Dear Readers, I'm not so great at this blog thing, I've had years to get it, but it hasn't come to me yet... however, lately it seems that I'm being drawn back to writing, so maybe this time... or maybe not...
Today is the first day of school, you might be wondering why in the world we are starting school on August 1st, which is typically way too early for a school year, and also happens to be a Thursday... but that is the beauty of home school!
Last year among all the chaos we decided to move back to Michigan... a decision that I felt was right, but also hated entirely. There were of course good things about the move, being close to family, and our best friends who had moved back there the year before, but I had made our last home HOME... and I really wanted to stay there. We named it 'Sometimes Creek' I painted a sign for it, it was beautiful, and I loved every part of it... and then God called us away.
Right in the middle of a school year!
So now as a family we have moved a total of 14 times. I really hope that phase of our life is done, and it seems for the first time EVER, my husband might be on board with living out our days in one spot.
Last year we had a baby, took an unplanned scoping vacation to see what we could find for housing in Michigan, moved to a parsonage for temporary housing, spent MONTHS looking for a house to buy, and then moved into our home, our school year was WRECKED. And among all the craziness it just wasn't working to do school every day, so where we should have finished the year in May, we were still hard at work into June, and even most of July. The kids finished their school work as they were able, and I stopped pushing at all.. Its a new thing for me, to let them determine their education and find their own way through stuff... but I'll explain that in a minute.
Caeden was the last to finish his workbooks this year, and the last page was finished Tuesday, July 30th, leaving me ONE day to prepare for school to start on August 1st... starting on this date also lets us finish next year when we usually finish without stressing too hard, we can still take a good amount of breaks and enjoy things throughout the year. I'd honestly like to go to year round schooling next year and this lines us back up to being able to do that.
Today we begin a journey, today we start again, today we are starting school.
I said I would explain how I'm not pushing the kids anymore, so here goes. In the past I lined up everything meticulously, I knew how many pages had to be finished every single day in order to complete a school year on time. I also found that it was stressing the kids out, having this deadline over their heads, childhood should be a time with no stress, helping them grow and form patterns in their brains that will last a lifetime.. I want my kids to be hard workers, but I don't want them stressed out. So, for this school year I'm going to provide them work to do, and set a timer for each subject and let them go as fast or slow as they want to on each thing. I'd love to see their determination grow, and their work ethic along with it, but if that doesn't happen I will see something else happen, less enjoyable, but still just as important, they will see that they have the power to determine somethings in their future... they will see (if they don't work hard) the consequences of their inaction, which will be that they don't get to move onto the next grade level in each subject unless they finish the one they have... which could mean years in the same grade if they don't do anything.. but I have faith in my kids, they will do well.
As a first day of school starter, I also wanted to interview each of the kids.
Here is Micah's interview
Age: 5
Grade: Kindergarten
What was your favorite part about school last year? "coloring"
What are you looking forward to this year? "That I can finally color"
If you had one big goal that you wanted to work toward what would it be? "Reading"
What would you like to tell yourself at the end of this school year? "I like dinosaurs"
Here is Caeden's interview
Age: 10
Grade: This year or last year? (this) 5th grade
What was your favorite part about school last year? "I liked what History was about last year.
What you are you looking forward to this year? "My new math"
If you had one big goal that you wanted to work toward what would it be? "A LONG Summer break."
What would you like to tell yourself at the end of this school year? "You've done a good job Caeden, Thank you Caeden."
Here is Sapphira's interview:
Age: 9
Grade: 3rd
What was your favorite part about school last year? "Doing my math really fast"
What are you looking forward to this year? "because we haven't done school in a long time."
If you had one big goal that you wanted to work toward what would it be? "That is really hard, I have to think about it, read 7 books."
What would you like to tell yourself at the end of this school year? "I did very well"
Esmarie isn't starting school but I interviewed her anyway.
Age: something
Grade: ummm Esmarie
What was your favorite part about school last year? "umm, school last year"
What are you looking forward to this year? "this year, um, do"
If you had one big goal that you wanted to work toward what would it be? "this year, potty trained" (I might have fed that one to her)
What would you like to tell yourself at the end of this school year? "sister"
With that, I guess you are as ready as we are to start this year up! I'm excited! Can't wait to tell you how our first day goes!
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