Homeschool of Rock

I've got to admit it:  Homeschoolers don't generally rock "back-to-school" season as well as our public and private schooling families do.  We don't go crazy with back-to-school clothes shopping (Who's going to see us anyway?).  We don't go to any orientation or go practice opening lockers. (You already know how the house and locks work) We don't wait with baited breath to find out who our new teachers are or what schedules await us in the coming year. (Let's see, you have Mrs. Fox, Mom, the Lady of the House, and Mistress Fox).  Frankly, it can be a little anti-climactic.  We do buy school supplies like nobody's business--  72 spiral notebooks, 30 boxes of crayons, countless boxes of pencils (mechanical and Ticonderoga)-- Oh, yeah!

We do enjoy getting back into a routine and schedule, but compared with the back-to-school excitement of my youth, we aren't very impressive.

UNTIL THIS YEAR!  It's not that we did anything that different than we have in past years.  But maybe we're finally getting this homeschool thing down.  Because we ROCKED the back-to-school homeschool today!  GO US!

The picture of the day was the "Homies" after first period seminary at the high school.  This was Bethany's first day of seminary and she loved, loved, loved everything about it.  These kids all knew each other before and they are divided over four different classes, but still, it's pretty fun for them.  They told me there are several other homeschooled kids in the early morning period just before them.

Faith is holding her planner.  Her bless-ed, sacred planner.  The  custom planner I spend many moons working on.  It contains a page for each week to check off work, history reading schedules, passwords, coursework for the year, spelling test pages.  It is a work of art and I am exceedingly proud of each planner for each child.  I understand that not every child appreciates their planner as much as I would hope.  But no matter.  It is there for them to use as suits them.  It suits me to have the plan in place.

Just before I snapped this picture, Faith said to me (bless her heart), "MOM! I just love checking things off!"
Hello, favorite child!

This is how Clark spent his first day of homeschool.
No, actually he did do quite a bit of school work, but he had his first of three consecutive days of road driving with an instructor from 5-7 AM this morning.  Ugh.  But the good news is, unless the teacher feels otherwise, he should have his license this week.  Can you hear the hallelujah chorus?

Elinor started off the day reading her history book, Across Five Aprils and eating frozen corn in her pajamas.  If you can't occasionally homeschool in your jammies, what's the point?  Does any one else's children like to eat frozen corn and peas.  They are more likely to eat frozen veggies than cooked ones.  Weird?  I think so.

I was a little behind the ball in ordering our school books, so several boxes arrived today and we're expecting a few more this week.  As Clark groaned, the little kids cheered when each new box arrived.  Then we'd sing "Easy Street" from Annie.  You know where they are opening the envelope containing the other half of the locket and he makes a ripping sound and then starts singing.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just know that we were singing in a jazzy, soulful kind of style and pretty much everyone joined in-- except the teenagers who I think were horrified.  It's understandable.
See for yourself.

There's really no excuse for posting pictures of myself like this.  Let me document to the world how awkward I really am.

Jazzy!

Rocking out earlier in the day to the same tune. 

The sweet spot of the day as Bethany, with George's "assistance" making chocolate donuts for the family.  Just a lil' home economics.

At lunch time Elinor entertained us with what we call her "creepy face".   It is pretty funny and nobody can do creepy quite as well as Elinor!  Although, you notice George is trying to.

Peter rocked the Fantastic Mr. Fox tie and he is learning the art of smiling for the camera.  He had a pretty good day today.  We had nowhere to go, so he enjoyed regular, uninterrupted naps and mealtimes.

A lil' fine arts with music practice.

A lil' P.E. with Faith practicing her gymnastics.

A lil' technology--rocking out to her programmed NXT robotic guitar.

 We mustn't forget our artwork.  Faith helped George color a jungle.  It was lovely.

Bethany reading Tales of Ancient Egypt on the couch.  She read far more than she was "assigned", but who was I to stop her?

Abe even made dinner this evening, and as this is not a regular occurrence, it rocked my night.

Baby driver's ed.

Wrapping the day up with a Slurpee run.  Clark stayed home with a sleeping Peter, but Elinor is holding his to take home to him.
It was just a good, good day.  And it feels so good to me to be back-to-school.  I think if feels good to all the kids too, but they may need more than a day to admit it:)