Gearing Up

I am planning on starting school on September 2 this year, and I just realized that there are only three weeks left.  Friends are asking me "Are you ready for school?"  The answer is yes and no.

The school work is all ready.  I make decisions and order books in April, and I spend a lot of time in the summer planning and doing prep work.  I don't do well to have to prepare every day or week for the next unit.  I plan a schedule for the entire year.  I know I will tweak and change things as I go along, but I have a foundation.  I don't put dates on it, but I know how many days I would like to spend on base curriculum.  This year it is 140.

I also read all new textbooks during the summer.  Books like math and grammar I do not actually read every word, but I go through every page and write the topics on my master schedule.  I read anything that looks unfamiliar, new or interesting.  I do the same thing with books I am repeating with another child.  Everything else, like readers, history and science I try to read the whole book.  That way during the year, I can look at my master schedule and have an idea of what it's talking about.  My brain can process information, and I get ideas of activities and field trips to go along with the topics while there is still enough time to do them.

I try to plan a couple of fun "workshop days" during the summer.  These are days that we take off from regular curriculum and focus on one topic for the whole day - usually a famous person from history.  We do games, crafts, cooking and other activities.  They are my kids' favorite days.

So yes, that is all ready.  I am just printing off my master schedule, getting supplies, and I have to plan some workshop days.  Doing this in three weeks is not a problem.

But on the other hand, I am not ready.  I have a big list of everything I wanted to clean and organize in my house before school starts, and that is not done!  If only I had a maid ...