I’m sitting at my dining room table right now. The house is quiet (Hazel is napping and Oliver is down the street at a friend’s house), and all around me are signs of our morning.
A homemade bird’s nest and eggs drying on the sideboard. Self portraits laid in Ryan’s chair so he won’t miss seeing them when he gets home. Flies buzzing around the room because the backdoor spent a lot of time in the open position. And a penmanship notebook left open on the table with a list of “potential school mascots” to discuss at this evening’s family meeting.
Today was our first day of homeschooling.
Hazel was up and dressed before any of the rest of us were out of bed. We’d agreed that a good time to start school was 8:30, so at around 8:20 the kids finished their breakfast, put on their shoes and grabbed their backpacks. Ryan and I hugged and kissed them and walked them out the backdoor (and stopped for a few photos, of course), and – just the two of them – they walked around the house to the front door, rang the doorbell, and we welcomed them to their first day of school! (Someone suggested this idea in the comments of my last homeschool post and we LOVED it!)
Homeschooling and I are absolutely honeymooning right now – freshly sharpened pencils, enthusiastic kiddos, unmarked workbooks and laminated task charts. I know better than to think that every day will be this way, but for now – for today – I just want to look back on my dream-sequence of “count-alators” and impromptu “biggest-to-smallest” demonstrations with shoes and delighted discoveries of fruit snacks in the front pockets of backpacks.
Today was the first day of what I hope will be an awesome experiment in parenting my two on a whole new level.
Apart from the reasons I recently listed for homeschooling, my goals are simply that homeschooling would:
- cause Ryan and I to be more engaged with the daily lives of our children
- that home education will afford us the opportunity to more intentionally point them to Christ
- and that the flexibility in our schedule would foster creativity, spontaneity, and on-purpose relationships that will spur our children to love God and love people.
[art and science today brought to you by Kiwi Crate!]
Here’s to an awesome year that will stretch us, mold us and bond us for His glory!
I’m dying over the cuteness. So glad today went well. I’m sure this year will be amazing :)
Does Hazel’s outfit come in my size? I’ve never seen someone pull off stripes on stripes + neons like this. Such a doll :).
Best of luck on your homeschooling journey. Y’all will do great.
SERIOUSLY –
Ha! Obviously didn’t mean to just send that one word :) Just LOVE how sweet that photo is of them holding hands, and am just super happy for you that your first day went so well. I don’t even have kids yet but I just *KNOW* that homeschool vs. outsideschool is going to be a big decision and thing for my husband and I. Great to see your attitude and reasoning behind this – very similar to what mine would be! Good job!
Adorable! Congratulations on your first day! Looks like a great success!
Can’t wait to hear about your mascot! :)
How’d you guys end up with two righties?
So glad the first day went well.
Hazel’s outfit – I’m dying! It’s perfect. And how cool that she gets to go to “school” now too. It sounds like you are rocking this homeschooling thing. I wish I could send my son to the Myers School… actually I wish I could go there. You are inspirational!
How does Oliver feel about the idea of homeschool vs public school?
such adorable photos from their first day!
I love your goals for homeschooling!
http://www.floralandfudge.blogspot.com
Love this. They look so happy & excited. What are you doing with Hazel? Are you homeschooling her too or do you just have different activities for her.
yes, let’s DO cut paper! this is amazing. i am applying to this institution for grad school ASAP.
Can I send my daughter to you ?! I love all those feelings about the beginning of the school year too :)
Yay! I’m jumping up and down with excitement that you used my idea to walk around the house to officially start school. Sometimes, it’s the little things, ya know… the ones that cost absolutely no money and barely any time that make all of the difference.
Wishing you all the best on a great first year of homeschooling!!!
As a now-31-year-old, who was homeschooled for all but 3rd grade {we were in the US on “furlough” from Senegal that year!}, let me tell you that this can be a wonderful thing for your family. And I love that you set a time to start. My momma was super disciplined in our schooling {as in no-bare-feet-or-even-flip-flops-when-you-show-up-to-learn} and it was one of the BEST things she taught us. Her {and Dad’s…the resident drive-the-family-into-the-Sahara-late-at-night-to-eat-shawarma-on-the-hood-of-the-truck-and-study-constellations expert} training made college seem easy{-ish} and life something to be understood and lived thro’ the filter of the Word of God.
So whether you end up doing this for their entire school career or for this one year alone, you are leaving an indelible impression on their precious lives.
They don’t know enough to appreciate it now…but they will! Trust me, I know. :)