Family game night

We are getting ready to enter the busy season at work for Scott, as all the kids are getting ready for back to school and need to get new glasses (he cuts lenses in an optical lab).  So this means that quality time is going to get harder to come by around here with him.  As a result, on Sunday evenings we are now having "family game night" in an attempt to spend time with Scott.  Last night was our first night of this, and he played Wii bowling with the girls.  They played two full games before the girls had to go to bed, and it went pretty well.  Jojo decided that she didn't want to play, so she instead became a cheerleader and cheered every time someone knocked down pins.  PJ and I sat on the sofa watching, and PJ just screeched and talked the whole time.  It was a total success.

Now I need to come up with an idea for next weekend's family game night.  I'm thinking we may try splitting into teams and teaching the girls charades.  That should be fun I think.  Or maybe I'll snag some new dry erase markers and clear off the big dry erase board so we can play Pictionary.  I'll come up with an idea.

Box day

Today Jojo's curriculum arrived.  She was super excited to get it, and to see what all was in the boxes.  K12 has certainly improved since I used their K materials with Liddy, that's for sure.  It was a good solid program before but the changes have really improved the program I think.

Of course, Jojo was so excited that she insisted that I let her do SOMETHING of the schoolwork today.  I let her at one of the handwriting workbooks, and that satisfied her.

Getting ready for the school year

Last week, I made a decision.  Since my oldest 3 are going to a charter school, I decided that it is time to get them used to waking up early so they can catch the bus.  I anticipate that they will need to get up at 6am to have enough time to get ready and eat before the bus comes, and they usually start waking up around 8am.  So this is a big change for them.  I started this morning with waking them at 7am, and will do this daily for a couple weeks before I move it to 6am.  Today went fairly well with it being the first day of the new routine, although I didn't get up a half hour before waking them up (PJ got me up at 4am and kept me up until 5:30 screaming, I think he's teething) so they had to wait for me to catch up to them so they could have breakfast.  I am so happy that I decided to start this a full month before they start school so that I can adjust and work all the kinks out of the system!

As far as prepping for Jojo's school year at home with me, I'm just waiting for payday so that I can get hold of a bookshelf for her stuff, and a couple bins for the littler supplies.  Her enrollment is completed and approved, and curriculum and computer have been ordered by the school for her.  I should have those things here in the next 2 weeks, give or take a few days.  I'll update when I get the e-mail with tracking numbers.

Of course, for the big girls getting supplies is a bit different.  I'm slowly working at getting their supplies, and on Wednesday the school is having a used uniform sale that I'm going to take advantage of.  My parents are being awesome and decided to buy the girls their uniform shoes, which is a HUGE burden off our shoulders right now financially.  Now I have to work our tight budget to include uniform skirts and the rest of their supplies they need.

Mom's in trouble

Yup, I'm in for it.  That is a baby trying to take off chasing his sisters.  He's 5 months old today, and I am totally NOT ready for this new milestone he's hitting.  Someone needs to tell him to lay back down and be a baby for a while longer.

Jojo's education figured out

I posted a while back about if I should enroll Jojo in the charter school with her sisters or keep her home another year.  I found a solution that will work PERFECTLY for us I think.

I am now in the process of enrolling her in Ohio Virtual Academy for her K year.  This way, I can keep her at home to work on developing the skills she'll need to handle school if we choose to send her next school year, yet at the same time we will not be holding her back academically.  I just have to get some printer ink so that I can print off the forms that I have to fill out and fax in with her birth certificate and other stuff, then she'll be set to go.

Her sisters will head off starting August 23rd, and her first official day of school is the 27th.  I have a good feeling about this year, and am looking forward to working with OHVA and the k12 curriculum for K again.  I also am looking forward to adding in many of the optional activities in the program that we skipped when I did this program with my oldest girls since it will be just her and PJ during the day.