Getting started for the new school year

I get so excited about  new curriculum! I love the smell and feel of new books...ok old books too:) but I wanted to remind myself I do better when I limit the number of programs I am trying to use. I have not done that yet. I am a gatherer. I gather everything together and then I winnow. Then I like to organize what is best into boxes. I am trying a lot of new curriculum this year: Story of the World, and Story of Science and Math U See and Ancient Civilizations and the Bible, Exploring Creation with Astronomy. Plus a lot of writing workbooks. When I get back from Utah I will finish up planning the "skeleton" of my schedule. I find I do better when I have a general month by month unit plan rather than a day by day. All month long things will find me that relate to what we are studying. It is always fun to see what shows up, so I try not too overplan too much. Knowing that at the end of the month we have to move on, though, keeps me trying to cover what I know I want covered.