Back To School - September 2023

This new school year marks exciting times for our family. 

One of our kids started school in August and is going to public school. Our older girls who live at home, will be working at their first job part time and doing homeschool on days they are not working. And our three youngest kids excited about all that is to come in this new homeschool year.

It is so wonderful to see how learning can take place even when you don't set it up yourself. 

While working around the house I noticed Ellie looking at the clock on the laptop. She was fascinated with the changing of time and decided to practice writing the time. It kept her busy and occupied for over 30 minutes. While it might seem boring or a waste of time, she was actively learning. Not just learning but leading her own learning session. She discovered how long a minute was, she got to see how time continues on even when she stops writing it down. It was a beautiful thing to see. Most of the time, to get her to learn something takes very deliberate planning, but in this moment, it was all her. Something sparked her interest and she ran with it. 

This September we have finished the final things to make the schoolhouse usable. We wired it all up so we can have outlets that we will use with solar and generators, added solar lighting, insulated the walls, put up internal walls, painted the walls, and finished the flooring, I would have loved the ease of vinyl flooring, but we had left over laminate flooring from the house so we used what we had on hand. Mark also found plans online for the child size chairs that will work perfectly in the schoolroom with the desks we have for the kids. 

Mark drilled the holes for the wires and I put in the wires and the insulation. I painted the room and he worked on the flooring. A couple of the kids even came over to help paint. 

The first day of school for the kids was so exciting! The youngest three kids are the only ones who are doing school together so it feels a bit different. It is certainly a lot different than when I had a whole class of 20 kids back in the day. The older two girls are working on their own time as and when they want since they are also working part-time. I still help them with their school work when needed, but it is more for their own enjoyment (they love doing schoolwork) than anything else as they are both adults now. 

The view outside of our classroom window is always fun to look out of. Our turkeys and chickens are free range and love to hang out near the classroom. With the weather really good we like to have the door in the classroom open, however, sometimes we get visitors and have to shoo the chickens and turkeys out. 

We made bookmarks today to keep track of our reading. The kids drew a picture then colored it on one side, and on the other side I will be using it as a sticker chart to keep track of how many books they have read. 

She was very excited to find a frog outside and brought him in to the classroom to show me. 

We are looking forward to a year full of fun and learning. And can hardly wait to share all our adventures.