This is our 6th year of homeschooling. Our oldest son Curly is in 10th grade, and I am going to wax on about him for a moment because I rarely do. When we began this journey, he was starting 5th grade. Now I realize his high school years will be over in the blink of an eye. He recently took the ACT for the first time and he scored in the upper 20s! We are all so proud of him, and this was just a “practice” for him. He is very determined to score a 30 next year, and he did say I could put in print that he scored a 32 (out of possible 36) on the English portion. We might have had more than a few heated discussions over the years about the importance of his language studies, but even he admits it has all been worth the hard work.

I’m beyond proud of how hard this young man works and the man he is becoming more of every single day. He loves the Lord and has such a servant heart about him. The Lord could not have placed a more capable, trustworthy, diligent, respectful or loving young man as the oldest child in our family.

Today marked our first day back to school and our first school day ever in the year 2015. I thought it worthy of a post, plus I figured my few readers might be wondering if I was ever coming back. I did toy with the idea of shutting this blog down, but I do love to write and for now this is my platform. I have come full circle in this homeschooling journey especially as of late when I was striving to determine along with my husband the Prez what would be the best decision for our son Mo regarding his schooling. A wise mother and veteran homeschooler told me years ago: “All you really need to teach your children at home is your Bible and a library card.”

And all these years later, I have to say she is right. In truth, all you really need is your Bible, but I will readily admit I love books and my kids do too. This evening, my husband gladly fixed breakfast for supper because I asked him if he would,  so I could take Mo on a little date to the library. He has been asking me to take him for days, and really, what Momma can deny a 12-year-old boy a trip to the library? He chose three books, one he needs for his new on-line language class, and two for pleasure. One of those pleasure reading books is 800 PAGES LONG. Oh, how I’ve missed seeing this boy of ours so excited over reading. 800 PAGES. He was like a kid in a candy store at the library tonight, and what Momma doesn’t love an hour of time alone with one of her children when she has six to spread herself between. Here he is reading his new science text: Apologia General Science. My heart swelled seeing him rocking in the glider under my favorite blanket that he loves to curl up under too! LOVE.

Today, the 3rd graders (and our little PreK tag-a-long) worked on mostly our tutorial classes, which start back on Thursday. We learned about roots for our Botany lessons, finished writing stories for their LEGO Story Starter class, and watched a Magic School Bus video about plants and their roots while finishing up lunch.

They also worked on some artistic math with the lite brites, and spent some time in nature study with onions that I almost threw away and then realized we could learn what they will do if left alone too long in the dark pantry. The artistic pursuits with the onions after our science lesson … I can’t take credit for that other than supplying the sharpies. 🙂

They are continuing to work on mastering those multiplication facts, but in all honestly, I’m not pushing it. We also finished reading Socks, and began to read Henry and Ribsy for our next read-aloud together. I LOVE spending time with kids in my lap reading aloud to them, and I LOVE that the copies I have of these books are the SAME editions I once had. I found them recently at a used book store in town. It just doesn’t get much better or sweeter or precious than that! While we still aren’t taking the littles to the library (or anywhere else with germs and germy people especially since Li’l Miss just battled the flu), I did pick up a few books for them while I was on the date at the library with Mo. I didn’t get pictures of that, but they were so excited when I got home with some books just for them!

While I read about roots to our 3rd graders, Li’l Bit made a castle of out shapes cut from paper. She did a wonderful job! We will be reading about Bible kings tomorrow and learning some about castles and kings for our PreK work this week! She is very excited to be doing school again.

She also asked me if she could work this USA puzzle. I thought it might be too difficult for her, but she did it all by herself! I LOVE this puzzle because I remember the very day my Granddaddy took me on one of our many shopping trips when I would visit him in New Johnsonville, TN. The Wal*Mart had just opened and we were both like kids in a candy store. I remember him saying, “Are you sure you want a puzzle, Sweet Darling? You can pick out a toy if you want.” I distinctly remembering assuring him that “Yes, Granddaddy, I want THIS puzzle. It IS a toy!”

I guess I was a bit bookish even then LOL! I miss my Granny and Granddaddy so much, and yet it warms my heart to see Li’l Bit, who carries the name of my Granny, working this puzzle all these years later (minus the missing piece) that has been lost for years). I also love the fact that ALL of our children have worked this puzzle now!

I could say that I had grand plans to have 4 weeks worth of school planned out before we started back today. I could also say that I still can’t believe I have 5 students again in our little one-room schoolhouse. I could also say that it was bittersweet to drop off our 8th grader alone today at the local school. I could also say that all the anxiety I felt leading up to this day truly did fade away as I realized yet again the real reasons the Prez and I chose this road less traveled in the first place.