Preparing for Not Back to School!

Tomorrow is our first official day of the new Homeschool Year. Although technically as homeschoolers we are learning year 'round, we still follow somewhat of a "school year." Part of this is because I'm a bit of a traditionalist, and I love the rhythm of seasons and milestones, and in my world, the Wednesday after Labor Day was always First Day of School. So, for us, even as homeschoolers, this is our First Day of (Not) School. I'm also a big fan of celebrating things, and Back to (Not) School is a perfect time for celebrating, so we will be having a special breakfast, and doing a few special things.

But first... before all this... I had to get our Homeschool cabinet all ready to go for the new year! I made some changes from last year. Since I've been changing up the rooms in our home with the closing of our Daycare, I was able to move all of our art stuff to our new playroom, making a lot more space in our homeschool cabinet for just school-related stuff. Here's a quick look: (Please forgive the photo quality... took these in the evening, with lights all glare-y in the glass door fronts... boo)

Our Homeschool cabinet, which sits in the corner of our kitchen.

In the left side cabinet, we have my teacher supplies on the
top two shelves, then pens, pencils, rulers, etc. On the bottom,
we have the three kids' bags with all their daily work and supplies. 

Our Nature Shelf, which sits underneath our math supplies and over the
cabinet which holds various science kits, equipment and books, as well as
some social studies and language books. 

Writing stuff: jars filled with writing prompts, writing books,
dictionaries and thesaurus, and paper.

This cabinet holds back-up supplies on the top shelf,
an old antique bell, a US map and a globe, and baskets
filled with scissors, tape, glue sticks, hole punches, etc.
In the closed storage, we have the laptop and laptop
accessories, and Noodle's collection of car magazines 

I'm feeling fairly well-organized and ready to begin a fresh new year! This is a VERY exciting year for us, for several reasons. For one, it's the first year in 5 years that I've been able to really be 100% hands-on homeschooling with my kids, as it's the first year in 5 years I have not been working full time. It's also Ladybug's first year of high school, which brings all kinds of exciting opportunities and adventures. 

But first, I have little back-to-school presents to wrap, and preparations to finish up for our exciting first day.