First Day Back to School!

I am happy to report that today was a delightful first day back to school! I was organized, prepared and completed each subject in the time frame I had slotted . Sure we're starting a week later then public school but we don't have snow days and in services three times a month, so I think we're doing just fine. When my husband got home from work today and asked all the kids how school was the all yelled at the same time "Awesome", so I think today was a great start to a long year ahead.
I was thinking back to this time last year wondering if things went so well and yes the first day was great but things were pretty rocky a lot after that if I remember correctly.Being organized and not having a clear plan was my first hurtle. Once I sat down with my husband and talked to him about what was important for both of us to accomplish with the kids education that year things became to look up again. I listed the subjects and activities and made a schedule for each day.This was vital to keeping me on track.
The next hurtle I had to jump was dealing with teaching the two oldest and entertaining the two youngest. Sometimes I could coordinate naps with school but this sometimes met changing our daily start time from morning to afternoon (our two year old was not napping as much anymore).
I found this hard because even the best intentions to complete school in the afternoon sometimes ended up not even happening. This was a pattern all year and is a must to fix this year.The children and I both need the consistency that doing school the same time brings.
The third big thing that prevented us from being consistent last year was doing too many activities away from home. This is something I have to change even if it means we miss out on somethings that are important to us.
How am I going to learn from my mistakes and tackle all of these issues that plagued us last year?
A lot of prayer and guidance on the Lord because I can't do all of this alone, lots of great books by women who have been through it all before me and an amazing scheduling system.Thankfully I have Marlene from Homeschool and More ( located in Petitcodiac, NB) she is fantastic at directing me to useful and sometimes life changing resources. At my most recent visit to her store she highly recommended a book called Seasons of a Mothers Heart by Sally Clarkson and Managers of Their Homes A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families. Both of these books were life changing for me and are going to help me keep my focus and keep me organized this school year.
Best of luck to everyone this year and I'll keep you updated on my new direction and outlook for this year.