old routine

Today was a terrific start of the new school year for big E, he loves his teachers and is excited about the 5th grade. Traffic was a little jammed up today, and I suppose it will be all week - we planned ahead with snacks,books and leaving a little early. Little J was sad to see big brother go off by himself today, they've been such buddies all summer. All I've heard all day is 'where's big E?'; his little face lit up like Christmas when he saw his brother returning to the car this afternoon!

As for little J and I, I went back and reconfigured my daily routine/schedule and so far so good!! We will have 1 class a week at a local childrens center/gym, I've found a homeschool group for pre-school/toddler outings 1 x a week locally, library 'story-time' 1 x a week, and the other two days are freebies for us to just catch up on odds and ends, appointments, grocery shopping, etc.

I'm researching and still driving toward a better education plan for our family... the answer is yet to come to me... but I've found lots of resources recently and I'm defiantly checking out many homeschool co-ops and groups to find out what will be the best fit for us. Our goal is to make any changes at the end of this school year. My heart tells me one thing, and the world tells me another. I will go w/ my heart of course, I'm not too concerned about impressing others in order to feel good about myself the opinion of others... my ultimate goal isn't to feel like I'm above anyone else because my kids are in "this" school or homeschooled, my goal is for my kids to be educated, well rounded, upstanding, moral citizens - over all "good people". Period. How we go about reaching that goal is our responsibility - so I am really digging hard to find what will be the answer...

I can't tell you how sick I am of people stereotyping homeschooled kids as 'un-social'. I'm sure there are people who SAY they homeschool and don't... but the people I know who homeschool their kids are dedicated and involved and they keep their kids active in the world. I could go on a rant about that for DAYS. I know of plenty of homeschooled kids/adults who are highly successfull and completely 'social'. That's like saying that we send our kids to school to be social, and not to learn. That people send their kids to a private Christian school because they want them to learn their religion and beliefs - isn't it our responsibility to lead the way?? Ok - rant is about to start...I'll stop now, I really posted this to say that even though I'm seriously disappointed in CMS our poorly organized public systems.. two years in a row big E landed himself a terrific teacher!! We're glad for that!