"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." Ephesians 1:7-8

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Ready, Set, GO!

The school room was ready. Luke's desk is in his bedroom, so I parked his back to school goodies on Irina's desk. We're ready for her to fold in to our school routine, but the waiting continues. 
I put together an old table we had in the attic for Ethan to use. He's pretty excited about his new space. He can work standing up easily or perch on the tall stool. Remember, he doesn't like to sit down anyway. He has too much wiggling to do to stay still for long. ;) 

I relocated Aaron to the desk between the windows. He's been SO eager to get started on school. In fact, he cried when we didn't start last week. I'm grateful for his excitement!

Each kiddo got back to school goodies on their desk. It's not all that exciting, but they LOVE it. I put all of Irina's supplies in her desk. The boys picked out some purple, pink and turquoise supplies for her. Super fun! :)  

 The table was set with maps on how to find TRUE treasure. They were thrilled by this!
I got the idea HERE

 "Turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding; look for it as for silver and 
search for it as hidden treasure. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2
 Breakfast: cinnamon rolls, fresh peaches, hard boiled eggs and sausage. They had full bellies!
 Doing our morning jobs after breakfast, someone had a little accident while unloading the dishwasher. 5 bowls smashed to smithereens. Whoops! We like to keep things exciting over here!
 So glad to get back to our morning prayer walk... or shall I say pray while we scooter. Very pleased by sweet time of prayer together. They scooted very slowly. It was part of the deal. ;)





This tired school teacher needs to hit the sack. We had a great first day with a few bumps and wrinkles, but I'm glad to be back in the routine. And to be honest, I was NOT looking forward to it. Thankful that God graciously gave me energy to enjoy these precious gifts. 

Jumping in!

We're finally jumping in to our homeschool year! Ack! We were scheduled to start last week and after much deliberation, I decided to postpone our start for one week. I have to say, I felt so relieved by the decision and feel much better prepared this week.

Monday: School Orientation
Luke set out our "Smith Academy" t-shirts for everyone to wear, which was super sweet. Unfortunately, one of his brothers decided to surprise him during breakfast and tickle him. 
Of course, his bowl of cereal went flying and so did his milk - all over his shirt. Whoops!
That's how we roll over here. 

This was the first year I sat down and created a detailed mission statement, short term goals, long term goals and specific spiritual, developmental and character goals for each kid. I'm so glad I did! It was a great exercise for me. During orientation, we reviewed those goals. They were very receptive!

 I selected a family Bible verse with the help of our "principal." This is our theme for the year. 

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and
greatest commandment. And the second is like it:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

I taught them how to use our new Daily Notebook 
(more on that later) and they decorated the front page. 

Then we reviewed our school schedule, expectations and new curriculum. 
And we're off!