Kindergarten Begins Tomorrow!

Well, friends, the big day is here.  Maggie will officially be beginning Kindergarten tomorrow morning.  Of course, Susannah and John will be participating a lot too (well, Susannah more than John for the time being).  I've even changed my blog background to reflect the colorful, artistic, and whimsical education I'm hoping to give them this year.

I have a lot I want to share with you here as we get into our schooling.  We have a children's icon corner, a Seasonal Wall, relocated (and reorganized!) shelving, fun manipulatives, and I hope what will prove to be a doable (or at least reworkable!) loose schedule.  We are going to get good at it this week and then have a school day with Daddy on Labor Day Monday.  That's mainly because Mommy scheduled a Main Lesson that day that she doesn't want to reschedule, but I think it will also motivate us (me) to really try to stick to our plans for the week so we have something to showup  for it by next week.  (Now, I KNOW we won't be perfect or anything in one week, but I'd like to persevere enough to get some of our plans in.)

In preparation for "for real" homeschooling, I've been eating up those "veteran homeschooler" articles that seem to abound this time of year.  Here are a few favorites:

• Se7ev Things I Would Do if I Had to Start Homeschooling Over...
• Waldorf Learning: Learning to Let Go
• Encountering Mercy Through Burnout and Mary's follow-up Reactions and Decisions

Hmmm... do you see a pattern?  I am apparently concerned about not overdoing and expecting too much.  While I know I need a plan and concrete activities planned for a given day, I want to be able to flow with my kids as I see them exploring and learning through play, especially with guided by the themes and manipulatives we will have available in our schoolroom (which is just the perimeter of the dining room doing double duty).

I still have some planning and supply-gathering to do for tomorrow, though, so I need to put these kids to bed to prepare.  Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers!