Its that time again...back to school!

This year was rather uneventful. Every year for the past 7 years, I've been keenly aware of the first day of public school. I guess it was because so many of my neighbors and friends have kids in school, and this made me feel I needed to follow along and start at the same time. We tended to take holidays when they did, and end our school year at about the same time they did. The first day of public school has always been a day where I'm laying in bed as I hear the school bus stop just outside at my next door neighbor's house to pick her kids. I cannot even begin to tell you how liberating it feels to be dozing in bed at 7:00 am when the elementary bus comes by. The middle/high school bus has already been by at this time!

Here, in our new state, new school district and new home, the first day of school passed without fanfare. We started our new school year three weeks ago. I find its much easier to buck the system when you don't have neighbors or friends locally that are in public school. Oddly enough, I didn't even notice any school buses this morning. Had I not looked up the date of the first day of school, I would have missed it entirely.

We have a very rigorous schedule planned this year, as it marks the boys first year of middle school, and Haley's last. I'm trying to foster independent learning, and trying to re-capture some of the joy of learning that we used to have before the subjects got tough. These days I feel like I live by the schedule and school work is something to just "get through" before we can get on to better things in life. I miss all the fun and adventure we used to have and I'm doing my best to re-capture some of it. Finding a balance between tough subjects like middle school math and writing, and fun stuff like science and history, gets much more difficult as my kids get older. I need to once again find my groove. On top of the stresses for this year, I can't tell you how absolutely terrified I am about Haley starting highschool next year! Yikes!! When did she get that old? Regardless, as I've always done, I will keep calm and homeschool on! How was your first day of school?