First Days of School

What an interesting year this will be. Tyce had his LAST first day of school since he is a senior this year. A SENIOR in high school, as in 12th grade, Class of 2014. Wow.

Picture after school. I didn't get up early enough take one before school (which starts at 7:00 am, hello).

Tyce still has some schedule issues to work out but he is very excited about choir this year. As you know, he goes to school to be social first, academics second. Oy. Heaven help him actually graduate. We already know he'll have fun.

This is a big year for Mary as well. She's in 8th grade and we are homeschooling her. It's only been a few days and we don't have our full curriculum in place but so far, she has been happy, enthusiastic, and a joy to have around.

Check out Miss Thing in her pajamas for school. That's how she rolls.

The first day we worked on Personal Progress together. She chose to do the first value experience in the category of Knowledge, which involved reading a lot of scriptures, journaling, and discussing. She said she wasn't very good at looking up scriptures but I helped her out and she read each of the required verses out loud. It was a lovely experience for me and I think it was for her, too.

This week we are both doing a lot of organizing in preparation for the full school days to come. She completely overhauled her room, down to scrubbing the walls and spreading carpet cleaner on her floor. I am doing similar projects but will probably never get to those kinds of details. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming....that's about all I can handle.

I asked her what she would like to learn besides the required subjects and she mentioned Latin and French. So I'm really excited to start Latin with her, which is the language I studied for four years in high school. French will come later, if she wants (though I secretly hope by then she wants to learn Spanish, which is way more practical). She also said, "You know how I like to bake? I would like to learn to cook. Will you teach me? Oh, and I also want to know how to do my own laundry." Um, YES. I will teach you, dream child.

Harrison is in 3rd grade and his teacher is Mr. Amberg. He is very happy to have a male teacher.

So cute when he's not posing for me!

He was excited about his Chewbacca shirt.

Cameron is also in 3rd grade and his teacher is Mrs. Dillashaw. He's excited because he is in a portable.

Cam kept singing and I found it hard to get him to be still.

Do you like his bracelet? It says "PURE AWESOMENESS".

I love these little guys so much and I am so proud of them. They look so grown up going off to school on their bikes. Both boys signed up for the running program JAWS. Cam said, "The only way I'm not going to make it to 100 laps is if I quit. And I'm NOT a quitter!"

Bryce gave each child a blessing, and even gave one to me. With four kids doing four very different things, I think I'm going to need all the help I can get. For myself and for the kids, I am grateful for human support and divine guidance in this journey we call life.