School has officially started at our house, as of today.  It's a little later than I would have liked, but at least  we've got the ball rolling.  We are taking a little bit of a different approach to schooling this year.  I'm not sure what you would call it... "cheap", "frugal", "cost-efficient".... whatever you wanna call it, we're just trying to do as much as we can while spending as little as we can.  With $20 comprehensive curriculum workbooks from Barnes and Noble for each child, we've managed to get a pretty good start on the basics with a very small investment.  (Plus, educators get a nice discount at B&N.)  We'll be adding more as we go along, but for now, the workbooks are a good way to ease back into schooling. 

I've tried to make "Back-To-School Day"  fun for my kids these past few years by making it somewhat of a holiday.  It's kind've like Christmas, only instead of toys, they get to open school supplies!  And would you believe that they LOVE it?  This year I bought them each a big binder with folders for each subject.  I gave the older two kids their own mini-dry erase boards to keep in their binders and use as "scratch paper".  My youngest started Kindergarten this year, so he got his own binder, too!  Instead of a mini-dry erase  board, though, he got a notebook sized dry erase board with lines for writing.  They all got some fun dry erase markers, too. 

I did NOT buy new markers and glue and rulers and scissors, etc., etc., etc....  We still have a bajillion crayons left from when the older two were in traditional school for a few years, along with a dozen or so rulers and pairs of scissors!  Glue sticks and craft paper are something we keep in stock all the time, too... but this is a great time of year to stock up on those things, while they are marked down! 

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One downside to the day has been this crazy headache that I've been fighting.  I don't know what has triggered it, but I've had it since Saturday.  It's driving me crazy!  So, I'm sorry... my creativity level goes waaaay down when my head is hurting like this.  Hopefully it will subside before I blog again!  :)