Today was our first day of school. It was my first day of using multiple Cores from Sonlight. Last year I had my OLDER girls (I guess I need to stop referring to the twins as "my girls" since I have another girl now!) doing light Kindergarten work, but this year we are doing a full Core and adding in the 1st grade readers. They did relatively well today. It was a lot of sitting and listening (Sonlight is very literature-intensive), but I only had to refocus them a couple of times. They were able to answer comprehension questions and Jessica was actually disappointed when we were done for the day and stuck around to listen in on Matthew's books. I think my favorite part of the day was at the dinner table talking about some of the things they learned. Both girls seemed astonished that in Martin Luther's day, people had to buy indulgences as a sort of pardon for their sins. It was so reassuring to hear them all talk about the fact that forgiveness is free because Jesus paid the price. My 7-year-old threw in that Jesus WAS the price. Praise God that they're at least learning the important stuff!
Matthew's work spans from 2nd grade to 4th grade, depending on the subject. During science we were reading about the "story of the earth" which inevitably includes certain things with which we disagree. We choose to study other scientific theories, other religions, etc. with our children so that they are familiar with the thought processes of those around them and can ask any questions of us in what we would consider to be a safe environment. Each part of the book that I read today my son would say, "True." "False." "Um, is that true?" and things of that nature. We had talked about the big bang theory last year when we studied space and he brought it up again. He said, "So, scientists believe that there was nothing, and then there was just this big explosion and everything came into being?" I said that was basically what they believed. He said, "Well... what exploded? I mean, if there was nothing, where did the big bang come from? And if there was something to explode, where did THAT come from?" The depth of the thought processes of this child amaze me. He concluded that we should pray for the writers of the text book to learn the truth and some day maybe write a text book that included Creation so other people could read about it. He thought it was much easier to believe that a Creator was involved after studying things like the water cycle and the human brain, watching Mom experience a pregnancy, etc. It is so rewarding to watch them learn and begin to think for themselves.
Andrew didn't have any academic instruction today because he had the opportunity to be Daddy's helper instead. We had been installing a counter top/bar-type table to our kitchen and Andrew helped with some of the final steps. He got to go to Lowes and help Daddy find things, he got to paint the wall a little, and he enjoyed some rare one-on-one time before Daddy goes back to his overtime schedule.
All in all, it was a great first day. We are looking forward to this year and hoping we can continue to do well when Kaitlyn starts crawling, walking and just being more demanding of our attention :-)
Just 5 more minutes, Mom!
Matthew - 2nd grade, age 7
Ashlyn, Kindergarten, age 5
Jessica, Kindergarten, age 5
Andrew, preschool, age 3
4 of my 5 cuties
They wanted to show off their backpacks
We get a little wild during Seeds Family Worship time
Who knew Scripture memory could be so much fun?
Here's to a terrific year of learning and growing!
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