Mama’s Ready to Start School the New School Year!

I find this homeschooling thing to be such a wild ride (is it just me?!).  During May, I was counting the days until the end of school.  Now?  I can hardly wait for it to start again!

I am genuinely excited to start our new school year.  This is our third year homeschooling and it is the first year that I’ve really felt this…settled.  And here are the 10 reasons why I can hardly wait for school to start:

I have planned really well for the upcoming year.

I might just have the best husband ever.  He called me one morning (one of those mornings where bedtime can’t come soon enough…and it’s only 9am) and told me I had a room at the Hampton Inn in a King Suite for 36 whole hours.  To myself.  Oh happy day.

During that time alone, my main goal wasn’t to plan in detail those first few weeks, but to wrap my head around what I wanted our school year to look like.  I planned our days off, what I wanted each child to study, and decided what type of planning program I wanted to use.  It feels so good to have those details settled before we even start the year.

I feel good about having goals set for my children.

The first year we homeschooled, I was pregnant with #4 and I really didn’t have any idea what I was doing.  The second year, I was dealing with the next item on this list (keep reading) and time got away from me.

This year, I am thrilled that I had the opportunity (see #1) to write down what I want my goals to be for my children this year.  On those bad days (we all have them), I think it will be good for me to look at that list and re-focus.

I’m not recovering from an emergency appendectomy!

I had my appendix unexpectedly removed exactly one year ago today. Last year, I didn’t know that I should have started planning way back in April or May and so I waited until the first part of July. Because of my unexpected surgery, I fell even further behind. Needless to say, I started the year off without a good working knowledge of how our year should flow. Lesson learned.

I’m excited about our history curriculum.

This will be our second year of using Tapestry of Grace for history.  I considered last year to just be our guinea pig year with it.  I wasn’t sure what to do or if it would really work for us.

This year, I completely changed my planning approach and I think it’s going to make all of the difference.  I read practically every post I could find on how to plan for this particular history curriculum and tweaked it to fit our family.  I’ll share all of my research and findings at a later time.  You know, assuming they actually work.

My children thrive on routine – and we’re WAY out of routine.

Being out of routine is usually one of the nicest parts about a break from school.  It makes me appreciate the ebb and flow of our days when I can see what it’s like without that typical routine in place.

But my kiddos and I are both ready to get back to it, routine and all.

I’m looking forward to seeing how my son will do with more independent work.

In the past, I’ve given my son very little in the way of independent school work.  Despite him being a fairly independent reader for most of last year, I felt like he still needed my guidance a majority of the time.

I’m starting him out very slowly, but he’ll have to step it up this year in the independent department.  I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll thrive!

I’m teaching a Pre-K class at our co-op.

This is my first year being a lead teacher in our co-op, and while I’m a little overwhelmed, I’m very excited!  I couldn’t find a ready-made curriculum I was totally thrilled with, so I’m making it up as I go along.  We’re going to study an animal each week and then incorporate letter/number recognition and general pre-K readiness skills related to that animal.  I’ve got great ideas in my head and hope they translate well into class time.

I cannot wait to start our science curriculum.

We ditched our science curriculum by Christmas last year because it just wasn’t working for us.  I pieced together our science for the rest of the year using a few unit studies, but it just didn’t flow like I wanted it to.

This year, we’re using noeo Biology I.  The layout is exactly what I’m looking for, I love that it uses a variety of books, and it has a great Charlotte Mason/Classical approach.  I’m looking so forward to implementing it!

My children are excited about this school year.

Excitement is contagious, and I’m not sure if my children are making me excited or the other way around. Regardless, my children are already talking about how much fun school is and they would like for it to go ahead and start.  That makes a Mama’s heart happy, I’ll admit.

I love being my children’s teacher.

I really do love being my children’s teacher. When I agreed to homeschool them, I had no idea how it would really be. Would I grow to resent all of the time I spent to prepare? Would I go crazy having very little time to myself? Would we get on each others’ nerves by the end of every day?

Well, honestly, some days are like that. But then there are those days where we have great discussions about Roman soldiers or what we read in Bible that morning or my daughter beats me in Bingo. There are memories I am making with them that will stay with them forever.

I’m so grateful I get the privilege of being their teacher. I don’t dare take it for granted.

I am so pleased to link this post to Angie’s Top Ten Tuesday and to iHN’s 10 in 10 Blog Hop.

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.

Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill is a Christian mom to 5, ages 19 to 7. She homeschools her children in the classical education tradition and is currently in her 15th year of homeschool. She creates engaging worksheets and hands-on printable activities for Preschool and Elementary age children to supplement their daily studies.

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