Back 2 School

On your mark, get set, GO!
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So here we go again, the new school year has just begun. With freshly sharpened pencils, new markers and notebooks, we made today our official "first day of school". We wound up not doing as much school as I'd planned on throughout the summer because we were so busy with camps, various activities and spending lots of time swimming and playing at our neighbors so I was eager to get back to it.

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My plan is to start a new routine of waking myself up bright and early in the morning to get things done before the craziness begins. I am thinking how nice it would be to get my reading time in, take a shower and do all the other misc. household work that needs to be done all before the kiddos wake up. I didn't follow through with my plan this morning.

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The kids didn't wake up until 8:30 even though they went to bed at 8:30 last night. I'm sure our busy weekend filled with a monster truck show and a sleepover that involved staying up until after midnight was the culprit. And honestly I stayed up until after midnight last night myself preparing last minute things for school so I was more than happy to have them sleep in so I could too. So much for my "plan". Oh well, tomorrow's a new day.

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When everyone finally woke up we had some sweet snuggle time in bed then started our morning by praying for our school day. We read our daily devotions, had breakfast, did our chores and headed to the school room. I was expecting some resistance since this was our first full day back at doing school but they didn't give me a hard time at all and actually really did awesome! My expectations weren't too high but we managed to cover phonics, reading, spelling, cursive, math and art. I was very happy with what we got done especially considering the amount of time that got taken away from school to focus on Fletch.

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He took full advantage of his freedom when I was busy with Colton and Gracie.

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All I can say is by lunchtime I had a major mess to clean up. I need to get creative with how I can better occupy him while we're doing our book work. I know it'll get easier when he can sit down and focus on a puzzle, an art project or other misc. time consuming things but for now, he'll color for a minute, throw the puzzle pieces everywhere, dump out all the flashcards, then he's off to make another mess somewhere. If I'm not focusing on him then he's all about making a mess. I know it's just a stage that will pass, but boy can it be frustrating!

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Overall, all things considered, today went better than I had expected and if it's any indication of what's to come, this is going to be a great school year!

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Take a look at my wonderful, fun, loving, creative, smart and very loved students:

Colton- age 7, second grade

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Gracie- age 5, kindergarten

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Fletcher- age 1.9, preschooler in training

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Now that Fletch has mastered the color blue, we started on orange today along with learning about circles.

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{orange juice ABC's}

is for...

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{being creative with pattern blocks}

We took full advantage of tropical storm Faye by taking a break from school to play in the rain. We felt the rain drops fall on our faces, the rain puddles splash through our toes and the taste of rain on our tongues.

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This moment reminded me of how much freedom we have.

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Then it was art time. Colton's favorite time of the day! We first did name art with colored markers then we learned some new watercolor techniques. It was fun to make a graded wash and see what happens to our work when we change the amount of water we use. Then we all painted suns to brighten up the gloomy day.

If I haven't said it enough already, I am so very blessed to be in my shoes. I don't know if it means I'm a very selfish person or what but I wouldn't trade this job with anyone for anything. Sure it doesn't pay much, but I could never trade this gift just to have a few nicer material things. The thought of another teacher being blessed enough to spend their day teaching my kids is enough to make me want to wail! Sure it's not easy, but the pay off is worth everything! I love being the one who gets to spend each day with my own children teaching them their morals, values, character and of course reading, writing and arithmetic and so much more! Helping them learn each day and finally seeing them "get it" is the best! They say teaching is one the most rewarding jobs, but when you're teaching your own children, that feeling has got to be tripled. I wish I could bottle it up to share with you all. It's the greatest!