This is one of those posts I committed to before I decided to go on a bloggy vacation. Enjoy!

Source: freetimefrolics.blogspot.com via Tonya on Pinterest

Every year about August all the blogs start showing off their favorite back-to-school crafts, traditions and ideas. Every year I read through them happy I don’t have to do any of it but also filing it away for future reference. And that future reference? Is now.

When this posts, it will be Lydia’s 2nd week of school! How is my daughter in KINDERGARTEN?! *sigh*

As this new season in our life begins, I’ve been thinking about how I want it to look. Of course, I want to get a handle on the house and have it spick-and-span when my husband comes home. And it would be nice if the kids were helping out with some of that cleaning, too. I want to have dinner already planned the morning of and piping hot right at dinner-time. I want Asa to enjoy his Lydia-free time and I want to make the most of it by reading him books, playing together and teaching him new scriptures and songs. I also want to be the best 3-day-a-week-homeschool-mom ever. I want to go above and beyond. I want to do devotions with the kids every morning. I want to send Lydia off to school with a prayer and blessing. I want to make creative lunches and send a love note every day. I want Lydia to do her assignments with ease yet be challenged and excited to learn. I want to send the teacher an apple every day and cupcakes to the students. I want to do it all!

Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Of course, I know I won’t really do even 10% of that. But I do love the beginning of a new school year because of it’s freshness and it’s ability to motivate me to new things!

Here’s a few back-to-school, first-day-of-school and just basically adorable school stuff I’ve found lately:

Source: tipjunkie.com via ohAmanda {impress your kids} on Pinterest

Source: makeandtakes.com via ohAmanda {impress your kids} on Pinterest

Source: None via ohAmanda {impress your kids} on Pinterest

Apparently my back-to-school resolutions are to: Have a Back To School Party, Take Funny Pictures of My Kids and Make Adorable Gifts for My Kids’ Teachers. I’m creative if nothing else, right?

Actually, my main goal, especially in these early days is to calm down. I want to just chill out and enjoy kindergarten. There will be years when GPAs, projects and college will be important. Right now I’m going to make sure Lydia, Asa and I have fun while we’re doing school at home. I’m not going to stress about Lydia’s performance, Asa’s ability to adapt to our new schedule or whether I can get everything done I want to. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy.

What’s back-to-school like at your house? How are you feeling about it?

This is a compensated post which is part of Nestle’s Back-to-School campaign. And I thought you should know part of the compensation is $350 worth of Reading is Fundamental books to donate to Lydia’s school. How awesome is that?! Stay tuned this week for a fabulous back-to-school giveaway here on my blog! And check out their ongoing sweepstakes–$50 a day, up to $5000 in school supplies and $2000 for your school! See my disclosure.

Happy New SCHOOL Year! is a post from: ohamanda.com

This is a guest post from a faithful Top Ten Tuesday-er and bloggy friend, Angie at Many Little Blessings.

Homeschooling is not something that I ever thought I would do. Having spent seven years in college to earn two teaching degrees, I always assumed I’d be teaching in a school, and not at our dining room table. However, about four years ago, I felt called to bring my children home. While it hasn’t been easy, here are some things that have made it easier:

1. Plan/Schedule Ahead of Time – When I have made sure that I have everything planned out at least a week ahead of time (although I planned a whole year once), I am more relaxed. This, of course, makes the children more relaxed too. On the flip side, when I am rushing around trying to schedule everything that morning, we all end up frazzled.

2. Find Local Support – I don’t think that I could have made it this far in our homeschooling journey if it hadn’t been for the families in my local homeschooling group. Not only are they wonderful friends, but many of my kids’ closest friends are children of people in our group. Within our group, we also have a co-op that meets twice monthly, and that is always a favorite activity for my children.

3. Find Online Support and Ideas – Even if you don’t have a local group (or if you do!), you can still find great information and support online. There are many homeschooling forums, as well as wonderful homeschooling blogs such as Heart of the Matter Online, Simple Homeschool, The Homeschool Classroom, The Homeschool Village, and Hip Homeschool Moms.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Change Your Curriculum – The first year we homeschooled, I tried to use the curriculum that I bought even though it just wasn’t working for us. I struggled through with it until we were all miserable. Since we spent the money on it, I didn’t want to be wasteful. In retrospect, there was a much larger cost that we payed — our happiness. I wish we had changed sooner.

5. Don’t Change What Works – While you shouldn’t be afraid to change, you also shouldn’t be constantly looking for the latest and greatest curriculum or resource. If something is working, then stick with it. There is always going to be some other program that sounds great, but the best curriculum for your family is the one that works for them.

