Hurrah! It's the First Day of Homeschool!

Yesterday was our first day of homeschool.  Emma is now in first grade, and Cubby is in kindergarten.  

This day has been a long day coming!   I have been fretting about this day for about three months now.   My husband and I experienced a lot of anxiety and indecision all summer regarding our plans for schooling the girls this year.  We have flipped back and forth between choosing to homeschool our girls versus sending them to private school versus sending them to public school.  It has been quite a time of serious deliberation.

Now you may know that I homeschooled Emma last year, so what's all this anxiety about?  Well, first,  we thought that last year was just a one year deal, plus we used any and all resources at the Imperial Valley Home School Academy, which definitely eased the transition from public school to homeschooling. 

So how did we decide to homeschool this year?  Over the course of last spring and this summer, I shared my concerns and thoughts with many of my friends and family, but I still didn't have a clear vision of what we should do for school.  Finally, after all of my fingernails had been chewed, and it was do or die time, Danny and I left it up to (duh!) God to guide our hearts on this very tough and important decision.  Why we didn't leave it up to Him in the first place, I don't know.  Probably pride or control or whatever makes us want to do things our own way and on our own time.  He had already answered with homeschool as the solution for our family a year ago, and His answer remained true now.  Our moments of anxiety and stress were all for nothing, the decision was already clear.  

We are thrilled with this new season of life that includes two young children to homeschool and another two children two guide through the pre-school years.  I really look forward to teaching the children Biblical principles along with their academic lessons.  Once school time is over, the girls have many extracurricular activities to attend, including singing class, church group, piano lessons, and hopefully many more, as the year gets rolling.  

Today, I just feel very thankful to God that we were able to teach our children in this way, and at this time in their lives.  

So, the day before the first day of school, (pre-1st-day-of-school), which would be Sunday, Danny and I focused on building the girls up for their new school experience at home.  I made a special breakfast of french toast, sausage and fruit which the kids gobbled up frighteningly rapidly.  Then we had home church at our house, since three out of six of us had a cold, which begins by Danny leading the group in a good old fashioned sing-along.  He then taught a Bible lesson on being brave when being faced with a new or scary event (first day of school!), then we learned our new memory verse for the week.  After we prayed together as a family for bravery in face of great fear, I handed the girls their first day of school bags, which had all kinds of fun new school supplies, a new binder, and a new first day of school outfit. It was a great moment.   I know I had tears in my eyes.  

Needless to say, the girls were pretty pumped up about their first day of school.  So that Monday morning, they awoke bright and early, made their beds, got dressed, and brushed their hair, all before 7:30 AM, and we didn't need to leave the house for IVHSA until 8:30 AM.  No matter, we ate our breakfast, and had our morning lesson in our new classroom located in our family room.  I had decorated our new classroom with posters, an ABC chart across the top, a new snazzy bookshelf filled with their books and cubbies for their loot, and a white board with "Welcome to School!" written on it.  I am a former high school teacher, so all this cool primary  grade stuff is awesome!!!!  

Anyway, now to the really good stuff, the pictures!  Check out Cubby and Emma in their new duds, ready to leave for IVHSA on that first day of school:

Sweet Cubby has the hands-down cutest kindergarten smile of any kid on the planet.  With not a top front tooth in sight, she has kinder written all over her.  

And here's first grader, Emma, who is the old pro at all things school related.  She couldn't stop giving her little sister pieces of advice all evening the night before, or that morning at breakfast, or on the way over in the car....

Once we arrived at the academy that morning, we headed over to a larger classroom, since the number of kids enrolled in the program has doubled since last year, yay!  All the kids made personalized posters to present to the group so that we could have a chance to get to know them better.

Cubby was very proud of her poster, but a little too nervous to go up in front, so I had to go with her, and help explain the pictures.  Once she got to the front of the room, I was useless, as she courageously and quite illustriously explained every detail of every picture on the page. 

Emma described every picture on her poster page.

Yay for you, big kindergartener!!

And woo-hoo, way to go 1st grader!!

What can I say?  I love my kids.  Maybe we had to have all that anxiety leading up to the first day, so that we would really appreciate the wonderful blessing of a perfect day to start our new journey with our four sweet children.