It's Almost Labor Day....

which in MI means that schools are gearing up to go back to school. Sad time of the year, eh? Due to some law passed, all (public) schools start after Labor Day. Here at our house, we start tomorrow! No, not private school nor charter school.

We are homeschooling Ethan this year! And we start tomorrow. Some thoughts that run through my head frequently are: "YIKES!!!!!! Yes, God is sovereign. God will lead us through all of this. Breathe. BREATHE!!! This is the best decision for our family. BREATHE!!"

We were planning on starting after Labor Day, however my sis and bro-in-law were planning on coming back from Ghana on the 6th. How can you disrupt a schedule if one doesn't exist? Moreover, how can you get back on track once disrupted? If I don't start tomorrow, I think it will be much harder to get back on track. Never mind the fact that they are now trying to extend their stay. :-)

Ethan is excited for school to start! I think he is excited to be able to work at his pace, which seems to be faster than the pace at school last year. According to his stardardized testing results, he's reading at a 3rd grade level, doing math at a 1st or 2nd grade level, and out-performing many children his age. From February until school ended, he started causing "trouble" -- getting up out of his seat, wandering, calling answers out in class, distracting other students -- because he was bored and already had a good grasp on what was being taught.

What about Isaac, you may ask? Well, the prevailing thought was that he would continue with pre-school at the school he attended last year; he doesn't meet the age cut-off to start Kindergarten this fall. Then, yesterday on the way home from church, a crazy thought occured: Why don't we homeschool him too? It would lessen the stress and drive time of racing across town to the preschool, set up "school" for Ethan and be much less running around that we would be doing, i.e. more time for school, learning, and reading. The tuition cost would equal 2 or 3 months of preschool. We plan on introducing him to a Kindergarten 4 curriculum and more advanced concepts, although he is having a hard time accepting the fact that Pluto is no longer a planet. When I asked him about homeschooling, he was so excited! He said, "Oh yes, I would like to be homeschooled!"

I plan to keep Scrapping and Stamping, along with monthly workshops, day-crops, and teaching classes. This will all keep me very busy!