Our move

Yes we are moving.

Recently you may have noticed some reference in my blogs to “saying good bye”.  Our family will be moving.  It is going to be difficult for everyone to leave this home, full of memories of first steps and fist Christmas’; but the new place has a lot to offer.

At the beginning of October our family will be re-locating to the wonderful state of Georgia for 5.5 months.  We did 6 weeks on the coast in 2010 and we all loved it.  We will be on the southern coast; enjoying the beach.  There are many educational opportunities in the area also that we will avail ourselves of.

I have to say I love the role homeschooling plays in this; homeschooling is vital.  If we were not a home educating family we’d never have the ability to take advantage of this opportunity (5.5 months on the coast ‘in between’ moving from this home to our next).   There is no way the boys could start the school year here (in Aug) the move to Georgia in October then move again in February   Three classrooms in one year would obviously be a determent to the boys.  Not only academically:  what would they have to repeat over again and what would they miss?  But also, in the pure emotional toil of changing people and routines so often with new schools.   We educated at home; no gaps, no class / school transitions and no problems.

As of March first our family will be settling into our new home; we will be in Southwest Missouri.  That is home to me, momma, I was born and raised there.  The boys will have the amazing chance to live in the same town with two of their grandparents and also one of my best friends and her three children.

There are going to be many transitions in the next 7 to 8 months; from now until we are ‘settled’ in our new home town in March.  A lot of changeover going on and while it is all positive and all desirable; that doesn’t mean it is all going to be easy.

Scheduling the summer

So I live by my day-timer and love it; I got hooked in high school debate and have had one ever since; and interestingly mine is as full now as it was when I worked in the city / county Emergency Management Office.  However, I also like, for busy times, to make a visual “traditional” calendar where you can see many weeks at a time.  I usually do Halloween though Jan 1 as one and I do summer (now to the first week in September).  Ok, it is not all one page, it is 4 pages, but it is more ‘big picture” than my day timer.

I just make a simply table on Word; 7 columns and many many rows; then I make it a calendar – with date and print it.  Then come the fun part filling it in.

What I have done this year is used RED ink for things I am “part of” like the Park Day that I am trying to get off the ground and for now am the “planner”.  Red days are mandatory (or mostly, they are a commitment I have made).  Next I used BLUE ink for things I fully plan for us to be at.  In this category we have the Play Dates at Brenton Arboretum.  We’ll be able to make Play Date (3 pm to 4:30 pm) twice, we have a conflict the other Wednesday  and also the HEED Nature club the boys have been attending on and off  (same location).  We should be able to make the Nature Club (Heed Club) each time it meets; see why I say we do not stop schooling for the summer.  Since these are programs that we are already enrolled in I put a RED star by them (red denoting commitment).  As the opportunity for other park days, with other groups, present them selves I will be write them in either in blue as something I really want to make (based on the people) or in pencil as an option for us.

Also in red are all the Little Ninja classes for Big Brother (since we are already enrolled) and the last few tumbling classes for Little Brother.  The YMCA programs change over the summer, going to a day or week camp style, and not a weekly class like Little Brother has been in (tumbling) so he won’t be taking any summer classes.  Big Brother’s taekwondo runs all summer long, Monday nights, like it has been.

I contacted the three local churches we have ties to (One we attend, one that hosted Awanas the kids went to, and one that is local and host a big VBS each summer) and requested the dates of their VBS programs for this summer. These I have put down in pencil (as an option) and will change to red after we enroll – since these are multi-day programs I drew a line across all the days in the program.

Then I started searching all the local parks and rec departments and the local Y and so on for other activities I do not want to miss out on (see list below).  These I have written in pencil showing that they are happening on a certain day and time, as an option for us; but that we are not committed to them.  Two of these are:  Story Time atRaccoon RiverParkand Raccoon River Playground Playtime (including a snack and a craft time).  I have fewer options than some families might, I want things the boys can do together – so I am looking for a pre-school / school age options; and most programs split the boys being designed for 3 to 5, and 5 to 7 or 6 to 8.  The boys are 4 and 6 and I know to keep them together in our activities to make momma’s life easier and avoid any more hurt feelings than we already have about things the other is not part of.

Finally as I know of our travels, or visits from family and friends they will be added to the calendar in highlighter over the days of the visit.

This gives me a nice visual; over looking more than just the one week at a time my beloved day timer allows.

 

July CHALLANGE (care to join me?)

I have officially declaring JULY “finish what you have started” Month.  All books will be finished before anything else is opened, all Momma Projects shall be finished up in anticipation of School Starting OFFICALLY in Aug; and the ‘mostly cleaned out’ thing aspects of big cleaning projects needs to be pushed though and checked off (bathroom drawers, dress up play).  That should be enough, don’t you think? 

All the books I have sitting around part-done shall be finished, IF they all get done before the end of July I am allowed to dive into something new.  Otherwise nothing new gets started in July.  I have 6 or 7 in some state of doneness (in my bag, in the van, upstairs…my downfall is trying to have one in easy reach all the time); and I think I should be able to finish most of them, if not all of them, this month. 

I have several school projects in the works that need to be completed (any I’ll blog many of them after they are done).  I am making ASL voc flash cards; I am working on my planning binder (and so motivated by one of my friends to finally get done and going); and I am still trying to create a workable workbox style system to give the boys some control / choice and also direct their time.  I also need to laminate all the word family, sight word, and short vowel practice cards I recently printed.

For school I need to finish up our weekly / daily “schedule” for once school starts; I need to print and establish a usable order for our math curriculum  and our Character curriculum.  I need produce my planning binder (it is in my head) so I can keep track of the supplements I find (like for each book of the Bible or for Holidays) and other items I need.  I have to get off my butt and stop researching printers and make a choice already (this has to be done before the 2 on-line free curriculums are printed).  Finally, I need to finish our long term planning I have started looking at a week by week break down of the items I hope to accomplish this year (I need to have a starting point, at least, even if it drastically changes).

For an academic break I have several small cleaning projects left ‘not 100% done’.  Nevertheless I feel they’ll give me the ‘clean slate’ feeling for starting the new endvor of officially schooling this fall.  For example, I sorted the toys and cleaned them out and culled them last week; but I ran out of steam before I made it to the dramatic play area and the dress up boxes so that needs to be finished.  I had both upstairs bathrooms de-cluttered and minimized but the drawers are again full of stuff, they need to be weeded again.  The freezer needs to be defrosted and general de-cluttering started and not completed needs attention. 

Hummm I feel a check list coming on …..

 https://scribinglife.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/july-challenge-check-list/