back to school.

Out here in Arizona, school starts pretty early in August.  For the past several academic years, even though we don't have to, we've started school the same day as the public schools.  This year, though, I took a look at the weeks required for our curriculum and the breaks I plan for us to take, and realized we didn't really need to start when they did. 

So we started our 2012-13 school year on August 13th, a week after the public schools started.  We started in slowly, since I was babysitting a friend's girls that week.  Thought I'd post a few photos that I snapped of the younger kids on the first day of school this year.  I left Marissa (grade 11) alone, because she isn't so much enjoying being chased around by a camera lately. :)

First day of third grade, with a cute little distraction. :)

First day of fourth grade. :)

First day of sixth grade.

Making dinner with my little hitchhiker, Gracie.

Gracie was feeling a bit fussy, so we were all goofing around with the iPod, entertaining her with the front camera.  She probably was wondering what in the world these crazy people were doing!

When David decided he was moving up to Marquette sooner than originally planned, I totally lost all focus on school.  Matt & I together decided to put school on hold until after David left.  When I look at the work we plan to do this year, I still see us finishing school around the end of May, unless things come up and we need to take a break.  Pushing into June a bit will be just fine, if we need it.

We're trying something new this year that I kept reading about online.  We're doing a week's worth of schoolwork in four days, leaving Friday to be a day off or a catching-up day on things we might have gotten behind on.  

Why did I never think of this sooner??  It is *so* nice!  Last Friday, I was able to run a few errands without having the cloud of schoolwork hanging over my head, because we had already done the week's work.  :)