Back to School... Hmph!

I really enjoyed the summer with my kids even though we didn't get to do as much with them as we hoped.  We still had fun around the house playing and hanging out.  I dreaded hearing the word school and thinking about my kids going back to school and being gone ALL DAY.  (Do they have a part time school anywhere?)  So when the I started talking to the school about them coming back I cried.  Being gone from 7am-4pm is just a really long time.  Do they REALLY need the kids to be gone that long every day?  Just seems like overkill.  I don't know how many times I showed up and watched the kids have wasted time in the classroom.  BUT STILL, compared to other schools we've experienced, I really liked it.  So be it, my kids were having to go back even if I dreaded it.

Getting water balloon fight ready

The past school year (2010/2011) I was excited that I had found them a really good charter school that had a bus system.  I'm not able to choose any schools around me so my kids have to go farther to one.  As long as the it's not a long ride for them where there pick up tons of students or course.  Well, I had fully planned on them attending the same charter school this year and even had them register.  Then I found out that they got rid of one of the buses which meant Chaz's bus driver was going.  My heart sank.  She was the only one that understood Chaz and knew what he needed to help keep him calm on the bus.  That also meant they were gonna try to cram more kids on just one bus and one route.  So I called them several times in the summer to find out if they figured out the new bus schedule.  They kept putting it off and putting it off. Finally school was starting and they still didn't know.  I wasn't about to put my kids in school thinking they might have a decent bus schedule only to have to pull them a week later when I find out what it was.  Then finally a little birdie let me in on the schedule and I found out that even though school gets out at 3pm, my kids would not be home till 5pm.  NO way!

We took water balloons out front!  :D

I tried to see if I could get them back onto Switched on Schoolhouse which I really love because of the bible teaching all throughout it.  Being that it's around $370 per grade to purchase, I was not able to do it.  I will be saving and purchasing it for next year. In the meantime we are using K12. Their alarm gets them up at 8:30am (nice mommy) and they eat breakfast and start schooling at 9am.  So far we only have 2 computers but one more is coming provided by K12.  

The living room area was just way too loud with the dogs barking every time someone even made a tapping sound.  They always figure someone is at the door.  It can be really frustrating every time I have to get all three dogs to stop barking every 30 minutes throughout the day.  My husband was heading to the back room while we were discussing the noise level of the house.  He came out 15 minutes later and I had completely cleared Caleb's room and had the two tables set up with two computers.  He was so surprised. He said, "we were just discussing this 15 minutes ago and you just whipped it together".  Yep, I don't play around.

We haven't received the materials yet so the room is pretty bare.  They still have them printing materials and doing online work.  We are usually done between 6 or 7 hours with the four kids. We'll see how it is when the materials come in.  Then our days will be pretty heavy with work. I decided to keep Ivy on Compass Learning since she does well on it and K12 is requiring way too much of her.  I know how much she can handle.  

Anyway, so busy with that and very little time for cleaning, laundry, or other things.  Whenever there is a huge change in our routine, it takes me a bit to evaluate the need again and write out a new system.  I have some of it down but a lot more that has to be evaluated and changed.  Right now the house is just a mess from trying to figure it all out.  But my husband agrees that their schooling comes absolutely first.

*Thank God*

I'm off to nap with my little ones.  :)