First Day of School // 2019

Today was our first day of the 2019-2020 school year! Yay!! I think it's kind of hilarious that we're starting our new school year the same week our local public school system is finishing up their last week of school. LOL!

We have some big firsts coming up this fall when our Classical Conversations community begins our new year in August. Our oldest, sweet LO, will be entering Challenge A, the 7th grade program. And me? Oh, right. I'm directing (leading) the program for our community. Just me and a room full of 12-year-olds. Eeeeek!

I decided to switch up our school year a bit this year to help us stay organized and engaged, while providing plenty of flexibility to give us a restful year of homeschooling. We typically don't start our year until August, but I decided to kick us off today--June 3rd!

When I put together the calendar to track our 180 days of school, I absolutely loved how it turned out! We start our year out easy, just 3 days per week through June and July, taking the entire week of LO's birthday off of course, because, PARTY TIME!!! Then we start full weeks in August, taking entire weeks off to align with our CC breaks (rather than only taking the Tuesday co-op day off). This alone is a major win for us! Actual break weeks ftw! Hurray! We also take off all holidays, family birthdays, and plenty of December for Christmas.

The best part? We finish our school year the same day we finish Challenge A on April 28th! This is HUGE for us. Usually we still have a whole month or so to go after CC ends, and it leads to lots of frustration and confusion amongst my children.

"Why are we still doing school? The End-of-Year Celebration at CC was last week!"

LOL!

Now we will finish at the same time as the last day of Challenge A, we'll take the entire month of May off, and start back up again the first week of June 2020. I'm hopeful that this schedule works out as well in reality as it does in theory! LOL!

Our first week was a total success, and I'm excited to start week 2 on Monday!

Meanwhile, back to my First Day of School post!

Here's my beautiful 11-year-old (she'll be 12 in 47 days!!!) as she officially begins the middle school  years: 7th grade, to be exact. I cannot even express to y'all how amazed I am by this smart little beauty every.single.day. She is so intelligent and driven--at least when it comes to academics. Chores? Notsomuch. ((eyeroll))

Yep! First day of 7th grade. I just couldn't be more proud of her, and I couldn't be more excited about what lies ahead for her this year. It's going to be a HUGE year of growth and OWNERSHIP. I love her so much!!!

Chase. My sweet, sweet Chase. This handsome young fella right here is heading into 4th grade! Isn't he just the cutest little 9-year-old you've ever seen? We have a big year ahead for Chase, too! This will be his first year in Essentials at CC. There's a lot of growth ahead for him -- especially in grammar, writing, and math!

First day of 4th grade! Love that smile!

Would you look at this guy? E is 6 and is starting 1st grade! He is so stinkin' adorable!! I'm excited for him to make some big leaps in school this year, especially in his reading skills. I've found that each of my kids learns at different tempos and I embrace, encourage, and support their growth at their own pace.

Look at that smile! Love!!

Here they are: my heart. I just love these beautiful souls God so graciously entrusted to me! I cannot wait to see what He has in store for our homeschool this year! Every day is such a blessing -- even though some days are harder than others. I'm just rejoicing in the plan we have ahead of us for this year, and praying that we have a restful, yet solid, academic year!