So, who's started school?

[Guest]

There always seems to be a couple waves of people starting school, and I think the first wave is getting going; I know our public schools start this week.

 

We started week 3 today! Already some major changes, lol. We started early because our weather gets soooo lovely right in the middle of winter and we take a lot of time off around the holidays.

 

What about you? Have you started your new year? How's it going?

[myfatherslily]

We started today.  I'm already panicking about a few things!  Nevertheless, it was a good day.

[placeofgrace]

We are starting on Monday, August 5. I would like to try a 6 weeks on 1 week off schedule this year. We'll see how it goes. It looks good on paper. =)

[readinmom]

Our ps starts next week. Dd will start next week to stay on schedule with holidays, etc.

[Heidi]

Week 2! It's going slow... Days are long.. I don't know what to do about it. I might have to move math to early, early morning because dd9 is taking Forever. :/

[CrunchyGirl]

We never stopped but for K we were really only doing math, handwriting, spelling, and reading good books. Last week we added WWE/FLL. This week we are adding science, history, and Spanish. We'll add geography, composer and artist study in the next few weeks so it feel like we're "starting" now.

[blondeviolin]

We started last week after three months off!

[daffodil]

We're starting Aug. 5.

[TheApprentice]

Close, next Monday, the 5th. I'm finishing up some planning details, but I can see change in our future.

[8filltheheart]

Today was our first day back.   We had a great day!  

[Twilight Woods]

We start tomorrow. 2nd grade! woot! She is less than thrilled. 

[trulycrabby]

We started June 1.  :o

[lmrich]

I am doing a 6th grade math camp this week. The kids seem a little shocked to see fractions again. I hope it makes school easier for them. We start on the 15th in earnest but will ease into until then.

[Bug's Mom]

We're on week 2. We started a bit earlier than planned, because we're taking the train to Portland at the beginning of Sept. We can get 6 weeks done and then take two off for the trip. :D

[HS Mom in NC]

We start Monday, Aug. 5.  We're mostly following the local school district's year round school so my 8 year old can play with her best friend across the street during the 2 week Fall, Spring and Winter breaks.  Since we don't take off all those miscellaneous days here and there, we're starting 2 weeks behind them but we'll end at the same time.

[smudge]

This is my first foray into HS. I will have a 2nd gr and a K. July 1 we started what I call the "warm-up term" and we have been doing math and FLL, OPGTR, and SOTW 1. The girls are turning into good students! On Aug 5 we will start for real, adding in our science, spelling, and WWE 1.

[Dav]

We're taking this week to ease into a few subjects, but our first "official" day will be next Monday. I'm looking forward to it!

[happymomofboys]

We started July 1st and had school for 3 weeks.  I totally freaked out about how long our days were and posted to the board and got lots of good advice.  We just took a week off for vacation and then we started back up today with a new and improved loop schedule that WORKS!  We had an awesome day.  I didn't feel rushed and I felt like each subject had adequate time.  I didn't feel as if we were missing anything or leaving anything out despite the fact that our day was much shorter and saner!  I had to make some changes to the curriculum here and there, but all in all, we're covering the same material, with less stress, so I'm happy!

[Julie Smith]

We just go year round.

 

But Schools in this area don't start till September. 

[JBJones]

We just finished up our first week. It's been going pretty well so far.

[lea1]

We started our second week today. Last week was a little hard on the boys but today went well. We'll see how tomorrow goes. We are continuing with the 2nd half of 2nd grade so it is the same stuff we were doing before our 2 month break.

[hsmamainva]

We started last week as well.  So far so good!

[Maela]

We are most likely starting this Thursday, August first.  We're moving tomorrow (just a few minutes away).  I know it will be crazy to start school so soon after moving, I really want to start Thursday.  Can you tell I'm excited?

[Laura Cook]

We started July 8th, after a six week break, so this is week 4 already! We have started all subjects but science, which we plan to start tomorrow. Everything else is going fairly well. I added a Monday weekly meeting with each kid one on one. The kids seem to like it. I just give them each a brief overview of what we want to accomplish for the week. I help them each set 3 goals for the week pertaining to school, attitude and fun. We discuss the previous weeks goals. Then they get to ask me any questions they have or talk to me about anything they want. I have been pleasantly surprised with how serious they take it! I feel like we are off to a good start!

[swellmomma]

wow your public schools start back early.  Ps doesn't start here until aug 26th.  We have bible camp next week and will start teh 12th.  It sounds like some of you will be ready for a week off the same week we are starting :)

[Soror]

We officially started our fall semester July 1st here, although we did a light summer school. We had a 1 wk break though for day camp and are now on Wk 4.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

We started math, handwriting, reading, and history back up this week.  Next week we'll add in spelling and grammar (French), then science and German the week after that!  We don't officially start until the third week of August, but I'd like to be at "full speed" by the time we get there. 

