Wow...never thought I would actually be a "home-school mom"...but I officially am! Today was the first day of kindergarten for Sammy and also the first day of 2nd grade for Jake!...and we are all still alive and in the same house! Seriously, it really was a great day. As I listened to the various buses go by-some as early as 6:30am, how awesome I felt that I didn't have to do the morning ritual....wake up sound sleeping children at 6:15 and pull off the warm blankets and get them dressed with their eyes still shut....scurry them down stairs and sit them in front of the tv while they awaken to a pop-tart being pushed in their face and only have so much time to eat it before they have to quickly brush teet, get their shoes on, grab their lunch box, backpack and off to the bus stop to wait...
The boys woke up excited this morning-had a big breakfast and off to the basement school room for the first day of class! I had them bring their pillows and blankets and we kind of camped out while we learned how the routine would go-Remarkably, we were able to start in with their curriculum by 10am and they hung with it without much complaint! Definitely took breaks, a snack break here and there-and of course a game of volleyball in between.
Jake enjoyed all of the patriotic books and learning-we are studying US history and he will be learning about all 50 states, maps, spelling, Bible, English grammar, Math, Reading, Science & writing. We are going to add in Spanish-which he already has had a little-but that is the language he chose to learn by computer. It will be a fun, yet challenging year, but I think he will do well.
Sammy gets to learn how to read (which he can do somewhat already-but needs more of the basics), and also has writing, science, history, Bible, Math, -he gets to have an ant farm (fun...) and gets to grow a butterfly garden too. And of course, we are adding European History with an emphasis on WWI and II with European Geography, which he loves and is his passion. So as you can imagine, in a "real" school he would have been expelled from the get-up he came to "class" with....full armour intact-he had at least 5 weapons, a grenade, helmet, & bullet-proof vest all over his camouflage pj's. He was ready. We even have camouflage pencils to fit right in with my history buffs. His Aunt Sandra got him a Winston Churchill Bunker book for his birthday and he loves it-and I do too-fascinating!!..SO that is his reading tomorrow. When I asked him what language he wanted to learn he said..."Russian & Korean"....um.....he will be taking Spanish too.
I'm sure we will have tough days ahead, but it got off to a great start and i'm hoping it will continue-at least for awhile. I have wanted to do this for a long time and am so glad I finally took the plunge and did it. All the worries and anxiety have really turned in to relief. I'll get to play a part in the building of Godly character in these boys. I found a great group of women who home school here locally, so we get together weekly. They have been a tremendous resource for me and after meeting them, it just reinforced why I wanted to do this.
No other big happenings have really been going on here-still playing tennis and will be playing for another division title Friday-that was been super fun and a great outlet for me as well. We are hoping to go to City Finals, so we will see how this goes! Wish me luck! I'll post how the rest of the week goes-even if it falls apart completely!!:)
