School is Back in Session!

(Yes, I know I have been completely absent from the blogging world for a loooooong time.  And No, I don't plan on using this post to catch you up as to what I've been doing, because I only have about 30 minutes to blog so I plan on using that time to talk about our new school year.  If I even attempted to catch you up as to what has been going on in the Carlin house the past few months, then I would completely run out of time without even having scratched the surface.  All in good time, people, all in good time.)


Tomorrow will be the first day of the new school year, here at the Carlin house. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely excited!  Ever since we got Alik, Danil, and Josslyn home I have been anticipating what our school year was going to look like.  I got home with the kids on May 7.  We spent the next few months finding our new "normal" around here.  So the end of last school year kinda went to the wayside.  But this year we are back and ready to go!  I will have one 3rd grader, 4 preschoolers, and 1 toddler.  We will be starting some new curriculum, and I am excited to see how that goes.  What works for each child is always a trial and error process.  I am glad that now that I have several years of homeschooling under my belt I can be ok with the "error" part of trial and error.  It took two rough school years with Luke(pre-k and K), for me to relax and try to find what suited HIM best.

Even though I have 4 preschoolers, I already know that I can't approach them all with the same method.  Ray and Alik are both very school ready.  They both love to learn and enjoy school-type activities.  I will definitely be schooling them more intensively than I will Josslyn and Danil.  Neither Josslyn and Danil are "ready" for school.  But Josslyn loves to be in the middle of whatever I am doing, especially if I let her help of participate.  That girl will stand beside me and fold laundry for an hour if I let her.  So I think that bringing her to the school table with us will benefit her AND that is where she is going to want to be anyway.  Danil, will also like the chance to participate.  He is pretty easy going, so he would probably be just as happy at the school table as he would be playing.  I plan on having him participate with the other preschoolers as much as possible.

Now if I am being completely honest, part of the reason I am excited about school starting up again is because we will be on a SCHEDULE!!!  Everybody give three cheers for schedules! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!  If you haven't put two and two together yet, I love schedules.  We follow a loose schedule year round.  The kids pretty much always eat all three meals at the same time every day.  I have found that Alik, Danil, and Josslyn all seem to really thrive best on a schedule.  Coming from an orphanage, where they have pretty much been on a schedule their entire lives, they seem to feel most comfortable when they can anticipate what is coming next.  Of course they love surprises, like, instead of naps we are going swimming at PawPaw and Grandma's today! Or, instead of going to bed after family worship we are going to all play KerPluk and Memory!  Like any kid, they get excited about doing things like that, but in general, they want to know what is coming next because it is routine.

True to form, I have a detailed, yet semi-flexible, schedule in place for our school day.  I know that new school year schedules always need some tweeking, so I've given myself some grace in case things don't run perfectly smooth tomorrow.(I have six kids ages 8 and under, so no day ever runs completely smooth.)

Well my time is up and I need to run, but I wanted to post a quick update/prayer request for the Hazleton's adoption.  They are IN COUNTRY right now and waiting patiently for their SDA appointment, which is on Tuesday.  Be in prayer for their journey these next few weeks.  With adoption there are SO MANY possible bumps in the road at this point of the journey.  Just be in prayer that God will be going before them and making the way straight and swift.  You can also hop on over to their blog to follow their story and/or find out a more detailed way that you can be praying for them.