Back to School - A New Routine

1st Day of 2012-13 School Year

August 6, 2012

Summer break goes by in a flash.  Time to get back in the school routine.  We made a few changes to the morning routine...Tommy and Austin get up at 5:45.  Quickly get dressed in their school uniform.  From 6:00-6:30, one of them practices piano while the other eats, packs lunch, and gets ready for school.  Then from 6:30-7:00, they swap.

Sammy and Sarah get up at 6:30 (although usually they wake up sooner than that on their own).  They have until 7:00 to eat and get ready for school.

For the past 5 years, I have been exercising in the morning getting home anytime between 6:00 and 7:00, but no more.  Now that we have 4 fours in school, 3 lunches to be packed (not 4 lunches because Sarah is half day), 3 kids playing piano, and 1 adorable little girl that needs her hair done, it is just too much for Jim to tackle on his own.  It was an incredible feat that he took it all on for so long, which is why I love that man so much.

Also our evenings have become more and more busy so we felt that we needed to switch family scripture study to the morning rather than the evenings before bed.

Family scripture study (aka the most important part of the day - that has become our motto when kids think we need to rush through it) begins promptly at 7:00 a.m.

Kids leave for school at 7:20 a.m.

ALL FOUR OFF TO SCHOOL!!

Tommy's in 7th grade.

Austin is in 5th grade.

Sammy is in 2nd grade.

Sarah begins kindergarten (oh my, I am still in denial that my baby girl is going to school).  She is only in half day at the school, because it costs lots of $$$ for full day.  However, 5 of us mom's decided to band together and do a little kindergarten coop.  So one of us goes and picks up all 5 girls once a week and holds a little afternoon kindergarten class at their home for the afternoon, ending a little before it is time to pick the rest of the kids up from school.  So we get the perks of full day kindergarten and only have to sacrifice one afternoon.

Even though it is rough being on my own all day, I have been able to read 4 incredible books in the past two weeks AND I have a very long book list.  I think I could get use to this...