Up, Up and Away
10 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in Cami, family, home school
Yesterday we began our home school year, just like everyone who attends public school. Normally, we would have started several weeks ago–I love to get “ahead” and then take random days off–but this year we just started on the first day like the crowd. We set our alarm for 7:00 and started at 8:00. Sure, we had the option to sleep in and start later, but we were both so excited to start, that 8:00 was just fine.
Everything, and I mean everything,is in order in our classroom. We both worked for 2 solid days last week, going through every closet, drawer, shelf and bulletin board in the school room and redoing and organizing. It looks so “fifth grade!” Out with the Indian stuff we had in our display case for the two years of American History. Now, there are a few simple eastern looking objects in the case, as we’ll be journeying there in our studies. We have cacti in a sunny window, and a really cool period element table on the bulletin board. We have a new computer station where Cami does her history research and some math. Most importantly, the teacher, me, has the lesson plans and materials ready to go!
Our tables are rearranged, and all the new books are in place, begging us to open them. Speaking of books, we already finished a few! When our curriculum came a few months ago, we couldn’t help but sneak a taste of a few of them. Island of the Blue Dolphins was a fabulous book to read over the summer, and I’m glad we did. We get to dive in to a pile of great living books from the eastern part of the world (Sonlight) as we study history through literature. We’ll also study beginning chemistry and physics with Real Science for Kids, get a solid understanding of fractions with Math U See and continue amazing ourselves that we are learning Latin together! There’s daily poetry and spelling and writing and copywork. There’s dictation and mental Perplexors and our great Bible study, Remembering God’s awesome acts. There’s memorization and handwriting and experiments and new pencils.
After two days with my pleasant, co-operative and greatly-matured-from-last-year daughter, I stop to thank God for the privilege of teaching my Cami, of having this precious time together. I thank God for giving me this “job” to do, and for making it so fun to learn together. I stop, and reflect on this, our fourth year of homeschooling, and I am so very, very happy that we made this decision for our family back then. I get to watch my daughter learn and grow, and share so many days and good times with her. I just love starting back to school!
