First Day of School 2014

   Today is the first day of school. Yesterday should have been, but we weeded in the morning, picked pears, and picked Nelson up. Joseph helped at Brother Arndt's auto class shop with Ashton, and James babysat the youngest Cumins kids. We picked up more supplies at Weber State's Science Stores for our chemistry lab, and spent birthday gift card and reward dollars at Best Buy (a nifty charging station that inspired me to deep clean the computer desk and which charges my camera sufficiently so that I again have a working camera--yay!) and at Office Max (stackable file totes for storing and rotating toy sets).
   Today, however, we were up at six for scripture study and family prayers. Ashton and Nelson were gone from before eight to after three, and the rest of us just stayed home.
   Wes gave the school children fathers' blessings for school this morning, and I wrote as much of them as I could. For school, they copied the blessings into their journals and wrote (ideally) how they felt about their blessing and what they wanted to accomplish this year. Some of them did, anyway.  We practiced what Table Time is like, and what it shouldn't be, and we played with the bunnies, who need more attention.
   What did I accomplish? We wrote a page or more, which is more than we did daily last year, and writing is to be our focus this year. We talked about projects that will help drive our learning this year--science fair, reports for Polar Star, Mock Trial, ACT prep, etc. We tried to figure out what our flexibilities can be (James did back strengthening exercises, because sitting up for long periods of time has always hurt his back) and what is nonnegotiable (putting off writing, because the boys seldom "feel like it").
   What did I learn? We accomplish more when I check in frequently. I can accept breaks with the rabbits when we are talking and occasionally working. We can listen to books on tape when we have non-academic times like Joseph's soldering or Python work, James' exercises, Rabbit time, laundry work, lunch time, cleaning time, art, and other such things. Writing about my day helps me assess my weak spots and decide what to modify the next day or time. It also starts me working on my planning, which I need to do! Planners and goal sheets can be good tools for the kids, and I could probably overdo them. I'll try to use them daily, but lightly.