This is my life now.

Day two of math, and day two of my pert child asking, “WHY do I even have to do this stuff? I know it already! This is for babies!” I’m feeling fiesty, so I tell him I’m happy to stop math class for an informative lecture on the basics of classical education. I move to the white board and explain the stages of learning. I tell him all about memory pegs, and how we never cover a subject just once, but we add to the pegs every time we encounter it. I draw a cyclical pattern on the board as I explain, eloquently, exactly why we do math the way we do math.


My teens are smiling as I sit down to resume our math lesson. “Mom.” They point at the board. “You just drew a poop emoji!”

first day of homeschool!

Today was our first day of homeschool for this year! Don't they just look so excited!? :)  They were, actually, and I definitely was.

So, what did we do today? I need to sit down and write about it... partly because I feel like it wasn't that much and WHY am I this tired?!?

Well, we began the long process of establishing the routine. And it's a flexible routine, of course, which is why I always label our schedule TENTATIVE. (Some of the kids hate that!) As an extra bonus, when packing her lunch today, my daughter found an overdue library playaway that we thought was lost forever!  (Do you know those things cost $55 if you lose them? We are NEVER checking one out again!)



We started off with "Morning Time." They are used to devotions in the morning, but this is devotions and MORE (And whatever mom wants it to be, that is.) Today, we talked about our home, and our homeschool. What kind of adjectives do we WANT to define our home and our homeschool?  "Welcoming," one says, and I write it. "You're writing crooked," Seth says, so immediately I add the word "Imperfect" to the list, and I purposely write it slanted. He rolls his eyes and decides to make his own list. I'll post his, because it is actually much nicer than the one I made.

After that we came up with some rules for our homeschool. Again, I'm showing you Seth's better version. We all agree that he has a future in coffee house chalk art.

Here's my version: 

You'll notice there's quite a bit of emphasis on conflict. 

Oh, people... we all have so much to learn just on this topic!

Map drawing is a new thing for us, and to my relief, they all thought it was fun! We also had a picnic with our homeschool co-op group. We have joined Classical Conversations this year and I think it is going to be a huge blessing for our family.


We did some reading aloud (I read to all of them). This is such an anchoring part of our day. I have always loved doing this with my kids, but after reading the Read-Aloud Family I am totally convinced that we will be doing this until the kids leave home.  We are currently reading a fantasy book called Circus Mirandus.

We are slowly getting our bearings. Classical Conversations is so... rich. I feel like we haven't been able to take it all in quite yet. We are trying to get a handle on one level at a time, one strand at a time. It's a lot like drinking from a firehose, or standing under an ancient waterfall with a small bucket!

We're off and running though, and I'm even blogging the mark the occasion! It probably won't happen often-- we'll be busy soaking up everything we can under the waterfall!

Finally, my amazing students, ready to start the year!