Less than two weeks to go

On July 28 my three bigs will be starting their first year of public school.

Their school is on a year-round schedule, and my three are on Track C. This means that they will go to school for three weeks, and then will be off-track (out of school) for three weeks. They start back on track (in school) on September 8, and will be in classes through the month of October. Then they have the entire month of November off-track! They'll be back in class on December 1, only to have off two weeks for Christmas/New Year's.

I think the year-round schedule will take some getting used to, but I'm glad that it gives them breaks throughout the year, rather than one long break in the summer. This way, we can still do fun things together throughout the entire year--we'll just have to plan it for when they're off-track.

The local stores have some good back-to-school sales right now, and I've stocked up on school supplies. We haven't yet received any class supply lists, so I'm guessing. But it's probably a safe guess that they'll need pencils, crayons, colored pencils, and notebooks. Hopefully their class lists will arrive soon.

A good friend who understands my angst about sending the kids to school gave them (and me) a very thoughtful gift: personalized backpacks in their favorite colors from L.L. Bean.

My 8yodd will be in third grade, and my twin guys will be in the same second grade class, as we requested. I am most anxious about the fact that none of them are reading fluently, but are still in the decoding stage. So they are not to grade level, especially my dd. They are similarly behind in math. I'm trying not to convey my anxiety to them. I don't want them to be worried.

We've begun getting up/going to bed according to school times, which means they are going to bed (theoretically) at 8:30 and getting up at 7:00. I want them dressed, fed, and walking out the door by 7:40 each morning, so we'll see how that works.

I'm working on pulling together their school clothes and pulling them out of regular circulation. I'll have a bit of money for school clothes shopping after dh gets paid at the end of the month, but probably not much. My guys are pretty well set while it's still hot weather--they have tons of shorts and nice tees--but my dd is a bit short on nice clothes. I'm hoping to come across some good sales at yard sales/thrift stores to suppliment her wardrobe. They will all need new sneakers, and dd needs some new dress shoes eventually.

Please pray for us, that all these details will come together smoothly. Pray especially that God will be glorified by our family in this new venue, and that we will be a light.