Back to School

Call me sick, but I love everything about the first day of school!  Even as an adult and homeschooling parent, I still love that first day of school.  When the first school supplies start to arrive in the stores, I just to go through the aisle and smell all the supplies and check them out! 

So, here we are again, at the beginning of the school year!  After I come down from the high of smelling all the supplies and new books, I have the business of getting that first day started.  Of course, I didn't get ready until the night before (by waiting until the night before, it prolongs the fact that summer is over already).

I have to say, as my oldest two children worked away at their computers and I was helping my two middle children with experiments for science class (pictured above), and the baby is running around trying to get everyone to play, it was a great moment in life!  I love to homeschool, mostly, because I love to be with my kids all day as they learn new things, and I love the fact that what they learn is up to me, not the school system.  But most of all, I love to see the adventure of it in their eyes.

Although, by day 3, everyone is tired of the whole experience of working at school all day and some are sick of homework and the new books don't have as much appeal of the first day, it's still all very rewarding to share together as a family, the growing and learning in life.

Oh, the experiment that made me snap this picture was drinking juice like a butterfly.  We are studying butterflies and learned by trying to sip juice through a straw (proboscis of the butterfly), pretending the ice is like sand that the butterfly sips water out of.  We measured the juice before putting in the ice and then measured how much they could sip out in the second cup.  Not the cleanest experiment, but the kids loved this one!  They wanted to dump it back in and try it again.  I love these kind of hands on activities (minus the mess.)  The kids always understand things better when the try things out.

What to you love most about the first day of school?