[JudoMom]

Yesterday was our first day back.  It was fine, though we didn't finish nearly everything and there are some subjects I didn't even assign (Latin & English & Lit & Logic) because they aren't planned yet.  I'm not panicking yet, though.  It's always hard to get back to a full schedule after a lighter summer and we got a later start.  

We laughed quite a bit and nobody cried, so in that sense it was a success.

[boscopup]

We started 5 weeks ago (summer is too hot!). It's gone great so far. My oldest absolutely LOVES his Latin and Science this year, so those are my carrots to get him doing everything else. :lol: Middle son is enjoying grammar and writing the most. He has happily memorized the Caterpillar poem in FLL1, and my 4 year old surprised me by reciting it the other day as well. I didn't realize he'd been around much when we worked on it! This week, we're starting our new Sonlight core, after finally finishing the old one. :tongue_smilie:

[ladydusk]

We start in January. One of the benefits to this is that as everyone else starts we get a second wind for the last few months :-D

 

Since we did swim lessons the past month and a light schedule in July it feels particularly like a new year this year.

[SorrelZG]

We officially started this week. I cried a couple of times the first day but I failed to check my hormonal calendar before choosing a start date so it's not necessarily a reflection on my children or my schedule. I do feel like a crazy cat-herd at times, though. Dispositions aren't universally stellar but not dishearteningly poor, either. The workload is very doable and I'm happy with everything we're doing so far. The hardest part is disciplining myself to keep the day moving when what I feel like doing is pouting, retreating to my room, and giving the day up for lost, hoping the next day will bring perfect conditions for a blissful homeschooling experience.

[foxbridgeacademy]

We usually start early but we moved this year to be closer to family and my house has been absolutely full of nieces and nephews all summer. I am soooo not ready. DD 10 has decided to go to PS this year, getting her ready (clothes, shots, physical) is taking way more time then it should so DS is going to have to wait until the 12th (like he minds).

[Kelly1730]

We will be doing a mini-unit on Thomas Edison starting on August 5th. Just three days a week for two weeks, hoping for a smooth transition into full time on the 19th.

[NittanyJen]

We just keep rolling along, but did click into our new administrative year yesterday. The school district doesn't start fr weeks yet, but we homeschool, so what the district does des not affect us!

 

We did roll into new math and science programs, starting off a year of physics. The boys are hard at work building an electric race car. We added Spanish and Greek to their German and Latin, and DS12 kicked off geometry and algebra 11 and Discovery f Deduction while DS9 started Singapore DM7 and Fallacy Detective.

 

I made myself glue my butt to the couch and NOT intervene while they built the race car themselves, realizing I probably do do too much for them, I think this year of physics for them will be as much about learning to Coe with setbacks and dong for themselves as it will be about physics!

 

Should be a great year ;)

[RootAnn]

We still have a month before starting. I need it as the one-year anniversary of my father's death is upon us, planning is almost-but-not-quite-done, and the kids need a break from everything (including the typing & math we've been doing on & off all summer) for a couple of weeks. We have two weeks left of our summer light-math schedule, then two weeks completely off for me to clean the house, organize my books, and get end-of-summer stuff done before we start back up. Our local pool is open these last two weeks, so the kids have something to motivate them to get their math done. I'm not ready for summer to be over!

[Bree]

We started a few weeks ago lite but plan on hitting full force this week as long as nothing major gets in our way :)

[countrygal]

I have a tentative plan for Aug 19th. I'm surprised how many have started already! We live up north, so summers are short and we like to enjoy the summer break. However, the kids need a schedule I've been lacking giving them all summer!! Also, I need to do some last minute planning (I should just admit I'm never totally 'ready'!)

[mmeblue]

We are in week 4 and enjoying ourselves. :D  We're trying the 6 weeks on, 1 week off thing, with longer breaks in December and June.  Our first "off" week will actually be the same week that schools start around here!

[Cheriwe]

I wasn't planning on starting until the end of August; however, my DS is begging me to start sooner. Some of my books are on back order at Rainbow Resource, so I will wait and see when they are set to arrive. Hopefully we will be starting mid August.

[Dory]

We never really stopped, but they started their new material about a week ago. Schools here don't start until after the long weekend in September. My oldest two will have a break for camp yet.

[alisoncooks]

We're finishing off 2 weeks of swim lessons this week and then will have weekend company.... if I can get my stuff together (and I'm still waiting on one order to come in), I plan on starting Monday. 

