A Little Bit of Everything

As we get busy with a little bit of everything, my posting frequency has gone down. We are still here, just busy.

End of Year
Our school year officially came to an end June 11th. I am so glad the year is over! I was ready for a break and it was getting hard to come up with things to do and report to our virtual academy as we had finished all but our science curriculum.

I spent the last week tying up some loose ends. There were hours to report for the last two weeks of school. I needed to write my end of year review for each student. And I needed to get some clarification for next year's school, as some minor things seem to be changing, and not in ways that will make my life easier.

I still have a few loose ends to tie up and hope to have those done this week. I have reimbursement paperwork to submit for our big Portland field trip. I want to print out all of my monthly reviews for our hard copy homeschooling records. I need to go through the kids' school work and pick a few items to place in our records before tossing the rest. I need to contact Open Arts Studio because, as far as I can tell, they haven't billed CVA for my daughter's art classes. One of them ended back in February; it should have been submitted and paid for by now!

Soon Comes Baby
I've been decluttering and cleaning like mad...well once every third day or so as I seem to need a couple of days to recover from each cleaning day. I've gotten both bedrooms 99% decluttered and clean; they look empty now. I don't want to try to juggle a newborn, a toddler, homeschooling two kids, organizing a new school year, and do every day chores all in a messy house. I think the stress would be overwhelming. If the house is decluttered, organized, and clean, it will make everything that I have to do that much easier.

I'm also starting to worry about other things that need to get done. Baby's carseat needs to at least be placed in the car, if not installed soon. We don't have a single piece of girl's clothing, in case it is a girl. I need to figure out what we'll need to take to the birth center with us and start gathering it; this includes food for everyone. We need to pick some names!

We have 29 days left!

Preparing for Next Year
I still haven't picked out a Spanish program for Mika. I'm looking for something in the middle to high school level...if you have any great suggestions. I don't want Rosetta Stone, but rather something textbook based. I also have to find some cursive workbooks. I'm picky about the style and the only way to choose them is to look at them because I don't know the name of the font/style I'm looking for.

The rest of our curriculum has been picked. Now, it is just a matter of buying it and getting reimbursed or waiting until it can be ordered in August. I'll be getting some of it Saturday at the WHO Convention.

Once I've gotten our curriculum, it will be time to start going through it and organizing my weekly filing system. I've found having everything organized and filed at the beginning of the year makes the whole year so easy and smooth. I'll be posting out the system I use soon. It's wonderful!

Also on my schedule this summer for next year's prep is watching the Institute for Excellence in Writing: Teaching Structure and Style DVDs. I've had them for a while but relied on the Student Writing Intensive (DVDs taught directly to the student) instead. Next year, I'll be taking the lead on my children's instruction. I'm also planning on watching Teaching the Classics DVDs to improve my literature instruction.

Moving Into Summer
We've been anticipating our normal summer activities. Because baby's arrival comes midway through the summer, I feel like we have to get summer done by July 15th as I'll be more homebound for the end of summer. We've already registered for a few of the programs at the library, have the Regal Free Family Film schedule listed on our calendar, and hope to attend a few events that happen to occur right around my due date.

Currently, the kids are enjoying playing with the neighborhood kids after school is out for the day; they are looking forward to the end of the public school year so the kids are more available for play.

We've also signed up for two summer reading programs. Mika has already read three books for the library's reading program (they require 10 to earn a free pass to the zoo), and she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a few books we placed on hold. Sam has finished one book and is working on his second. We've also completed our first week for Half Price Book's reading program; each week earns them a $3 gift certificate for the store.

So, there you go. That's what we've been up do lately.