This week, we as a family embarked on possibly the craziest journey of our lives. After years of talking about it, months of planning, weeks of decorating, and days of freaking out a bit, we started homeschool! The night before, I'm going to admit that I was a bit more than rattled. For the first time (since he turned 5, at least) I realized my baby boy was no longer my baby boy. I looked at pictures and videos of him as a baby. I laughed and I cried. I prayed for him. And then for me. And then for him again.
And then Monday morning was here.
We woke up extra early (not a feat you'll see repeated again anytime soon) to have breakfast with Daddy before we got started and he rode off into the sunrise for work. Our menu consisted of a very simple pancake and strawberry breakfast. It's the kiddo's favorite, and we wanted to make him feel extra special.
We left Sister to get a bit more sleep. This was a morning for just us and our big guy.
Please note the hair.
I have been working on our setup for weeks now. I swore it would never show up in my living room. I was convinced guests would not set the eyes on our little corner of education. Unfortunately, with baby number 3 on the way and an already shrinking house, we were left with no choice. What this meant, of course, was weeks worth of "what's that?" and "when are we going to use that?" and "what's that for?" Over and over, he heard "You'll see...when it's time." The excitement and anticipation in his face was priceless that morning over the idea that today was finally THE day. It was almost too much for this 5 year old to bare.
Once Daddy was gone, we began our day. Calendar time. Talk of seasons and weather. What's today? What's tomorrow? What was yesterday? Verse for the week (Psalm 24:1) and word of the week (Creation/creacion)...and so on. We did our Bible lesson, learned what God made on the first day, and colored and cut and glued.
Please note the size 3t pajamas.
We have opted out of doing a ton of worksheets. We order a curriculum, and we will do what has come with it, but anything we can use our handy dandy dry erase board for, we will...like reviewing basic math facts.
Look who decided to join the homeschool party!
Reviewing ABC's is something that, honestly, this kid doesn't love. He says every day "Mom, I don't need to do this" but I give him a pointer, and it's the best thing ever. This, by the way, was my first attempt to hide our school setup. Our doors all have letter charts or number charts or color posters on the backs of them.
In all, our first day was super fun and made us look forward to the next however many years we can do this. We are excited about field trips and weekly trips to our public library, but mostly, I'm just excited that the hubs and I get to do what we feel we are supposed to be doing- to teach our children in the way he should grow, to know and love and glorify God, and the have a servant's heart.
At least, that's what we are shooting for.
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