Thoughts on our first day of homeschool…

*I promise I will be starting a homeschool blog!! Just not sure when! Oh, and NO pics from today! HORROR!!! 😉 *

I think I love it. I really do. I think. Day one is over and I’m pretty sure it was a success. Hey, I know I learned a few things so I can only hope that the boy did as well. Actually, I know he learned. Because he’s repeated things back to me throughout the day that I taught him!!! And I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a little bit gratifying.

I’m gonna keep it totally and completely real on the blog. The whole day was definitely not a peaceful image of a boy and his momma cuddled on the couch reading about Mesopotamia and loving every minute of it. I had to remind him a couple of times throughout the day of who the principal is (Daddy) and that we most definitely do have corporal punishment in the Smith School for students who decide to be defiant. Lovingly, of course. Honestly, though, those moments were few and far between. For the most part, on Day 1 at least, he was excited to learn. And there was no corporal punishment today. But there was a TON of prayer in school.

We actually started with school a little bit on Sunday. I wrote his spelling words out on the easel and let him copy them so he could gain a little familiarity. The story I’m about to tell you is one of those that I will file away in my heart as an unforgettable one. We were all 4 standing there watching Mak read his spelling words. One of them is glove. Well, he pronounced it with a long o the first time (like globe but with a v). Here’s the good part of the story. Clara Beth, the four year old, looks at him and with a genuine sweetness says “Almost! It’s glove.” Collin and I couldn’t help it, we fell on the floor laughing. You see, I love my boy insane amounts but I think I’ve mentioned here before that he has a bit of a pride issue. You know the movie Talladega Nights? When Will Farrell is going on and on about how great he is and he says he wakes up in the morning and pees (he says something else) excellence? Um, yeah, that’s Mak. He tends to think he’s pretty great and it does him (and us) good to be beat upside the head with the humble stick every now and then. And having his 4 year old sister correct him on a word accomplished the job quite nicely. Oh, I love him! But we are ALWAYS working on humility!

Another thing I want to remember…Sunday night we began one of the books that I read aloud to him. It’s called Red Sails to Capri and I absolutely love it. Great book. Anyway, we came home from a cook-out with our Bible Study and the kid was exhausted. He really wasn’t in the mood to listen but I really wanted to get started. So, in the middle of the chapter he rolls over and looks at me and says “You know I really don’t like reading that much, right?” Well that’s just great. Because the curriculum I have chosen for us is Sonlight and Seriously People…it is ALL READING. I mean you have never seen this much reading. I turned to Collin with a look of sheer panic in my eyes, once again convinced that we have done the absolute wrong thing and he once again talked me out of my panic attack. I really do think it’s going to be a great curriculum for us. He has done really well with it today. And, hey, if it doesn’t work we can always switch, right?

So, that’s it. Day 1 of homeschool was pretty great. I’m really looking forward to a whole year of this. The thing I’m most looking forward to, though, is being with My Mak. Like most little boys, he would prefer to be with his Daddy ALWAYS. They talk cars, play catch, do boy stuff. And I don’t fit well into that. But this will be our “thing” and I can’t wait for this year with him. I’ll keep you updated!