And Then There Were Two.

Our school year has officially kicked off!

After weeks of prep work and cleaning...oh the cleaning...we were finally ready to get started.  But there are a lot of changes for us this year.

First of all, we are so excited that my mom has retired from her years and years of public school teaching to help us out!  She taught kindergarten, first, second, middle school, and high school throughout her career, so she's going to be a very valuable asset for us.  I am beyond thankful for her help because we also added another little cutie to the mix this year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Izzy is a kindergartener!

I cannot believe it.  It simply doesn't seem possible.  I remember starting school with Isaiah feeling like Izzy was this tiny little thing that would be a tiny little thing forever.  Turns out, nope.  Kids grow.  Even when you aren't excited about it.  Even when you really don't want them to.

We started our year off, as we always do, with a fun little breakfast.  This year, I went with store bought muffins and strawberries.  For the last two years, I've had Isaiah hold a sign or stand in front of a sign that said what grade he was in that year, but I decided to do something different this time.  I found candles that corresponded to their grade levels, and I stuck those in the muffins.  I lit them and let the kids make a little wish for their year.  They got really into it, and it will be a fun reminder of what grades they're going into when I look back on these pictures without the stress of making a pretty little sign.

We have switched up so much of what we are doing this year with curriculum changes, and I'm pretty excited about it.  We will have far less worksheets, way more reading from books that bring subjects to life (no textbooks), and we have added hymn study (where we learn and talk about hymns) and our art will be going through the life of Jesus through art projects (I'm pretty excited to share more about that later!).  I can't wait to get into everything with these guys this year, and I hope to post tons of ideas of things that we are doing!