A New School Year

It's that time of year again, time for school to begin.  This year Briana is a nursing student, Destry is a senior, Easton is in third grade, Kiana is in second, Tyrell is in kindergarten, and Aryana is "into everything".

I knew it was going to be a busy (read:  challenging) year, so I've been doing all I could think of to get ready and set us up for a successful year.  In addition to lesson planning, I made schedules for everyone and hung them on the wall, created a list of quick and easy lunch ideas, and even cooked up some hamburger, pork roast, and chicken breasts ahead of time.

Most importantly, I stocked up on Pepsi! ha!  Really, cubes were on an amazing sale (how timely, don't you think?).

I have some incredibly cute students this year, if I do say so myself.  One of the many reasons I enjoy homeschooling is because of the relationships it fosters.  My children get to learn how to work things out with one another and really are best friends (and some days, best enemies, but we won't get into that right now).

Easton has been very excited to study Spanish and he is catching on very well.  I finally invested in Rosetta Stone for him and for Destry to get his second year's credit.  Easton loves computers, so I'm not always sure if he loves Spanish itself, or the opportunity to work on the computer--and to wear the cool headphones!

Tyrell is loving learning how to read and melted my heart on our second day of school as he exuberantly cried "Mama, I LIKE learning!" at the conclusion of our day's reading lesson.  Oh how I hope I can nurture that love for learning throughout his childhood!

Briana, with her servant's heart and love for science, has discovered her niche in the nursing field.  She has completed her first CNA class (she plans to take the advanced course next month) and loved every minute of it.  I giggled at her final score of 99% as I remembered her disappointment the day she missed two questions on a test.

Destry has a full but interesting year planned with classes like anatomy and physiology, psychology, pre-calculus and of course the ubiquitous literature and music.  He has been invited as a guest speaker  in October for the 100th anniversary celebration at a congregation we used to meet with in Missouri, so he also has that to prepare.

Aryana is just as cute as she can be in her piggy tails these days, even as she is a force to be reckoned with.  Above she's pictured on our first day of school with the bag of brand new pencils.  She had a grand ole time using her teeth to pull the eraser out of every pencil and spit them on the floor.

Please excuse the screenshot above, but a friend texted me this picture of Easton with his friend at their Lego Robotics meeting and I didn't know how to remove the trappings of the screenshot.  (Hey, I only recently learned how to TAKE a screenshot--and I was QUITE pleased that I figured out how to cover my name and phone number.  Technology is not my gift!)  I'm still not 100% sure what this Lego Robotics thing is all about--Alan is taking him--but I do know that Easton is loving it.  Something about building robots with Legos, computer programming, and problem solving--right up his alley.

Kiana is SUPER excited for her homeschool tumbling class to start next Thursday.  Until then, we continue working on our other subjects.  I must insert here that I am happy that the Dianne Craft sightword cards are helping her with her reading.  I will never cease being amazed at the ways our brains work.  She is a right-brain learner and thus can "take a picture" of the card and store it in her brain.  I tried this for myself, but I see nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It's not the way I learn, but I am grateful for others who have figured out ways to accommodate different learning styles to pave this path before us.

We now have eight days of school under our belts.  Six of them have gone well/as I planned.  The other two were pretty rough (and necessitated some editing of the schedules and perhaps a mama-retreat to the bathroom for prayer and a few tears).  But overall, we're off to a good start.  Full speed learning ahead!