When is everyone starting school?

[MelInKansas]

Ugh. That tax work sounds grueling. I hope you get it done as quickly as possible and without too many headaches.

It sounds like you have a good plan for your kids and 6 weeks or so off school will not hurt them any. It's always nice to have some time that just feels like summer, with fewer responsibilities and more enjoyment of even the learning you do.

Of course, I have taken on projects for the summer too. Right now I am getting ready to paint the dining room and kitchen, rearrange a bunch of things in the rest of the house, and there is always the bedroom migration that happens when you are expecting a new baby. With baby #5 on the way, it will be 3 kids in one room and 2 in the other. (Baby will sleep in our room for a while of course but I like to get everybody situated well before the baby comes so there aren't any weird transitions, especially for the 2nd youngest who will be thrown for a loop quite enough by there being a little usurper of his "baby" position).

[Nealewill]

Sounds like you have quite a schedule in front of you too. The one thing I did get done already is I do actually have EVERYTHING I need for everyone ready to go and everything else is placed away. This morning (we skipped church because I had a family function and would have been ready if we went to church) I was cleaning kind of early and all the kids helped me significantly. When we got done, we were opening up school supplies and my oldest says, "Mom, can I start school when you are done?" I said, uhm......NO! You need to wait 2 weeks at least.

That is so exciting getting everything ready for a new baby!!! I remember 2 years ago our house underwent a major renovation because my youngest ended up testing positive for lead. That was a horrible experience (the way the government is set up and that fact that the health department was involved) but it is so nice having a house in order now! We repainted every room. My husband built shelving with doors in my dining room/school room. It was nice having the house redone. My goal this year is in the next 2 weeks to also go through all the stuff on our first floor and clean big time. I need to get rid of my 2013 files (my office is very mobile, AKA the dinning room/school room and all my files are kept in bins in the on shelves my husband built for me) and just clean out stuff in general. I don't particularly like cleaning per se but it is a nice start to the new year. I'll say a prayer for you that you are able to get everything done quickly and that everyone has a good attitude through the whole process

[MelInKansas]

Thank you so much for the prayers! I definitely feel God's grace has been with me through this pregnancy so far and I am thankful to get some home projects done.

It is so fun that your kids are so eager and excited about starting school again. I love having all the books in a row and everything together. It's fun for me just collecting them all, putting them all together, looking at them, skimming and reading. I'm sure you don't have time for reading with all your work, but I have found a lot of joy in reading the books my oldest reads, she is now into books that are very interesting to me too! And because they are shorter and easier reads than adult books, it's feasible for me to finish them!

Prayers for you as you finish up the tax returns and that the kids will do well through all of that.

[Rice]

In MB, Canada here (2 hour drive from North Dakota) so summer time is the best time to be outside. (This past winter we had -20 to -30 for months! Much better to school through that.) This means we pretty much follow the school calendar (Sept-June) here, taking extra days as desired and ideally finishing some time in mid-May to early June (weeks before their friends & cousins are done!). July is completely booked with at least one kid away at camp each week and August will be our down time before starting school and harvest here on our grain farm - the busy time of year (though DH is busy almost every day now, I don't have to prepare field meals and co-ordinate when kids get to go to the field with Daddy/Grandma). We'll probably start around Sept 3, doing 1/2 rate for the first few weeks as we try out HOD for the first time.

[kidsforHim]

Hi RIce! We are 2hr drive from North Dakota. We live in the north eastern part of South Dakota. Our winters are similar, especially this past winter. In this section of SD we experience a lot of ground blizzards, blizzards, etc. so it really is hard for me to get out throughout the school year & the cold, though probably not as cold as up there, but still plenty cold.
So, we do school pretty much end of Aug. - May or first part of June depending when we get started. One year we even started 2nd week or so of August & it was so nice to finish earlier when the weather was getting nicer. It is so hard to keep the kids doing school when they'd rather be outside. We enjoy our summers after the long cold winters.

[John'smom]

We too are starting on August 18th.

[TrueGRIT]

We are doing summer school now. Will start the "official" school year right after Labor Day.
My oldest is being tutored in math & language arts so we will very s l o w l y finish Preparing.

Congratulations MelInKansas on your coming baby.
They are a lot of work, but a wonderful blessing!
We are enjoying our new little one.

[Nealewill]

I think we finally set a date LOL. I made a ton of head way on work stuff this week and am practically finished with the hard part of my long project. So it is looking like smooth sailing! Next week we are head out do some camping for a few days cause weather is going to be beautiful! And then I told my oldest she can start school on 7/21 or 7/22. I told my younger 2 the same. But I did tell the all - that if we start, we start! So we will go about 1/2 speed working in the AM for about 2 hours only. But still - they want to start and I think I can finally let them