Yesterday was our first day of school! It went pretty well as first days go, even though there were the usual questions such as “Mommy, where are my ____?” or “I can’t find _______.” Sometimes, I had more than one child asking me for help. This is our third year homeschooling but it is my first year homeschooling four children. As I expected, my kindergartener needed the most help. He even threw a fit ten minutes before his last class ended because, “He didn’t want to do school anymore.” Ha!

Our newest addition to help with homeschool organization is this locker unit that we found at Homegoods. The boys (and my baby girl) love it and actually put away all their school books and supplies in it when they are finished with classes.

I wanted to give my youngest homeschooler a lot of references during his class, so I put together this bulletin board with a calendar (which is also helpful to my older boys! They no longer ask me what the date is.) and put up this set of manuscript letters for when he begins writing.

Since we do not have a dedicated homeschool room, I scatter the kids around the living area to keep them from distracting each other. My 7th grader is at the dining table by himself. He may eventually get a desk in the office area if I can ever get it cleaned up enough for two people to sit in!

My 4th grader and 2nd grader sit at a folding table in front of the fireplace, facing away from the TV. So far, they’ve been doing well! No excessive messing around or talking. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

My kindergartener is at the TV and his baby sister tags along to watch his classes with him. He only has 3 classes, so he is done by noon.

For after school fun, I put together an after school box with coloring books and crafts. We also have board games out, a small chalkboard, and an electronics discovery kit called Snap Circuits. So far, they’ve played with the chalkboard and the Snap Circuits.

We use BJU Press streaming video for our main curriculum. It has worked well for us for the past two years!

-Lynn