First Day of School

This is normally where we take the sweet pictures and sigh with a bittersweet feeling as we send them off. Unless you are homeschooling!
Today was our first day of school. Last night I spent some time figuring out and writing out a schedule so that we could stay on track and keep the pace going. I posted it in our little yellow school house, (I'll post a picture later), and prepped a couple sentence strips for our calendar time. I felt accomplished and ready; nothing like those days when I was teaching and expecting a brand new class, complete with a new set of parents and personalities. I know my students this year, perhaps too well at times...
We went to the gym after breakfast,( it is the only time that it works out with their childcare hours). All 4 kids were excited at the idea of starting school, though only the oldest has any kind of idea or expectation. I have liked the idea of having "school time" to kind of give us a place to go and time that is structured. I am a strong believer in routines and structure for young kids. At least my kids seem to function and even sleep better when they have a routine. Now, at the end of our first day, I think it is going to take us a few months to get the hang of school at all...