First day of school 2013-2014 school year and pics you've all seen before

Cole's a fifth grader, June's repeating kindergarten, and wouldn't you know it, Cole got Junie's Kindergarten teacher from last year! She switched all the way up to 5th grade. I think she'll be great with all the rowdy boys in her class. They both were less than excited about school starting (as opposed to Dayne who's been planning it for a month), but fortunately, both woke up happy and stayed happy throughout the whole day! I think it just feels good to have the structure. Dayne is home with me this year. She had wanted to home school last year, but I told her to give me a year with all three kids in school, just so I could figure things out. Not that I really figured anything out...

So here we are. I was anxious all last week knowing Dayne was so excited about school and "ready", while I was anything but! All I could think about was a few days of doing absolutely nothing. Just a good book and a comfy couch, that's all. But I'm often reminded that my kids are only young and sweet and tender only once, and my years for laying (or lying?) around reading books will be here before I know it, and I'll wish I'd spent more time with the little treasures (as sweet sister Mindi would say) I have. 

School with Dayne turned out great. She loves to learn and is easy in that way. The thing I'd say she most needs to work on (and I could improve on myself) is more quality, less quantity. She can write pages and pages or color a whole coloring book, but the spelling is mostly wrong (even though she knows it!) and it's carelessly done. However, I think it's probably common with what's asked of kids in public school and they can also get away with it more. With JUST mom, we can focus on writing TWO SENTENCES completely perfect, rather than two pages of mediocre quality. Dayne's also very concerned about a "schedule". I told her that as long as our work is done well, it doesn't matter if we get to every subject. Reading, writing, math, and piano are our four everydays. History, science, art..those can be covered on field trips, in the evenings, etc. 

And I'm so excited for our field trips!! So many things to do in VA.