gearing up to school

Welllll, my big plans to continue our schooling this summer did not come to fruition :).  It's okay though, we have spent our summer playing hard with all of our friends!  Trips to coney island, swimming, lessons, zoo, museum, playdates, you name it!  We have been busy and out of the house most every day.  I'll actually be so glad to get back into our consistent homeschool routine, i'm starting to want to just stay home!!!!


I'm trying to figure out what we will be studying and using this year.  Some things will remain the same, saxon math, handwriting without tears, we have added a grammar book; first language lessons.  We will be using both Story of the world and Biblioplan http://www.biblioplan.net  for history.  I feel pretty good with the big kids lessons.  My question that i am continuing to ponder is what will i use with Eli (5) and Luci, (1.5).  I'd like to find things to keep them both occupied when i am working with the older kids.  Then the older kids will have independent work while i work with the other two.  I'm looking for simple activities, sorting, matching, stringing beads...but also looking for something new and exciting...any ideas from more experienced homeschool mamas????  Any suggestions would be very welcome!!!

And, just for fun, here are some pics from the first days of homeschooling last year