First Week of School

I can hardly believe that the long awaited summer and move back to Chesapeake is over and that school has started. What's even crazier is how the weather has dramatically turned and feels like fall. School started for us on Tuesday which was a bit hard to do since we just got back from vacation last Sunday and had Matthew's birthday on Monday. I have a real love/hate thing with school (homeschooling actually) but I always seem to find myself full of faith and motivation in the beginning of the year. I am especially looking forward to this year so far because Rachel and Ryan are taking classes at our church's homeschool enrichment program. Rachel is taking pre-algebra, a painting class and a second year classical literature class in which she'll be reading Augustines Confessions, Beowulf, The Inferno, Le Morte D'Arthur, Utopia, The Faerie Queen,The Once and Future King, Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare and others. The other three kids are doing a similar literature class with the same teacher but for younger kids. Ryan is taking a math class and drawing 2. Both Rachel and Ryan's art classes are taught by a wonderful teacher who really does well in bringing out talent and creativity in her students. She also teaches art history/appreciation from a God glorifying perspective. The two of them are also taking an online writing course, write@home. Rachel is also in a science class at a friends house that thankfully I don't have to do a thing for. My friend, Melanie and I will be teaching Ryan and her daughter General Science but thankfully Ryan really likes science so he learns a lot on his own with help from Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. Sarah and Matthew are in a science co-op. We use Real Science 4 Kids and I love it!! They will be studying Chemistry, Physics and Biology. At home Sarah and Matthew are doing Saxon math grades four and five. I also do Bob Jones grammar with the kids - Rachel and Ryan together and Sarah and Matthew together. This has worked so well for us last year to do it two and two instead of four different grades - the kids finally learned something. A new subject for Sarah and Matthew this year is writing. I just havn't made a big deal about it when there's been so much else to do but I bought Susan Wise Bauer's writing book and I love how simple it is and everything is in the book : excerpts from books, dictation, copy work sentences and questions. Then there's Latin in which they watch a dvd and make fun of the instructors huge southern accent. Lastly, is our family favorite - History!!!! We are back in year one studying creation through Rome. The kids just love ancient Egypt, Greek myths and learning about the Romans. This will be our fourth time going this but the first time really (hopefully) doing more hands on projects and crafts. I never had the energy when the kids were younger to make pyramids and such but now that the kids are older it's way easier.

So this past week was really busy with lots of school, Rachel's swim practices and the boys football practices but there was much grace. That's not to say I wasn't tired by ten in the morning, didn't take a couple of naps, went to bed early, got frustrated with the kids when someone wasn't "getting" it or that I wasn't dreaming of next summer to come quickly but that's exactly where I experienced God's grace - when life was it's hardest this week.