Is it that time already?!?

Bright and early Monday morning we will start the new school year! Yup, it's that time already!!! I have to say that I don't feel quite ready for it this year because of our move, but I know that once we start, I'll feel better. Our school room is MUCH smaller than our previous one, but since the kids are getting older, we don't really need the extra space. We have 4 desks and an Ikea shelf unit crammed into a 12'x11' space. It doesn't sound that bad, but my desk is a very large 'L' shaped desk, so it consumes the room! We purchased it for the first home we were going to buy...the house was smaller, but it had a much bigger school room. Since I scrapbook and 'need' the desk space, we decided to still set it up here. The room works, but it's tight. (Photos coming soon).

Despite the furniture, my biggest problem is that I am a huge fan of books. I love to read, love to explore and love to collect books. School books, research books, novels, you name it. The one thing I've had to do in moving into this house was downsize, but books are one thing I haven't gotten rid of yet. My husband and I will go through them together, and hopefully I'll have the will-power to get rid of some. We'll see. Our basement may end up looking like this...



So...when Edward comes home, we will complete our school room, get the kids desks, supplies and books ready, and then we'll be all ready for Monday morning...I hope. This year, instead of using the Homeschool Tracker software I purchased a few years ago to keep track of our school records, I have opted to use the printable planner put out by TOS (The Old Schoolhouse). I love electronics and modern technology, but there's something about seeing everything laid out on paper that eases my mind about our school records. The Homeschool Tracker was confusing, difficult to work with and if you missed one day of school, the entire software was thrown out of whack! I didn't like that...it made me feel trapped. One of the reasons we love to homeschool is that we have the freedom to change things around if we want to. With the Homeschool Tracker, we didn't have that freedom, and that wasn't a good thing! Now, with the TOS Planner, I can print out the pages I want. There are 375 printable pages, not to mention the awesome monthly modules they create to go along with it - just for some extras. The best part about it...I got it free for being the president of our homeschool group! The planner may be purchased by anyone though for $39.00, which is definitely worth it. The planner gives you the option of printing it out 'as is' so you can fill it out on your own, or you can type it out on the computer first, then print it. It's pretty cool and I'm excited to try something new. Click on the photo and it'll take you right to the TOS order page for the planner if you're interested.

Well...it's time to get cleaning....Edward should be home from work any minute now.