Do you ever wonder what a 'typical" school day looks like in a clan like ours?  Here is a glimpse of our first day back at (home) school:

We had our test drive of the new binders.  

 

 

We have made no significant changes to our home school in recent years but we did switch correspondence programs for the elementary kids since the new school offered online reporting options which was huge being overseas.  I had previewed the lesson plans pretty thoroughly in the days before but the first day was still a little bumpier since the system was new.  Required a fair amount of this:

Even Tess is in on the action this year bringing the pupil count to six plus a toddler who are  also involved in two sports and four different teams.  There is some juggling but we are getting a good system down for sharing mom and checking/recording work and getting to those practices.  I admit to fantasizing about bilocation….

We managed to start by 8, break for snack at 10, and were mostly done by noon.  Alannah made these self frosted oatmeal cookies which were a huge hit. 

 

Lest that all sounds a little too perfect let me assure you we had  a couple mini disasters which I share in the interest of giving a full and accurate report:

 

Someone dropped a lunch plate.  It happens. Husband keeps telling me to get dishes that bounce.  

 

Self explanatory.  This is why I wear $1.99 lipstick folks.   

Dad follows up at the end of the day to see that everyone has completed their assignments and keep tabs on which subjects they are doing well in and which are more challenging.  He provides a gentle accountability for the kids and their mom <g> Truth be told there are some days where a student or two horses around or lets the work slide until this moment of reckoning.  That is their choice.  But since those extras depend upon successful completion of the core work it isn't happening often. 

 

And this post pretty much ate up my computer time and then some today!  Tschuss!