on here.)

We still will use Time4Learning activities, but I will not 

be preparing classroom-type lessons. A lot of our time will

be spent together as a group. 

Here are a few things we have

to look forward to this school year:

Signing Time (we ♥ sign language!)

Usborne books about World History and World Geography

Scripture study (Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon)

Planet Earth, among other great documentaries.

Ella and Olivia will learn to read from

Katherine and Travis and I will read

among other great books.

The younger girls look forward to reading favorites, like

&

We will have field trips to the zoo and around Nacogdoches.

I hope we can even have Skype School! (Monica? Melissa?)

It's such a relief to realize I can be flexible! (Must be the yoga. Haha!)

Tomorrow is going to be great!

We didn't start school today

because Johnny went to a rheumatologist. 

Remember this?

The rheumatologist ordered another set of labs, but 

doesn't think Johnny has rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.

Right now he is asymptomatic. 

There is only a small chance he'll

be diagnosed with lupus- his abnormal labs

are probably only a result of some kind

of infection that has since resolved.

So- all in all, good news!

Johnny's sweet parents kept the kids

while Johnny, Samuel and I went to his appointment.

It was so nice to spend time together~ 

like we were on a date!

AND it rained today!! 

I hope I can sleep tonight :-)