Back to School Cool

I'm a bit of a dork.  Ever since I can remember, I have looked forward to picking out a new planner each school year.  I have loved the feeling of summer leaving us and fall coming and bringing school with it.  The smell of freshly sharpened pencils invigorates me.  I've felt the excitement that comes with opening a new pack of pens.  Writing on the first sheet of a new notebook is like beginning an adventure.  I love school.  I have always loved school (although not every subject...sorry, math). And now, as a homeschooling mama, I get to do it all over again. 

My husband only half teases that a large reason we homeschool is for me.  Sitting at the other end of the table only makes it more exciting because I get to - gasp - pick the curriculum.  I'm pretty sure I've lost all readers by now who aren't homeschooling because like I said, I'm a bit of a dork.  And if you homeschool, I'm sorry to say but you are too.  Don't worry.  It's a good thing.

We love structure and organization and flipping through curriculum catalogs and getting ideas online.  It excites us when Target puts out their teacher stuff in the one spot dollar section (which, p.s. it's out if you haven't noticed yet!!)  Above all, we love to learn and we love to teach our children to love to learn. 

So, in true dork fashion, we start school today.  As in, in the middle of July.  I promise, I'm not some crazy mom - but we do need more structure than the average family and although we've all enjoyed our summer break, we are ready for routine.  Plus, I liken Alabama summers to Michigan winters; we are stuffed indoors due to intolerable climate.  I figure we may as well do something productive.  Now if we had a swimming pool in the backyard, that might be a different story!

So on the roster for the year: the twins who begin kindergarten (is it weird that I'm emotional even though they're not leaving the house?) and my youngest who will enjoy his last year of Pre-K.  Actually, we'll share all subjects except math and handwriting. I have to say, I love pre-school.  It's such an exciting time and I am sad to have two children rotating out of it.  Then again, maybe I'm just sad the boys are growing up at all.

But Kindergarten is exciting, too.  We prepare to learn to read this year (God willing) I want to be sure we've got our letter sounds down.  We've done a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter tree.  I've heard about it on multiple homeschool sites and if you want to get really fancy and buy one, you can choose from multiple options on Amazon: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree.  Ours is just easel paper and paint for the tree and cardstock for the letters, but it'll work.  In conjunction with the tree, we'll use one of my - and the boys - favorite websites: www.starfall.com.


We use alot of autism friendly scheduling/organization tools that are great for any kid.  Some of my favorites this year are our weather guy and our Calendar Snowman (The Snowman comes from The Giant Encyclopedia of Kindergarten Activities: by Charner, Murphy, and Ford which is worth the purchase and full of over 600 activities) and our chore chart, which we rotate each day.  I found the blue sticky "gum" at Target for less than $2.  That, some cardstock and markers made all these possible.  And my rudimentary art skills, of course.