This year I will be teaching 7th, 5th, 3rd, 1st and a beginning reader. I made up our schedule about 2 weeks ago and saw how much work it was going to be, so I just put it away, decided to start September 1, and proceeded to let my house go a bit and cringe from any sort of a schedule. It doesn't help that we'll be building a new house an hour away, and will put this one up for sale as soon as possible. My eyes are extremely open to my major messes everywhere. I like things out of the way, but I do not like organizing, so I keep putting things out of my way and into the garage or random closets, and now I just want to get rid of all of it. But I'm frustrated because we've been traveling to our new area for church and other things, and I have no time at home to even get anything done.
The house is picked up for school tomorrow though-- no more leaving the kitchen for the morning. We found everybody's books except for #4's math book and journal. I don't have all my scheduling completed yet-- I need to print out their weekly assignment sheet so they know exactly what they need to do. I need to pick out our memory scripture, poem and primary song. I am looking forward to the reading and the one on one learning. These things can't be done in a mess, so organization is of utmost importance. The kids also did their kitchen jobs, their zones and their rooms tonight. Although, I think one little girl didn't finish her room. It is so hard to grow up.
I'm looking forward to watching the kids learn and grow, but I am not looking forward to the time crunch. I looked at our schedule and decided that I have to be much more protective of our time. It's too easy to schedule activities during school time, but the reality for us is that if we don't finish in those hours, then we won't finish that day. We can be a little flexible, but we have to finish and I don't like working evenings or weekends, so it's paramount that we finish by 4, and even better if we can get most of it done before lunch.
I'm sure I'll feel better after tomorrow. I would just rather pack and clean right now. Teaching takes so much time. It is rewarding, but for good reason. I'll just have to do a little at a time. Maybe I'll be lucky this first week and they won't need much help-- we'll see!
Good luck! It all sounds so hard, but if anyone can do it, you can. I'm good at throwing everything away, in case you need a cheerleader! I know what you mean about protecting your time. That's why I'm not doing any carpools this year. I can't spend any time on kids who are not mine. Sad, but true. My motto for this school year is, "Other people's problems are not my problems."
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