It will only get better

So today was the first day of school for everyone here. One of the best things about today was that I didn't have to wake up Emily. Last year, I would go in her room every morning to wake her; most mornings she would get up right away, but there were a few in which I would go back 15 minutes later to find her back asleep. When I told her last week that this year I wanted her to be responsible for getting herself up, she agreed without any argument. Yay for me! Even though she was up a lot later than she probably should have been on the night before her first day, she still got up on time, so that was a definite plus to the day. (Of course, she did come home and fall asleep on the couch after school... and it was only a half-day!)

We let the dogs come along on the ride to her school and all was well until about 5 minutes before we got home. Rory ralphed in the front floorboard under Noah's feet, then climbed into the middle row and had a runny BM in the floor there. We had to finish the trip home with the windows rolled down! Thank goodness for the rubber floor mats in those two rows! Certainly made the cleanup when we got home much easier. She's been fine the rest of the day... but I didn't tempt fate by letting her go with us to pick Emily up!

Not only was Emily's day a short one, but so was the one here at the house. I am still waiting for my books for Tapestry of Grace to arrive, so we haven't begun that yet. Today was spent with mostly "bookwork,": handwriting, math, Wordly Wise (vocabulary), and Reading Detective (reading comprehension and analysis). Things seemed even more hectic than our usual first days, with everyone wanting individual attention all at once. It seems to be like that every year.... it always takes us a while to find our rhythm, but today was especially so. Halle, who loves math, had a bit of a meltdown when she couldn't remember some of her multiplication facts. We really should have kept on with math through the summer, as I had planned... that probably would have prevented that, but with the move and the kids getting to know their new friends (none of whom had much of a structured schedule this summer), I let that slide. Joel started a new level, so he will be doing a little bit of review anyway. Noah is nearing the end of his book; we will do some review to make sure he still remembers what he was working on before we finish it up and he begins the next level.

Anyhow, we were able to get that work done with enough time left over for me to fold a couple of baskets of laundry while we all listened to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on CD, getting the laundry done before needing to leave home in time for Emily's 11:30 am dismissal from school.

Now I have a list of supplies that Emily's individual teachers have requested her to have: 3-ring binders, white-out, hole punches, index cards and storage, stapler, geometry supplies (compass, protractor, graph paper). I'll probably work on getting these things either tomorrow afternoon or over the weekend.

Tonight is the base homeschool group's first meeting of the year. Since I volunteered to take over the Scholastic Book Club ordering for the group this year (the former holder of this position moved... in fact, I live in her old house!), I need to be ready to give a little talk about it to the rest of the group.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes just a little bit smoother on the homefront.