here goes!

Today I received the last two boxes of books to really kick our homeschool operation into high gear. We've spent several weeks working on sorting out a routine - figuring out what works and what doesn't. So far I have learned a lot of what not to do if this is to be a success.

We haven't quite settled into a regular routine, and I'm not sure if we'll get to that with this school year. I'm keeping things as simple as possible while making sure the boys are well engaged and our days are balanced. The weather of late has made it tricky to get outside to burn off steam, so I'm hoping the temperature won't drop too much any more this year. We decided to pull Marty out of indoor soccer for this term, as he's just not quite there yet when it comes to paying attention. He took the news well, especially after I offered him a Lightning McQueen umbrella in exchange for giving up soccer class. He was thrilled!

I could tell Max was a bit bummed that Marty got something new and cool that he's ALWAYS WANTED FOR EVER AND EVER, so was happy that I had a little Meccano set on hand for him to work on. Both the umbrella and the Mecanno were Christmas gifts I had stashed away and forgotten to give them. I'm so glad I found them!

I was thinking today that my greatest success so far as a homeschooler is potty training the littlest boy with remarkable results in a short amount of time. This would have been so much harder to do if we were still spending so much time driving the boys to and from school. I know that we've got it good in the potty department with these boys, so I'm very thankful.

We took a trip into Nanaimo last week and stopped in at this fantastic teacher's/toy store. There were several things that Max had a hard time leaving behind, unpurchased, but overall having all three boys with me in there for over an hour was surprisingly uneventful. We'll be back there, for sure.

When he's not blazing a trail to the bathroom, this little guy has been having fun making forts and playing with his own school supplies. It's been a bit tricky to keep the older boys on task with him vying for my attention (and theirs), but we're figuring out how to make it work. He often wants to get in on what they are doing, so I try to include him whenever possible. Otherwise I try to keep him well-fed and occupied with other things when I need to focus more on the big boys.

I'm fading fast here, and need to get to bed for an earlier start to our day tomorrow. Comany's coming! I'll be sure to post about that and other recent excitement in the coming days.