Settling into a Routine

We are on week three of homeschooling.  For the first time, I'm starting to feel less anxious and like we're getting into a routine.  Can you see the big sigh of relief coming from me?  It's like I just let out a big breath of air that I've been holding in for weeks. 

Part of the anxiety, I realize now, was just being new.  Every event we went to was new.  Every single day, I had to figure out where the event was located, what time it was at, what we needed to take and where to go.  One day, we were supposed to go to violin but I inputted the choir address into the GPS and went to the choir location.  UGH.  Luckily, violin was only ten minutes away and we still made it on time. . .barely:)

Figuring out where to go was hard but meeting new people at every new event was stressful too.  What I learned about homeschoolers is that there are as many different homeschoolers out there as there are people.  There are the strict, text-book homeschoolers who follow a strict routine to the unschoolers who think that their children learn just by living life.  Then there is religion which seems to unfortunately separate many homeschoolers.  Plus there are a dozen homeschool groups in Vegas which is great but overwhelming.  I looked into all the groups too!  The Freethinkers, Lifelearners, Connections, LV Homeschoolers, Common Ground Home Educators, Classical Conversations, etc. 

The first few weeks I drove us crazy going to different events in the different groups so I could figure out where we fit.  I have a better idea now where we belong but this will be an ongoing process and I've decided that it's okay to not attend every event:)  I'm confident we'll find our groove over time. 

Then you have curriculum choices.  I made decisions this summer based on what I thought I wanted.  But of course until I started using the curriculum I had no idea if I made the right decisions.  So during the first weeks, I've been analyzing if the curriculum works for us.  Luckily math works great.  I exchanged the history we were using with Sonlight. The language arts program works okay but I'd love to find a better phonics program.  The perfect curriculum search may never end but I've decided I need to press with what we have for this year. 

New to Vegas.  New to homeschooling.  What a combination! I'm glad the first few weeks are over and look forward to settling more and more into a routine. 

BTW, this is all my anxiety and perspective.  Bryce seems to be very content with all of the decisions.  He loves his co-op classes and seems to like homeschooling with me.  I'm super lucky that Bryce is such an easy-going child!