If It Helps, I Recycle

It's that time of year again!  It's tax free weekend here in Alabama, which means we stay at home and cower while the masses do their thing.  Perk #4926 of homeschooling is I don't have to show up to school on the first day with 17 grocery bags of school supplies in tow.  And my kid.

I don't know how you mamas do it, I tell you.  It's all I can do to get my brood up and dressed and fed by 8, never mind in a classroom and actually presentable with their homework from the night before.  And Lord, peace to all y'all who have 'em on a school bus before 7:30AM.  Just peace.  Loads of peace.

At the end of each school year, I tell myself, "Next year, I'm gonna be all organized and have the first semester totally laid out."  Tweakable, but laid out.

And then I finally get all the swimsuits and towels clean and dry at the same time and it's two days before the day I have scheduled to start school and the new curriculum is still stacked in pretty piles with the cellophane still wrapped around the teacher texts and we don't have any pencils with erasers anywhere but it's okay because we've forgotten how to actually write our letters over the summer and I haven't lifted a finger to plan out the way our days will look with four children doing school this year and a toddler who likes to run amuck with Sharpies or planned out even a day's worth of work and now there's no food in the pantry so it'll probably be okay that I haven't lesson planned because we're all gonna starve to death anyway.

About the time I get all worked up and the panic starts to really settle into my bones, my sweet Joshua says, hey, don't worry.  I've got the kids.  You take the entire day to just do what you need to.  And if you need another one, just let me know.

Yeah, my Joshua is better than this guy.  All.  Day.  Long.

So while my guy whisks all our sweeties away for a day (or two), I'll be tackling the school room and killing trees.  Here's my predicament:  I like to be streamlined and organized and I love my computer.  However, as I've confessed before, I'm a tree killer.  It'll take no less than two calendars, 1 full size spiral, more copy paper than I care to mention, and an extra notebook that I just keep to jot ideas down in.

Also, I need a new August to August calendar.  These are my faves!

I console myself with the fact that I thoroughly utilize our recycling options.

I'll sit down with all my books and start plotting out what subjects we need to tackle on what days with what kids.  I'll make charts and post them and print off weekly (or maybe daily, I'm still deciding...) assignment sheets for my kids who do much of their work independently.  I'll mesh our chores with our school with our outings with room for me to run and hide with a bag of Dove chocolates.

And at some point I'll get out to a store to get pencils with erasers.  So my kids can rip them off and throw them at one another or chew on them or whatever it is they do that makes them disappear so fast...

How do you lesson plan??  I'd love to have some fabulous new tricks to try!!!