A New School Year

Today we began another school year. This will be our 16th year of home schooling. Wow! In the beginning I always said that we were taking it just one year at a time. Where did all of those years go?

Now we have graduated 2 sons and our third will graduate at the end of this year. Son #4 is in eighth grade and we are starting over with a 1st grader and a preschooler in the form of 2 very rambunctious little girls. What a blessing!

Austin actually started school last week since he will once again be playing football with a local Christian school this fall. They were starting two-a-day practices today and I didn't want him to get behind on school before we even got started so I had him start last week. He wasn't very happy about it but has since changed his mind and is glad that he started when he did.

Tyler started today with the girls and I. He will be taking a class this fall at MSU but we are still trying to nail down the details of that. He has a slightly lighter academic load at home because of that and his work schedule. He and Drew will start their college classes next week.

The girls and I had a great first day back. Emma has a larger load this year now that she is in first grade. I was a little concerned about that given that her attention span thinks she's still in preschool but she did a wonderful job. I worked up a schedule and went over it with her before we began. We stuck to the plan and even finished 30 minutes ahead of schedule. She was very ready to be finished for the day so she could get back to the "important" things.

Kara, on the other hand, would have sat all day doing her "school". She just keeps asking for more. Sometimes I wish there were two of me so that I could work with them both individually at the same time. Unfortunately, that isn't feasible, but she seems content with whatever I can muster up for her to work on. She will be so easy to teach when it comes time to really get down to the nitty gritty with her.

I didn't get pictures of the boys today. I should have taken one of Austin covered in mud when I picked him up from football practice...that was a sight to see. And maybe I should have taken one of Tyler hunkered over his anatomy books with his IPOD earphones in. Oh, the joys of home schooling. Anyway, here are a couple of the girls...the only ones that cooperate with me anymore.