Back to School!

Today is the first day of school in our local school district. I had been thinking August 26 would be our first day of school, but that was before I knew we'd be in NYC from August 27-30. I decided we'd get in three days of school before our trip. Some subjects (such as science) won't begin until September. Yesterday I took the back to school pictures and also had each child draw his/her self portrait. Both of those are annual traditions. I usually take two pictures of each child with my grandmother's slate. One states the grade, and the other one says what the child wants to be when he or she grows up. In Kindergarten, first, and fourth grade Ian said he wanted to work for the Lego company. At the start of K4 he wanted to be a police officer, and at the beginning of second grade he said he wanted to be an inventor. Last fall he said he wanted to be a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Oliver told me yesterday that his first choice of career was to be a scientist, his second was to be a police officer, and his third was to clean windows on sky scrapers. Last year he said he

wanted to be a soldier, and in Kindergarten he wanted to be a police officer. I didn't start taking the "I want to be" pictures until Nadia was in 1st grade. She said astronaut in 1st grade and 2nd grade, teacher in 3rd grade, and missionary in 4th and 5th grade. This year I only took one picture of Nadia because she said has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.

When I was a child and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a Mom. If that didn't seem to be considered a satisfactory response (since it's not exactly a "career"), I would say a teacher. I know most children change their minds countless times, which is perfectly fine. The only time it becomes problematic is when a student in college keeps changing their major. My childhood aspirations came true. I am a mom, and I am a teacher! I certainly didn't envision homeschooling my kids when I was in elementary school. My mom homeschooled my brother, but he didn't enter Kindergarten until I was a freshman in college, and so I'm not even

certain I had an awareness of the term "home schooling" when I was in elementary school. I envisioned myself teaching in a Christian school since I attended Christian schools from K-11th grade, and that is where I started my teaching career in 1992. My main decision when choosing a major in college was what type of teacher did I want to be? I considered being a music teacher or history teacher, and then settled on elementary education. I think Paul would find it humorous that I seriously considered being a secondary education history major since his love of history far surpasses mine, but it was one of my most favorite subjects in school! Although I was only a middle school teacher for four years, I have worked full-time in the field of education for more than 20 years - teacher, principal, and professor (teacher educator). Although I'm not drawing a paycheck this year, I still consider myself a teacher since I am teaching grades 2, 4, and 6 this year. Considering I worked FT outside the home for more than 20 years, I admit it does feel strange at times to think that I am unemployed even though

 long before we had children (while we were still dating) Paul and I had agreed that I would be a stay-at-home mom like my mom had been. It feels strange to fill out a medical form for my children and leave the blank for mother's employer empty. However, I am thrilled that it means I get to homeschool my kids five days a week this year, as I only homeschooled them an average of three days a week the past two years. I am REALLY loving the idea of not feeling rushed. That's also why we're not doing the homeschool gym class this fall. And although my load feels so, so, so much lighter, in reality my plate is still full. Paul works long hours six (and sometimes seven) days a week. Usually he's home a bit earlier on Saturday, but that's not always the case. This past Saturday he didn't get home until almost 8pm. He leaves the house before we even get up. For example this week on Tuesday he left for work at 4am and got home at 8:15pm, and then he left for work at 3am the next morning. I was tucking Oliver into bed when Paul came home on Tuesday night. So considering I function as a

single parent for usually six days a week, homeschooling three kids plus cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, taking care of the finances, etc. is more than enough to keep me busy. At some point I hope to get back into a Bible study, but for the most part I am trying to be very judicious about taking on more commitments.

I hope that the four of us have a fabulous school year. Some new additions this year are the chorale for Nadia and Ian on Monday nights for 11 weeks this fall, Nadia cooking one meal a week (she made homemade calzones this Tuesday which meant she kneaded dough for the first time), teaching the children some ASL, and teaching Nadia some photography (how to shoot in manual with a DSLR). Oliver will be starting to take piano lessons. To make this first day of school special, I made monkey bread for breakfast. I think we might make that a new annual tradition! Oliver received a $10 gift card to Sweet Frog for his birthday. Nadia is the only one who has ever been there before, but I'm planning on taking all three kids to Sweet Frog on Friday at the end of our second day of school.