New School Year, Day 1

Sarah's first day of 1st grade

Here we go. The life of the carpool mom during the school year. Such is life when your school has no busses and/or your kids go to private school.

The thing I like least about it all? Is the putzing time, for sure. When there's not enough time to go home in between, but there's not enough time to get anything done either. Or, you just really don't have anything you need to do outside of the house.

8:30 Drop off Sarah

11:30 Pick up one extra boy for carpool

12:00 Drop off boys for orientation

1:45 Pick up boys from Trinity
Pick up extra 10th graders for Putt-Putt
Drop off 10th graders at Putt-Putt
Drop off extra kid from car pool
Drop off Jason at home

3:00 Pick up Sarah
Putz a while until 4pm (maybe get some groceries for lunches?)

4:00 Pick up Evan from Putt-Putt

And so it begins .....

Back to (back to) School

Sarah gets to go back to school this fall. She's been in school before but we took her out for a while because in order for me to run my business it was more convenient to have her in day care full time than in pre-school for half days. 

Spanish Immersion

This fall she gets to go back to school. She's going to be in the Spanish Immersion program at Covenant Christian School. We're really excited about it and she keeps telling us that she's going to learn Spanish "all day long!"

We stopped by the school building today so she could have a look around since she'd never been there before. I took loads of pictures of her in the classroom but could only get her to be still one time for the photo above. I'm pretty sure she tried out every toy and book in the room. It made me feel good that she was so willing to try everything out but I'm sure she'll still be apprehensive when I leave her on the first day of school.

So, what are your best tips for happy pre-schoolers at drop off? Is your kid a crier or one who kisses you and runs off, not looking back? For the criers, do you drop them off and run out the door or do you hang around for a while? I'm typically a "drop & runner" but if you have any better ideas I'd love to hear them. 

Set a Timer Tuesday - Ack! Back to School!

That's right folks. Just four weeks from today my kids will be back in school. How about yours? Do you have longer or less time to cram in all the fun things you want to do between now and then?

I have two boy's birthday parties to make happen, along with school supply shopping, two kid's annual doctor checkups, a work trip to Chicago, and a two day conference all in there. How's that all going to happen? Planning.

Today we're setting our timers for twenty minutes to do some serious planning. Got your timer? Set it? Ok, ready, set, go.

• Make sure you have your family calendar in front of you. If you don't have one (gasp!) add it to your list to get one!
• Make sure you have all appointments and plans written on the calendar for now until school starts again. Plans floating around in your head will be forgotten and/or missed.
• Schedule a time to sit down with your spouse and even older kids if appropriate to go over the calendar. We call these "calendaring" meetings. Really. Do it. Everybody needs to be on the same page.
• Schedule the last minute things that you intended to do all summer but haven't gotten around to yet.
• Find the kid's school supply lists that got sent home in May. If you can't find it check the school website or call the office (although many offices won't open again until August). 
• If you still have time left, start going through the kid's clothes today. Make sure they have what they'll need for that first hot, sticky week back to school.

By doing this little bit of planning now you can enjoy the rest of the summer knowing that you'll be ready for school when those first days sneak up on you.

Now, what are you waiting for? Get back in the pool!

Back to School

Only eight more days till school starts again for our family. How about yours?

I've been counting down since 45 days. How about you?

I have spent only $5.43 on school supplies this year. How much have you spent?

How in the world did I do that? By keeping and using everything that came home last spring. You know those spiral notebooks that were only one quarter used? They're going back to school next week. I ripped out the used pages and smoothed down the edges of the cover a bit. J'man can use another quarter of them this school year.

Also, I haven't bought anything for Evan yet since he is staring middle school this year and we won't know what he is expected to have until he picks up his schedule later this week. It shouldn't be too bad and I'm actually thinking we'll be able to get most if not all of what he needs in mama's secret school supply stash also.

Are you ready for the first day of school? Has anyone figured out that whole carpool thing yet? Let me know if you have because it's next on my list.