The First Day

We started school today. Our fourth year as homeschoolers has begun. It was appropriately dreary and rainy, to suit the mood of the kids. Yes, even homeschoolers don't relish the thought of returning to the grind. Summer vacation, although not void of educational value, is much preferred among my crew.

We had several snags today, the primary being Math, for my six year-olds, the twins, Taylor and Tyler. Taylor is following in the footsteps of his older siblings, excelling, well beyond the average student, in his academic endeavors. Tyler is normal. Things come harder for him, as they should; he is only six. I tend to forget this sometimes, and my frustration becomes evident. While Tay will most likely continue in his second grade Math curriculum, I will be backing up a bit with Ty, perhaps as far as Kindergarten Math, at least until we figure out where we first hit the bump in the road. This is a fortunate by-product of homeschooling: the ability to switch gears when something does not work for a particular individual. This is one of the primary reasons we took our kids out of public school: the government school's lack of adaptability.

We took Alex out of the government school in the fifth grade. He was struggling in Math with a third grade level of comprehension. Three years later, he is half way through Algebra I, and he is chronologically in the eighth grade. That was the other snag today: Alex was sick, so he got to take most of the day off. He did, however, get some work done later in the day.

Kenzie and Connor (don't ask me what grades they're in; it varies by subject) had very good days today, considering we are all feeling our way into the new schedule. After a week or two, we'll all be running fairly smoothly, once we make necesary adjustments to our daily schedules.

Bekah, the two-year-old, was remarkably cooperative today. Normally she insists on being in the middle of everything. In fact, at least one of the kids, during our morning prayer, usually prays that Rebekah not be a distraction today. I don't like calling my daughter a distraction, but it can be an accurate description when she wants to play music while we are all trying to study History. But today, we hardly knew she was in the room with us, she was being so good. And to think, in a few weeks, the new baby will be here. Just exactly what we need to liven up the place a bit.

Well, there you go. In a round-about way you've met the crew. Alex, Connor, McKenzie, Taylor, Tyler, Rebekah, and Kearsyn. And me, of course. To meet my wife, you can visit her Blog at http://anabundanceofblessings.blogspot.com/. She actually inspired me to start my own Blog. She'll have more traffic because she has more friends, but I see how her blogging has been good therapy for those stressful days. I will have some of those coming up. In fact, I should have started this 9 years ago, when I quit my job to become a Happy SAHD.