It went pretty well, I must say. I was ready for worse. Much, much worse.
(Is that the cynic/pessimist in me coming out? Probably.)
All in all, much of our routine from last year remained the same. I had to rearrange some of the distribution of my own time/energy in order to prioritize Aubrey a bit more, but that was really it. And in addition to the flow of our day staying much the same, we are maintaining our summer chore chart-- for now, anyway-- which means the kids are all still very familiar with their assigned tasks.
I'm learning all the time how much to manage. I need to organize enough that I don't end up trying to work with all four kids on their most challenging subjects at the same time, while staying hands-off and flexible enough to let life happen. It takes a lot of on-going tweaking.
Which is why I use pencil.
The kids were super excited, for the most part.
Particularly a certain redhead who is just excited about everything these days, mostly thanks to her fast-approaching "big" 6-year-old Little Red Riding Hood party-- which she has only been planning for, oh... two years!
She arrived downstairs this morning by 6:30, dressed from head to toe in an outfit she told me she picked out especially for today and with instructions about how exactly she wanted her hair done.
Our Homeschooling At Its Finest moment came pretty early on during read aloud. I paused for a minute to realize how unique and downright special it is that I get to have all my kids, ages 17 months through 10-1/2 years, in one room. I don't want to take it for granted!
Even Claire got in on the day, and I was armed and ready with some inexpensive preschool workbooks for her. This isn't something I've really done much in the past (my preferred preschool activities/assignments are Play Nicely By Yourself and Look At Books Quietly), but this girl is my little eager-beaver and she is very good about not needing much from me, so I humored her.
I forgot how much more time everything takes the first few days as I'm teaching different ones how to use various books/programs, issuing many reminders about the good table manners necessary in order for us to share a close space, and going over all the basics again. It wasn't until I sat down for dinner that I realized I hadn't really paused to catch my breath for even a second the whole day, due to everything just taking a little bit longer.
Still, we had a lot of fun in the midst of all the review and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it thoroughly. There are so many moments along the way that make all the work so much more than worth it.
Moments like Gabriel and Bronwyn doing language together and laughing giddily as they shared their silly example sentences with each other. Moments like Aubrey asking if she could please just do a little bit more? Moments like seeing Jackson write out his first science observation: "Did you nowk that God put all the planets just rite so that earth doesn't totter in its orbit?"
I just love homeschooling.
I really, really do!
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