[Coco_Clark]

We are at 1/3 pace for summer, will start to build up in September, and only reach full-schedule at the beginning of October.  July-October are our best weather here.  November-February we are buried under a foot or more of snow likely as not, and March-June are soggy rain.   :)   

 

Also, we are only entering our second year (either K2 or 1st, I cant decide what to call it).  So we can get away with a late start :)

[CindyH in NC]

We start back Monday Aug. 5th. I still have a lot to do.

[brookspr]

This will be my first year homeschooling, so my son (10-6th grade) and I started yesterday.  My daughter (13-8th grade) is at music camp until mid-August so I thought it would be a good time to get going slowly and iron out any kinks in how we manage the work.  We've started with history/geography, some language arts (mostly reading) and science.  We will add on Spanish and more language arts (spelling and writing) in the next two weeks.  Grammar and Latin will wait until my daughter gets back since I am hoping to have both of them work together at the same material.  My hubby is doing the math lessons, he is WAY more patient with them when it comes to math and he has an easier time explaining it in a way they can understand.  That will probably wait until after Labor Day, so we should be in full swing by early September.

 

My son was not thrilled with starting while his sister is at camp "having fun" but it is an intensive music camp where they have lessons, sectionals and rehersals 6 hours a day, so she is probably working harder than he is at this point :)

 

I am glad we started early it is helping me to figure out how much time I need to put into planning, organizing and discussing the day's lessons.  My son is doing Sonlight Core G with Trisms History Makers added on, he will do the History Makers lessons that correspond to the historical period he is studying.  I've already found a few things we can do to streamline our work.  For example, I am going to have him write out the daily vocabulary words for each reader in his notebook before doing the reading so he can use his notes as a reference instead of going over vocabulary after the fact.

 

I'm hoping that once my daughter jumps into the mix we will already have a pretty good process for how things work.  I know we will have to tweak it a little bit for her, but both my kids have very similar learning styles so I think we will be pretty good to go come September.

 

Feeling excited!!!

[Kathryn]

We started July 1, but took a week off for robot camp, so we are on week 4 now.

[8filltheheart]

 I'm surprised how many have started already! ........we like to enjoy the summer break.

 

We start early and finish early w/lots of breaks and a long summer.   This is the worst of the summer heat here.   Late July/Aug are blistering hot.   (The pool temp is almost 90 degrees!)    We look forward to weeks off when ps are in session and we can go places when they are empty or we can be outside when the weather is more enjoyable.  

 

Our schedule this yr is July 29-May 23 with the week of Labor Day off,  a week off in Oct, Thanksgiving week off, 2 weeks at Christmas,  a week off in Feb, and Holy Week off.   That is 35 scheduled weeks.   Since we do lots of trips and activities during our weeks off, I consider them our 36th week  (field trips and planning days are considered school days as are testing days, 1/2 days, etc.   Our scheduled days are full days, so in reality we are doing more school days than the local ps system).

[hsmamainva]

We start early and finish early w/lots of breaks and a long summer.   This is the worst of the summer heat here.   Late July/Aug are blistering hot.   (The pool temp is almost 90 degrees!)    We look forward to weeks off when ps are in session and we can go places when they are empty or we can be outside when the weather is more enjoyable.  

 

Our schedule this yr is July 29-May 23 with the week of Labor Day off,  a week off in Oct, Thanksgiving week off, 2 weeks at Christmas,  a week off in Feb, and Holy Week off.   That is 35 scheduled weeks.   Since we do lots of trips and activities during our weeks off, I consider them our 36th week  (field trips and planning days are considered school days as are testing days, 1/2 days, etc.   Our scheduled days are full days, so in reality we are doing more school days than the local ps system).

 

That's what we do!

 

We usually start school in mid-July ... take a week off at Thanksgiving and two weeks at Christmas .... and then we have various "goof off" and sick days scheduled here and there as needed.  

 

We usually finish our yearly studies by the end of April and complete our standardized testing the first week in May (required here in Virginia every year).  

 

We've been taking our family vacation in the middle of May for the last several years (it's a great time to travel -- my older two have wrapped up their Spring semesters at college but most public schools are still in session -- and the weather is warm, but not yet hot and humid).

 

I then spend the month of June buying curriculum and writing lesson plans...and then it starts all over again in mid-July!  :D

[KrissiK]

We started yesterday. It's going as well as can be expected for children who don't really like school.

[Mrs Twain]

We begin full-day school four weeks from now, but I started a couple of subjects early so we can get ahead. In the fall we will do a co-op once per week, so getting ahead now will allow us to have less work to do on co-op day during the school year. It has been going great so far because it is keeping the kids' brains from turning into mush over the long break. I think we will do this every summer!

[ForeverFamily]

This is going to be a really crazy year for us so we started a few weeks ago to try and get a bit of a head start. Unfortunately it has been a rocky head start due to many, many interruptions.