In the few days that we were home this week, I finished getting ready for a new year of school.  Before we left for Alabama, I spent alot of time working out a new school schedule, new chore charts, and revamping things around here.  It's something I've gradually implemented.  We got the new bedtime routine in place, and then the new morning routine.  I got the new chore chart in place the week before we left.  All that's left to add back in is our school working during the day.


For a while I have wanted some type of command center.  I keep up with everything in my planner, but often Gary isn't sure when something is happening.  I've told him he can always check it, but I suppose he'd rather not.  Also during the day the kids often don't know what's going on next.  I've wondered if having things more visible for them would help them know what to keep up with what's next, and I color coded what's going on, just like I do in my school planner.


I have some of the school supplies that I need to reach quickly on the little curio shelf.  It looks really nice.  I have my basket hanging from my key hooks to hold the small dry erase board that Rebecca will be using this year for school, along with the ECLP that I'm using this year for a homeschool planner.  I thought I would try it out and see if I could get away with a smaller planner.  It seems like it will work for my weekly planning, and daily lesson plans, but I am missing all the extra pages that I use for notes and field trips, and things.


The cork board gives me one spot to keep everything.  So, I don't have some stuff on the fridge, on the desk, on the counter.   Since I'm also trying to take on some more of the cooking, since Gary's celery season is about to kick off I am trying to be a little more proactive with meal planning this fall.  Gary is particular about meat, so he has done the meat shopping ever since we got married.  So, for a while we have meal planned around the sale ads, combined with whatever we feel like eating in a given night.  Since we are going to allow the kids to be doing some stuff in the evenings this school year (like 4-H and GEMS), I need to have a better plan for cooking, since I'm a bit limited in that area.  I took a spare ECTP back cover, and cut the holes off, I took a permanent marker to label it, and then with some dry erase markers, wa-la, I have something we can easily see.  Again, color coded for who is cooking.


For now, I have the kids caddies sitting in the floor under everything.  I really wish I had a shelf for them, but I don't right now.  They are a little wide for a wall shelf, but take up so much space on the bookshelves that I need for storing school books, that I haven't yet thought of another solution.  Rebecca was so excited to get her's in the mail a few months ago.  She seems really excited to be starting school with everyone this fall.  Last year she wanted to work with us quite often, but wasn't really ready.  Britt and Ruth had her scared about doing "hard school" like them, but she seems to have settled down, when I reassured her that she wouldn't be doing that stuff yet, and that by the time she was ready for that it wouldn't be so hard anyway.


I have used navy and blue and white on all of our school stuff.  I worked up a school name, letter head, and such when we were in PA to make all of our correspondence look more professional.  It's nothing I had to do, but I find that the school district takes you more seriously and treats you with a greater degree of professional courtesy when you good the extra step to make things seem more business like and use the educational terms.  Anyway, the bag I've used for several years now, is still the go to place for the kids notebooks and the current read aloud, along with an assortment of pens and pencils and things.  This is the bag I grab if we are going to be doing school on the go.  But I also got the triple duty caddy this year when I hosted a 31 party.  (All of these bags are 31, They are really nice, and top notch quality.)  I'm planning to use it to hold some of the books and resources that the kids will need on a daily basis, along with some of the things I frequently use with them.  Right now those items are on the bookcases that hold all of our school materials, and organized in my desk. I want as much as possible this year to have everything we need in the dining room, where we do school.  I think the kids lose focus and I know I lose time, having to go and fetch things from other rooms.  All and all I'm really looking forward to starting our new school year tomorrow.