Personal Post: 1 Down, 179 To Go…

Actually, I could title that One and a half down, One hundred seventy-eight and a half to go because as I’m writing this post we’re halfway into Day 2 of the 2012-2013 School Year. Or the “Honeymoon Phase” as I like to call it. They’re both having a good time right now and kind of enjoying this whole learning thing. I give that about three days. 😉 He’s working on math right now; she’s doing spelling. He says math is easy and spelling is hard; she says the exact opposite. He requires a timer to get things done; she is much more easy to keep on task. They have crazy different learning styles and I love trying to decipher exactly what those learning styles are…but it drives me a little bit crazy, too.

We moved the school room downstairs this year. That was hard for me on a couple of different levels. Number One, I LOVED my cute little school room upstairs. I loved the cute little curtains and fun little pencil light fixture. I know it’s superficial, but I had a really fun time designing that room. Number Two, moving the schoolroom downstairs meant that we would have a room upstairs that was never used (I hate wasted space). The problem is, we never really worked in that room. Mak and CB always ended up coming downstairs and working in the dining room. We decided that it made more sense for them to be down here, so we made the move this weekend. We sold a whole bunch of baby toys that were taking up space {sad to see the baby stuff go} and filled the room with desks, maps, and a chalkboard. It still has a ways to go to get to where I want it, but I’m loving the change so far.

I loved these clocks. They made it about 8 minutes into the school day yesterday before we ripped out the batteries due to the incessant TICK, TICK, TICKING that was driving us all CRAZY. We set them to these times and that’s where they will stay. Cute idea, dumb reality.

I love my map wall, though. =)

And here’s my chalkboard wall. Loving that, too. Here’s the verse we chose for the 2012-2013 school year. I know I’m missing the second set of quotation marks. I also know that I have really bad chalkboard handwriting.

Sweet Emme is becoming quite the lazy pup these days.

But this is the part about homeschool that I REALLY REALLY love. Their interaction. They’re happier when we are doing school. They get along better and work well together. Not all of the time, of course, but it’s so much better than when we don’t have a schedule and they have nothing specific to do. It’s like they get bored so they pick at each other. That’s why we started school in July. Vacation was over, camps were over, and we had nothing to occupy their time but the Wii. Which led to fights. I can’t handle fights so we started school. They would never admit it, but they are each others best friends. I LOVE that as a momma. {And for all of you “Socialization Police” out there, please don’t worry. I promise they’re both involved in plenty of extra-curricular activities and have loads of friends. =) }

And the reward for making it through the first day of school is milkshakes at Cook Out, of course. This is the face you get when you say it’s time to go.

Meeting friends at the Cook Out makes it even better.

All in all it was a great day and I’m excited about our school year. It’s going to be different for us in a lot of ways and I can’t wait to see how it all works out. Teaching these little boogers has been a bigger blessing than I ever imagined it could be. They drive me absolutely INSANE at times and I’m still not convinced that I won’t end up in the looney bin as a result of it. But I LOVE watching them learn and I love spending so much time with them. And with the Lord’s help, we’ll make it through another year. =)