1st Day of School

 August 19, 2013 marked the official opening day for

the Barnette Family Homeschool!
 This former high school English/History/Drama teacher dusted-off her shiny red pen and lesson plan book and dove into the world of teaching my 6th grader, 4th grader, and 1st grader.
We're off on a great adventure this year...

One of the things the boys said they were most excited about was shedding their traditional blue school uniforms that they've worn every day since Kindergarten, and choosing what they want to wear to school.  Ironically, John chose to wear a tie, along with one of his school uniform shirts.  I apparently have the only 9 year old boy in the free world who actually likes to wear dress clothes.

The boys' curriculum this year uses some video instruction from teachers who are very knowledgeable in their subject-areas. That's  pretty helpful to this mommy/teacher whose strength is NOT middle school math and science!

 

An interesting story about Anna's homeschooling...  For reasons I never quite understood, I never threw-away ANY of the boys' textbooks from Milford Christian Academy even though I easily could have.  I just stuck them on a shelf.  So when it was time to purchase books for Anna, there were most of the exact 1st grade hand-me-down textbooks I needed!  I guess God knew that I would someday be able to re-use those old books, so He led me to keep them to save some money.  Because we had those hand-me-down textbooks, I am able to homeschool Anna for under $200 this year.  Thanks, Lord!

 

Things I've Learned During My First Week of Homeschooling:

• If you do it well, homeschooling is A LOT OF WORK for a mom!
• Pluto is no longer a planet.  Did you know that?
• Tim Barnette actually makes a pretty good school principal.
• I have more energy than I thought.
• Doing the Pledge of Allegiance in unison in your living room really creeps-out your dog.
• The Prime Meridian runs through England. (I knew that once, but had forgotten.)
• Elementary teachers are saints. I had no idea how much harder it is to teach a 6-year old than to teach a 16 year old.
• Methusalah was Noah's grandfather. 
• My 11 year old knows how to work my computer better than I do.
• An aging 39-year-old should never make a deal that she'll do a jumping jack for every addition problem her daughter gets correct.  My knees are going to ache for weeks.
• Our family has some great people in our life who encourage and support us even when we make non-traditional choices.