First Day of School (and Big Changes)

Summer has flown by, and now it's back to school time. I can't help but get excited this time of year with all the fresh, new school supplies filling every store. It's the same feeling I get when Spring arrives--there's a sense of newness, of a fresh start, of beginning again. And, while this is something I always feel at the start of a new school year, it's even more so this year because we're doing things a little differently this year...

We are home schooling.

This is something we've very much been going back and forth on and seriously considering for the past year and a half or so. And just to clarify, it's not because we hate public school or because we want to shelter our kids. We actually have really loved our years at Ward Elementary, and we are so supportive of families who choose public school! This just seemed like the right move for us at this stage of our family's life.

I've come to realize that the "busy seasons" in life are not really "seasons" so much. They never seem to end, and then when they do, they're back before long. Being in ministry this seems to amplify this quite a bit because there are so many obligations outside of the regular 9-5 (meetings, studies, coaching, building relationships, etc.). The past couple of years, I've really come to dread our "normal" schedule, especially since mine and Aaron's hours tend to be somewhat flexible to accommodate for the aforementioned extra responsibilities, but the kids' school schedule is not. We're up early to take the kids to school (even on Aaron's day off), we pick up the kid(s) at 2:45, usually Abby had tutoring until 4:00, then we come home and stay on them to finish their homework until they're done (may be 5:30 or 6:00), fuss at them to go get their rooms clean/chores done, call them down for dinner, spend an hour together (if we're lucky enough not to have anything like meetings, Girl Scouts, or baseball going on), then off to bed and start the whole thing over again tomorrow. It's exhausting for everyone, and I kept feeling like my kids didn't have any time to be kids. Not to mention the fact that I felt like all I was ever doing was fussing at my kids and telling them what to do. And none of us were ever at our best at 4:00, even after going to Sonic for happy hour.

There will be things about it that'll be hard. For one, Aaron and I had really come to enjoy our date day together on Mondays while the kids were at school. Now we'll just have to schedule dates like normal people. It'll be different having the kids home all the time, but I just love them at this age, and I think it'll be [mostly] a great time.

I'm sure there'll be time for me to unpack the rest later, but for now...

Here are pics from our first day of school! Abby slept until I woke her up at 8:30 (which is very strange for her, but I guess she was just taking advantage of the opportunity). We started the day off with a celebratory breakfast at Starbucks with Dad. It was long past the time they would've been at school in years prior, and they thought that was cool.

After that, we made a quick stop at the grocery store before heading home to start our school work.

Abby is in 5th grade (age 10) and Carson is in 3rd grade (age 8). We're using Sonlight for our core curriculum, and then are supplementing with Teaching Textbooks Math, Spelling Power, and more. So far, we're enjoying it!

By the end of day one (and even now after making it through day two), everyone was still happy, all the work got done, and they were able to go play/nap/relax by mid-day. So far I'm feeling such a peace about this and can't wait to see what's in store.