First Day of School 2019

This is our last year to have two students left in our home school, but let's not dwell on that, shall we?!  As is our tradition, we went out for breakfast on our first day.  This year it was IHOP!

Then we came home and, per our tradition, made cookie dough maps!  We are picking up where we left off in history last spring, which was at the start of World War II, so we made our maps of Europe.

Little Man was so incredibly patient, outlining each and every European country!

Son C, figuring out which color sprinkles to put on the next country.  He put different colors on each of the major players from WWII.

Son C's map, before....

Little Man's map, before.....

...and after baking!

For all the details on how we make our cookie dough maps, please go here.

Our senior and freshman!

Our Week in Review

By the end of our first week of school we had learned about the gift to the United States of the Statue of Liberty by the people of France in 1886, the presidency of Grover Cleveland (the only president to serve two non consecutive terms!), and the childhood and young adult years of Teddy Roosevelt.

To cap off this first week of school, I had son C and Little Man work together to build a model of the Statue of Liberty out of toothpicks and packing peanuts!  It may sound silly, but even with these materials, it was a bit of an engineering feat to get this thing tall enough.

They decided to begin with a circular base, but quickly switched to a triangular shape for each layer of the statue, thinking that would save time.  They quickly realized the triangular shape was not as stable as they wanted, but by this time they had built it tall enough that they just kept going.

Little Man built each layer, and then son C added it to the overall statue.

They worked well together as a team, and we could even more easily marvel at the design and construction of the actual Statue!

This past summer I painted, purged, and rearranged the school room.  This is our new couch area under the stairs, which the boys are enjoying very much!

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we do what we call "morning routine" in our school room, which includes reading devotions from the Bible, singing a hymn, having  prayer, reading a poem (we take turns picking it), talking about one piece of art, learning a Greek or Latin word, and labeling one sentence with its parts of speech.  All of that takes about an hour, and it is time WELL spent.  I love our morning routine.  Here Little Man was labeling all the nouns and the predicate nominatives in the sentence on the board.

We also colored covers for our history binders.

It was a fantastic first week!

First Day of School 2018

And finally, after all the college kids were situated, WE started school at home!  We are down to just two students in our home school  Weird and wonderful.  Son C began his junior year of high school, and Little Man began eighth grade!

Our traditional breakfast out.....

......followed by the making of cookie dough maps.  This year we began our history studies with the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt so we made cookie dough maps of New York State, where Roosevelt was born, raised, and served in many capacities before becoming president.

For detailed instructions on how we make our cookie dough maps, please go here.

Son C's before.....

...and after.

Little Man's before....,.

....and after.

 How I love learning with these two!  Here's to a great junior and eighth grade year!

Son G starts sophomore year

After moving two of our children *away* to school, it was time for son G, who goes to college locally, to begin his sophomore year.  He very reluctantly allowed me to take this "first day of school" picture......

......but later he was all smiles when posing with his cousin, who goes to the same college he does!

Happy sophomore year, son G!

Daughter G's senior year of college!

Meanwhile, we also moved daughter G into her dorm for her senior year of college.  SENIOR YEAR.  How did that even happen?!?!?!?!  She was so happy to be back on campus with her "people," and is thriving there so much, my mama's heart was full of gladness to see her so happy.

She arrived on campus one day before her room-mate, so she had to figure out how to configure the furniture on her own, hoping her room-mate would be happy with it.  (she was!)

Daughter G with one of her dearest friends.

The next day her room-mate arrived and they finished putting the room together.  This is the third year these two have roomed together!  So happy to know they are such good friends, and look out for each other like sisters.

 Sibling silliness!

Son L goes to college!

Two days after returning home from our fabulous Washington vacation, we began preparing two of our kiddos to go away to college.  Son L is now a freshman at the same school where daughter G is a senior!  (comforting for mama to know big sister can keep an eye on the newbie younger brother!) 

We made a trip to Costco to stock up on snacks for their dorm rooms.  I bought all kinds of boxes of snacks, Costco size, so the two of them could split everything.

Of course I was still in a boot from my fall on the mountain hike while in WA, so I got to use one of their lovely motorized carts!

And with the boot on I could not drive, so we loaded everything into the trunk of daughter G's car.

Once home, we began two staging areas in the house, one for daughter G and one for son L.

Also needing to be done in our few days between vacation and moving to college, was the purchase of a laptop for son L!  This had been his 18th birthday gift in May, but we just hadn't gotten around to actually purchasing it since he was gone most of the summer for work.

Finally, move in day arrived!  We all were there except for son G, who had to work.  Son L was really geeked about his Star Wars comforter, and I have heard since then that it was a hit with the other guys on his floor, too!

On the one hand, by now I am used to leaving a child at college, but on the other hand, I don't think a mother can ever get used to it.  Knowing that some other place will be their home for 9 months, and they will largely have to look out for themselves, makes me inwardly question everything I ever taught them....did I do enough?  Is he prepared?  Does he know how to be discerning about people and choose the right friends?  Will he remember all the studying tips I've shown him, the note taking, and the admonition to visit his professors soon and often during their office hours?  Will he remember to go to the dining commons to eat before they close?  Will he wash his underwear?!?!  Most importantly, will he lean on God in all things, especially when the going gets tough?  Will *I* leave him in God's care instead of worrying?

Finally it was time to actually leave him on campus and drive away.  After the ribbon cutting ceremony we all said our goodbyes.

How we love this boy of ours!