Day 1 begins tomorrow

So I've been doing tons of research on homeschooling and unschooling and making connections with homeschoolers in the area. I've decided to start tomorrow with some schooling because I want to have the flexibility to take time off, and my general overall philosophy is going to be all year school. My kiddos will get used to it - I'm convinced.

So tomorrow is our first day, and already we have made plans to leave and go swimming in the afternoon. To get in our exercise I'm going to encourage them to get on their bikes and ride over to the pool (it's about a 2 mile ride).

In the morning I'm planning to have them decorate their "mom and me" journals with a collage of pictures they can cut out from magazines and then write me their first note. Their journals will be a quick and simple note to me every day - and they can say anything they want or ask any question they want. I'm predicting a little bit of resistance at first because they both hate to write, but I'm hoping with a little pressure and some fun back-and-forth responses that they fall into it and just run with it! My goal is to reassess at the beginning of September to see if I need to tweak this idea.

Also tomorrow I'm going to get them both logged on to typing.com or dancemat and get them working on typing lessons. Dragon Girl will also choose 2 of 4 pages I'm going to set out for her for math (5th grade) and Monkey Boy will choose 3 of 5 (2nd grade). I'm already looking at the fifth grade stuff and wondering if I'm going to frustrate her with it. That makes me a little sad, but this is why I'm taking this year off - to help her build some skills in a nonthreatening way. Not sure how Monkey is gonna do, but we shall see!