Back to school thoughts

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . or worst; it's all in your perspective.

For the first six months of Andrew's 10th grade year, HopeAnne's morning question, 5 days a week without fail, was, "Andrew, where are you going?"

"I'm going to school, Hope."

"Oh, right."

So I should not have been surprised when, about 30 minutes after the boys left for their first day of school, Hope asked me, "Where are the boys?" I do hope she's a year wiser and this whole school routine clicks before half of the year has gone by.

As for the rest of us at The King's Academy, our personalities were shining through on the first official day of the 2011/2012 school year.

It's pretty obvious which one was born to be a teacher, all smiles and full of plans for the year. And the future teacher is pretty obvious too, isn't it? The latter was bouncing off the walls from the moment she woke up and couldn't wait until 8:30 to start. The others couldn't hide their disdain for her enthusiasm. That's okay. We're doing what God intended for us to do and we're lovin' it! We don't care what they think.

And deep down, I think they were all excited. What's not to love about new supplies, new books, new subjects, etc.?

Mariana has to be excited knowing that even though this was the official first day of school, she has 30 days down already. That's what happens when you know you're going to be in a Christmas show and your mom/teacher says the only way that's going to happen is if you get at least 30 days of school in during the summer. She squeaked in with 3 days the Friday before school started. And what she didn't know was that she wasn't paying close enough attention to the dates on the top of the log. She didn't just finish 30 days; she had finished 35. Yes, I'm sure there's some excitement under that frown.

And then there's my fifth graders. One told me he was scared for the year because math and writing are hard. Okay, I'll give him that, but what about the other subjects? There has to be something he's excited about. And the other one has been hard at work, finishing his day in record time. Now that's a sign of excitement, if you ask me.

We already mentioned the 6 year old's uncontrollable excitement. Books, scissors, organization, creativity, what's not to love from her perspective? It's all training for her future career.

The five year old is ecstatic as well. You just can't tell on this picture because she's not a morning person. She had just woken up and we made her pose for a picture. I'm sure she's excited to observe our attempts to rein in her energy for a bit of learning.

And the teacher? Of course I'm excited. Back to routine, organization, lesson planning, educating. . . It's great fun. Sometimes. But for now, I'm excited. Because I have new whiteboard markers and they all work. I'm excited because this year we're learning about American history and I love American history. I'm excited because we've finally found a math curriculum for the older grades that we love and because it's being taught by the Good Doctor and not by me. I'm excited because this year all four homeschooled children can read chapter books. Hey, I taught 1st grade and I'm all for picture books, but I love that what we can do and discuss with depth. I 'm excited because we have Reader's Notebooks and Writer's Notebooks this year and we're going to do a lot of writing in both. That means I get to read and write, too. Now that's exciting!

Stay tuned for next week's episode where we'll hear Cindy say, "Where's the number for the Mechanicsburg School District registrar?"