6. Get Dad Involved – If your husband is anything like my husband, he is generally happy to help do some teaching. However, he would never just walk up to me and say, “Do you want me to teach something?” Instead, as things come up that are appropriate for that situation, I go to him about doing the teaching. This summer, he worked with the kids on woodworking and electricity projects for 4-H.

7. Outsource – Dad isn’t the only person that can help you with teaching. If there is a subject that you’re not comfortable teaching, look for lessons or classes in your area (or online) that might meet those needs. Another option is to join a teaching co-op, where you might teach or assist in a class while other parents teach classes as well. (My children are taking classes like sewing, cooking, entomology, simple machines, and more.)

8. Worry Less – I worry sometimes when we review a concept and my kids stare at me like they have never heard of the things I’m talking to them about. My stress level has gone down when I have remembered two important things. First, even children in school do that. It’s not because they’re homeschooled. And second, it is not vitally important that they remember everything we study. I have had to remind myself that I probably don’t actually remember much of what I studied in fifth grade social studies. If they can just remember the big ideas, then they’ll be fine.

9. Teach Life Skills – Homeschooling can take up a lot of time. This sometimes means that house work can suffer because of it. Instead of just letting the house go, train your children (boys and girls) in the art of homemaking. It will probably mean even more time spent as you try to keep up with the house and teach them how to help. But, when they are finally proficient enough to really help with things like laundry, cleaning, and meal preparation, that extra time spent will seem like time well spent.

10. Ask Your Children What They Like – One of the single most important things that I have done in homeschooling that has eased my mind was to sit down with my kids and have a serious talk about what they liked about our homeschooling and what they didn’t like. That conversation was more helpful than all the books I’ve read on homeschooling.

Angie is a university trained teacher turned homeschooling Mom to her three children. She writes at her blog, Many Little Blessings, about the things that happen in life between all those loads of laundry. Angie has a heart for relationships and community, so she founded (and is a contributing writer and editor at) The Homeschool Classroom and Catholic Mothers Online. She is also an artist and designer.

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How To Make Homeschooling a Little Easier: Top Ten {Tuesday} is a post from: ohamanda.com

This is one of those posts I said I committed to before I decided on a bloggy break. But I’m so glad I did so I could show off my little girl today!

Today was the day. FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN. I was pretty nervous that Lydia was going to be well, nervous. But as the day got nearer, Lydia didn’t get more nervous. She got more excited! We went to her open house on Friday and even though she was pale-faced and tight-lipped she adored being in the classroom and meeting her teachers.

Last night we spent the evening packing her backpack. We got the CUTEST backpack from Land’s End. It’s a smaller size than most of the gigantors you see at Target (at least the ones I saw at Target) and it’s got her name embroidered on it. And a bunny. To remind her of Flopsy. (*sniff*)

First we had to put in a big t-shirt for Art. (She told Asa, “I’m going to paint at school, buddy. Maybe I’ll bring home a painting tomorrow!”) We also had to pack an extra pair of clothes. Considering there is a uniform policy, I’m glad Old Navy had shirts for $5 this week! And the most exciting part of all–her lunch! We just did a plain old PB&J with some fruit. But oh man, she is excited about eating it!

The rest of her school supplies are at school. We had to buy 50million things–paper, crayons, paints, ziploc bags, tissues and more. The teacher said since we’re only going to be there 2 days a week, she doesn’t want to spend valuable time looking for so-and-so’s crayon box. I think that’s a good idea. But it does seem funny to carry a backpack with just food and clothes in it!

Here’s a few pictures of her from today…

She’s showing Asa every compartment in her backpack. There are 3 whole compartments AND a little pencil case which she is using to store chapstick.

And here she is showing me how heavy it is to carry 2 water bottles and her lunch to school!

Posing on the front porch. She said, “Do I have to carry this sign to school?”

Daddy getting her out of the car & helping her get on her backpack. *sniff*

My brave girl and her backpack walking right into school. *double sniff*

As soon as Asa wakes up from his nap, we are off to pick her up! I can’t wait to see the before-and-after of the first day. Wonder how disheveled that little backpack will be? And how tired my little girl will be?

Disclosure: Land’s End provided me with a backpack in return for a review.  (Which by the way, is on sale for like $27 right now. Check out their adorable line of backpacks for all size-kids. They are completely customizable with cute names & characters!) I was already going to buy one from Land’s End because Lydia had been practically sleeping with the catalog when she first saw it. Win-win!

First Day of Kindergarten is a post from: ohamanda.com