New Year, New School

We had Back to School night at the start of the week.  I was under the impression that the kids would be able to see their classrooms and meet their teachers.  That was not the case, and Josiah left super frustrated.  He was not happy to go into his first day of school blind.  The good thing about the school being so small was that all he really had to do was get to his first class.  After that he could just follow his classmates to the next ones.  It did not take him long to learn the layout.  It is essentially only two hallways.  

The deer and her fawns saw us off to school on the first day.  

I was able to get pictures taken that morning with all the kids' future endeavors.  

Josiah upgraded his What I want to be when I grow up to a graphic designer and pastor.  He really enjoyed his history class and likes that teacher a lot.  He also enjoys science and math.  (He had to onboard as a freshman because the sophomores were already in Spanish 2 and a higher level math and they could not accommodate Josiah as a sophomore.  It was not his favorite thing to do 9th again, but in the long run it'll be good even if he doesn't see it that way just yet.)

Henry upgraded his What I want to be when I grow up as well.  He kept the lawyer job, but added city planner to it.  Henry has said that he likes all of his teachers.  His favorite classes so far are Logic and history.  His first day of Latin 3 did not go well because he's only had one year of Latin and it was with a different curriculum.  He has the option to stay in the class or use it as a study hall.  His teacher game him the Latin 2 book to look over since the class has a wider vocabulary than he does.  So far, he's staying.

For his English class, Henry had to decorate the cover of his Commonplace book in a way that represented him.  He dug into his cartography skills and used that to decorate it.  

Caroline's What I want to be stayed consistent - a child life specialist.  She loves her history teacher.  She's not as keen about Latin.  She's crushing her math class.  

This is the first time they've experienced gym class in all its glory.  They've been running laps and doing sit ups and push ups.  It's been fun to hear about all they do each day.  The biggest complaint all three of them gripe about daily is the weight of their backpacks.  They cannot fit everything into them (I've ordered bigger backpacks), and they're too heavy with what does fit.  They have a lot to get used to, but they all have had a great start.  They impressed me with how quickly they've acclimated to coming home and getting their work done.  

This school is Presbyterian and during their morning assembly time they read/recite prayers and creeds.  Josiah came home and said it was a cult.  No, buddy, it's just liturgical.  We are used to Baptist church life which is mainly singing and preaching.  Salvation is by grace through faith alone.  Nothing in these prayer books is wrong or against our faith, it is just a different way of practicing than we're used to.  It'll be good for them to experience different styles.  

As for my first week of school, on Day 2 a student hit me.  She got taken out to the director's office (for quite a while).  She's three.  What caused the physical altercation?  She did not want to sit on her shape during carpet time.  She wanted the (occupied) yellow square, not the red triangle.  This school is pretty strict on discipline, so she came back and apologized.  It'll be a good year!  

We celebrated the first week of school eating out this weekend.  The boys went out to help with yardwork without being asked.  Hurray initiative!

Benson and I watched.  

Caroline enjoyed her new headboard and put it together with just a little help from us.  

This is the first full week of school coming up.  They kids have already looked at the school calendar and are counting down the time until their first day off - Labor Day weekend.  As homeschoolers, we never fully appreciated the holidays.  Now we all will.