Hard to believe I'm already thinking of next school year, but there's no denying it. With the school year coming to an end, there's a feeling of relief. We've made it another year. The kids actually seem smarter now than they did last August. Maturity has something to do with it, but I hope I've had some influence on their education as well. Back in January we tried a new schedule, two weeks on, one week off, two weeks on, etc. The plan was that we'd concentrate heavily on school during the on weeks and leave one week for extras that come up without feeling guilty about not accomplishing much school. Well we kept the schedule for January, February and March before realizing that life happens no matter what. I could not control the extras to only come up during the off week. And I realized we accomplished more during our crazy times than I originally thought. So we went back to schooling everyday allowing for the craziness of life to take over. Once, we thought we'd be schooling until the end of July and taking a break for the baby during August and September, but now we are determined to finish by the end of May except for Math which will probably continue through June. Summer has too much to offer and I definitely don't want to miss out on the shortness of it.
Back to planning for next year. I have a $500 wish list of materials, which I will be paring down significantly. I've already secured a few items used, through Cathswap and I'm so happy to borrow Saxon 6/5 from a friend. So far I've saved $83.40 off my original total. Preparing early has always allowed me to just sit back and enjoy the summer without worrying about placing orders for materials or planning our lessons for the next year. I know that come September I can pull out my notebook and within minutes we are ready for another school year. Besides the planning is the fun and easy part, implementing the plan and schedule is the hard part.
