Well I'd have to say this last week went pretty well! We took in several activities including the waterpark with a bunch of homeschooling friends, the farmers market on Saturday, visiting several pet stores and purchasing a new lizard.

Our new leapord gecko "Alex"

As for my to do list, I did awesome!  We chose our homeschool name the day we started our blog last Wednesday so we already had two items off the list by the time we posted the list of seven. 

#1 - Choose a school name - GLOW is an acronym for "God leads our way".  I found it on a homeschooling site and loved it. The kids were all ok with it too so that was quick. 

#2 - Create a blog - Creating a blog was easy.  We all sat down, chose a few colours and made our first post.  Now we just need readers!

#3 - Plan a crafternoon  - almost done!  I have a craft planned and date chosen and later today I will invite friends through a fb event.  Check back the 14th of September to get the DIY and check out the pics from our very first "Crafternoon".

#4 /#5- Curriculum/Scheduling - My family is sitting down every evening after supper and going over the next days events including outings, chores, meals and school work.  We also let "dad" know all our accomplishments we made earlier that day.  I have also signed the kids up for horseback riding lessons, created accounts on Khan Academy (for our math) and started back with "100 Easy Lessons" with the boys and Zoe is reading "Zooborns".  For writing we are practicing penmanship by choosing words or letters that need improvement.  We also decided to sign up for golf lessons in the spring, and "Afternoon Adventures" a homeschooling gym class held at the YMCA once a week.

#6 - Involving the kids - I ended up switching this task to "be more involved".  I put my cell phone on ignore for a large part of the week and made a conscious effort at being present in all our activities. I have a difficult time putting my kids, our homeschooling, house cleaning, and my personal goals ahead of others.  I don't do this intentionally - I just think that if a client "needs" something this morning I might as well get it done, we can always do our family stuff  in the afternoon, then I get a call to watch someone's kid(s) and I think we could do a little school work this evening, we have plenty of time.  And I end up putting off our to do's for an entire week.  Then my stomach starts to knot cause I'm so behind and then I try to play catch up and run myself ragged by staying up late and still never being able to get where I want to be. This year is going to be different.  My clients will have to give me notice (at least a week), I will only babysit when there is an emergency, and we will not be answering calls or responding to emails in the morning while we are "at school".  The doorbell is already unplugged and the phones will have to go on mute.

#7 - Purchase a new book for myself - I really wanted to purchase a "homeschooling" book but ended up a little short in the $ department.  I ended up choosing a "Clean Eating" magazine at the supermarket check out so I could still feel like I completed this task. 

My goals for next week are going to be a little different.  I assumed that if I blogged once a week it would be easier on me but in hind site I think I'd rather break it up.  I'm going to post every other day (possibly everyday) instead and try to stick to just one topic.  I think it will make for lighter reading and shorter intervals at the pc for me.

Check back on Friday - I'll let you know how the home school kick off party went that we are hosting tonight.  Only 43 people coming over due to our park bbq being rained out.  Should be a blast!