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
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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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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Link up your Top Ten list and join in the Top Ten {Tuesday} fun! All you have to do is WRITE a top ten list, PASTE it  below, LINK back to me in your post & then start LOVIN’ on the rest of the participants with facebook likes, stumbles, comments and tweets! For better and more succinct guidelines see my Top Ten {Tuesday} page!

How To Make Homeschooling a Little Easier: Top Ten {Tuesday} is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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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
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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I have to admit I’m kinda jealous of the back-to-school shoppers. There is nothing I like better than brand new school supplies! Anybody else?

Oooh, I love to look at all the blank notebooks, brand new backpacks and *sigh* Sharpies in every color! My sil is going away to college for the first time and I bought her a big laundry basket full of stuff she might need—but really it was my fix for school supply shopping.

So, if you’re like me and love to shop for school supplies…or for anything really, come read my post about Box Tops for Education’s new online shopping program. You can earn cash for your kids’ school!

Back to School Shopping is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Last night I watched Eli Stone. I’m not sure if it was the most recent one because of my beloved Tivo. Anyway, it was about a girl who got expelled from school because during an Abstinence Only assembly she played “I Want Your Sex” by George Michael.

George Michael heard about this and wanted Eli Stone (he’s a lawyer in case you don’t watch the show) to represent her.

The whole thing ended up being that the girl felt like Abstinence Only is not really education. Some of her friends had contracted STDs and one got pregnant because they believed the ridiculous claims that condoms don’t work and girls who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide.

The principal said they had no other course of action because the government only gave them money for Abstinence Only. The girl was touted as a hero. The government as religious zealots (yes, “separation of church and state” was mentioned).

Now, I will step onto my soapbox.

What in the heck?! A teenager and George Michael give us statistics and the “facts” about Abstinence Only education? There are so many things that were just WRONG (not immoral, although there was that, too), just wrong and illogical.

I understand the argument that Abstinence Only glosses over “safe sex”. But since when do teenagers pay attention and follow anything safe? Can you really imagine a 14 year old girl who is about to have sex with her 16 year old “partner” and they are in the throws of making out and she says, “Oh wait. Let’s get a condom.” And he’s too excited to stop and ignores her. Is she going to stop him and remind him of the statistics she learned in her Safe Sex class? I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to happen!

When I was in college, I worked at an outlet mall. One of the teenage girls I worked with was dating a guy probably 5 years older than her. She told me that she confronted her brother about having unsafe sex with his girlfriend. The brother asked, “Do you always use a condom?” She said, “PRACTICALLY.” I almost laughed in her face. Practically?!

I just don’t understand why Abstinence Only can’t be considered education. Not to mention it makes the millions of people who do practice abstinence before marriage seem silly and immature. Which is not the case. I’m one of them.

When I was in college I took a speech class and because I’m a decent public speaker, I got good grades in there. But the only speech I got a 100 on was about abstaining from sex before marriage. I gave some examples of people in my family who had kids out of marriage and how their lives where affected–not just by the kids, but in other areas of their life, too.

In this speech class, we made comments on every speech we heard and gave it to the speech maker. I remember several of the notes I received said things like, “I know from experience that what you say is true.” Or “I’ve been thinking about sleeping with my boyfriend, I’m so glad I heard your speech first.”

I always remember this, and I say it now because those were real people. Not lawmakers or educators trying to make a pc class. Real people who had been affected by sex when they weren’t ready for it.

One of my favorite quotes sums up quite nicely what I believe about sex:

Strong desire is like a river. As long as it flows within the banks of God’s will—be the current strong or weak—all is well. But when it overruns those boundaries and seeks its own channels, then disaster lurks in the rampage below. –James Dobson, Sr.

So yeah, for me it’s a moral issue. But I also think it makes good logical sense. I just don’t think teenagers need education about how to have a better sex life.

***updated***

Wow! Thanks for such great open and honest comments! I’m loving this conversation. I just wanted to link to another abstinence-only post I wrote sometime last year. It has a few actual statistics and then my “plan of action” for bringing up my children to protect their bodies and sexuality.

My Soapbox for the Week is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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My parents worked at least one job each when I was little. I went to day care when I was six weeks old. So, I doubt going to public school in kindergarten was a big shock to me. But I still remember it.

My parents house is set down a really long driveway. We don’t have a yard–just lots of trees. So, to catch the bus my brother and I had to walk up that huge driveway every morning. I can distinctly remember walking up that driveway on my first day of kindergarten. It was still dark outside. And I think the temperature was a little cool. Mama (and maybe Daddy, but he was probably already at work) walked up with me. My long hair was curled, I had a backpack and I think a red and white sweater. The bus came and I had to walk across the street to get on. My bus driver was a lady named Gayle. She was my bus driver for a very long time and eventually came to our church, became a leader and is one of my friends today! I can distinctly remember standing at the bottom of the steps looking up at her. I don’t remember if I was afraid or excited, but that memory is ingrained in my head!

I don’t remember the rest of the day but I do have a few clear memories of kindergarten. A girl named Angie who always wore old patterend dresses and no one liked because she was older and smelly. Two guys named Bobby and Sam (who I graduated with!) who used to wink at me. Todd, my neighbor who never talked but one day when someone was coughing hard, blurted out, “She’s got bronchitis!”. Taking naps on mats. Playing with blocks. My teachers, Miss Tweety and Miss McCaully. We called them Tweety Bird and Cauliflower! Sitting at tables. My best friend Jennifer Swanson; we used to walk around the playground and scream at the boys!

I also love the thought of my first day of kindergarten because Mama told me she made me ride the bus by myself on purpose. Most moms took their kids on the first day of kindergarten. But she didn’t want me to think it was something I should be afraid of, so we went to the school a few weeks before it started. We found my class, knew how to get to it and saw where my bus would park. Then she sent me off on my first day to try it alone. I like that. She said when I came home I talked non-stop and then promptly conked out in one of our living room chairs! (Is that right, Mama?)

I loved the first day of school–new clothes, new school supplies, new teachers, new classrooms and even waiting for that bus in the dark cool morning! (Now riding it home was another thing entirely!)

Do you remember your first day?

Hop over to Annie‘s to see more stories about first days!

My First Day is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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