On Monday we had our first day of school! It was an incredibly hectic day, but the children were SO excited about getting to do school again! I was actually seriously thinking about setting it back a day since we didn't get the bookshelves and desk installed until fairly late Saturday night, leaving me very little time to get anything organized. I have had the books organized for the better part of a week, but all of our supplies, odds and ends of art projects, etc. were still tucked away in the little, old, falling apart dresser we used to store our things last year. Everything had to be moved out of it, and onto bare shelves, before we could get it out of the middle of the floor. So it would have been nice to have Monday yet to finish up getting ready for the "perfect" first day of school. BUT the children wouldn't hear anything of it! So I got up late (more on that later!) and tried to find other things to occupy little hands while I finished trying to figure out how everything that had been in drawers was supposed to look neat on shelves. Thankfully I had on hand a handful of clear plastic "shoe boxes" I had gotten for something else and hadn't gotten around to using yet, and the art supplies fit nicely in them. Whew. There are a few things I still wish I could hide in a drawer or behind doors, but hey, at least I have shelves, and a MUCH nicer setup than we had last year!
We still have some bugs to work out of the schedule. Schooling two formally this year, and with an over-eager preschooler determined to participate in everyone else's schoolwork too, makes scheduling a challenge when there's only one Mama who also has to think about laundry and meals... I love to teach, though! And am anxious to figure it out!
The schoolroom all fixed up bright and fresh. The shelves and the desk Jere built over the last week!
Leanna starting her preschool books.
Eliott is beginning Kindergarten for 5-year-olds!
And Jaron is doing Second Grade Phonics/Language, and Third Grade math. Smart boy!
Here they all are at their workstations.
Eliott's Bible story coloring page from today. Gotta love that deer!
Now, I said I would explain about getting a late start Monday morning. Leanna has had a cold over the last number of days. I've been fighting it too, and being fairly successful on myself using essential oils. But with everything else going on I wasn't being as observant as I could have been, and Leanna's cold kind of got away from me. And then Saturday night came along. I was feeling extra tired from trying to get school things ready, plus a few of the Saturday chores done around the house. Jere bathed the children and put them to bed while I was working at getting things set up. Once we finally got to bed, Eliott and Leanna spelled each other waking us up crying and/or coughing. About every hour. No one was getting much sleep! Then I decided enough was enough, and since Leanna's coughing was getting really nasty sounding, I doused her up with a couple different oils. She hardly coughed again the rest of the night! We got up late and got to church late, and though the boys both had runny noses for the first time, she didn't need her nose wiped and she didn't cough, and acted perfectly fine. So, Sunday evening we wanted to get to bed early. But then we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs for supper, and it just got late on us. And then we put oil on all the children before bed, and they slept great! Only... the dogs didn't. So I didn't sleep too well, and with still fighting my cold I knew I needed the extra rest. Maybe one of these days I'll have the privilege of sleeping through the night again...
Here are a few pictures from Sunday evening...
