well, a new year of school has begun around here. homeschool style. day one held pancakes for breakfast and an afternoon swim, with some math and science thrown in for good measure. starting slow and steady.
over the weekend, we headed to the office supply store for some new pencils, a few notebooks, glue, pens. we didn’t need new pencils, but i let the kids pick some new ones out because, well, can one have too many mechanical pencils? or sparkly pencils? i think not. my daughter wrote a note to her cousin yesterday telling her that we’d been to the art supply store. i loved that blurring of lines. art supply store, office supply store…they’re both so good, yes? and, while sunday was a no-school/official summer day and monday was an official yes-school/sort-of summer day, it felt pretty much the same. true, there was actual schoolwork done one day and not the other. and my kids will grumble about schoolwork…make no mistake about that! but there’s a certain blur between our summer days and our rest-of-the-school-year days. and i like that.
this will be our ninth year homeschooling, and i still feel like i’m figuring it out as i go along. things shift from year to year; the kids shift from year to year. i shift from year to year. i have learned so much from this homeschool journey…have learned so much from my kids. about the way things blur, how things are not black and white, how there’s almost always a little wiggle room and an opportunity to shift perspective. they teach me this, the history we read together teaches me this, relearning certain math concepts teaches me this. even the eye rolls and defiance teach me this.
yesterday was a good day. but day one is easy; i know this. i’m counting on lots of easy days up front because the tough ones are coming…there are always some of those. but day one is under our belts, and it was good. sunday rolled right into monday without upset. there was a blur between the days. and a certain amount of blur is beautiful.
sending a little love your way, m
Michelle GD 
day one sounds amazing and i’m sure your subsequent days will be just as grand. Oh the blurred lines and the freedom of coloring outside and in :)
I like the idea of blurriness! As much as I was reluctant to say goodbye to summer routine (HA! routine?) I am equally unprepared for the shift into school year … afternoons full with after school “de-briefing”, homework, Chinese study, and then the busy final leg of dinner/reading/bedtime. I am slowly catching up with the “outside” world and happy to come here and see you’ve been tending all your lovely seeds, lovely and important work. xo
I have spent the last two days writing lesson plans and filling out my notebook, we start on the 2nd of September. I’m ready and am glad to hear things are going well for your school days.
PS- New pencils are always needed for the first day of the new year and new notebooks don’t hurt either ;)
your homeschooling experience sounds wonderful, reading this…sometimes I wish I would/could… my girls go back to school next week – it’s good the way it is, for now.
but went out this week to buy new pencils with my girls too. no, it can never be enough, and my girls and I just love stationary shops. guess we have to go again this week ;-)
I like how your lines are blurred. And yes-pretty pencils make all the difference! I loved collecting pens and pencils as a 9 year old. Looking back now-they helped me speak my mood depending on which one or two I used. Have a great year Michelle. Xo
It’s so good to hear Day 1 went well. I’m taking the gentle energy of your first day and borrowing it for myself. I’ve instituted some new “making sure HW is completed” strategies that hopefully my boy will conform to. Last year did not go well in the grades area, part mostly due to Noah misplacing things are not following through with assignments. That will be different this year. Thanks for letting us all know that parenting and schooling have their ups and downs, no matter what the setting. xxO
the ups and downs…oh yes. every single one of us has them.
xo