Back To School

The Rowe Family Beach Trip 2010

Well, summer is almost officially over now.  Labor Day weekend is approaching and you know what that means... back to school!  As a homeschooling parent this is not perhaps as difficult or heart wrenching for me as for some other parents.  I am blessed to be able to have my kids around me most of the day.  Well, lets say that is a mixed blessing.  But seriously, I am grateful for this opportunity to educate and encourage my children and be present there with them each day, though it is a great responsibility.

The picture above is a wonderful reminder of the great memories our family has created this summer.  We had lots of fun!  But I think I am now ready for our school year to begin.  If you had asked me a couple weeks ago if I was ready I would have emphatically said "No way!", but I think I'm good now.

  I am in the process of collecting all those wonderful books we will be learning from this year, fabulous living books as the great educator Charlotte Mason would call them.  And I have to say, I LOVE books!  Love love love them... am happy to have many shelves devoted to them, love being surrounded by them.  So getting this year's curriculum is not a burden to me, albeit a financial one!  Amazon is my friend.

So off we go into the 2010-2011 school year!  I am looking forward to it-- the reading, the field trips, the sojourns into the city to see the children's theater perform, and so much more.  I am especially looking forward to one big change.... our foster daughter will be joining us!  Her adoption is nearing completion and her social workers agreed to let us homeschool her. Hip Hip Hooray!!! (Can you tell I am excited??!!)  I think it will be a great opportunity to further integrate her into our family.  It was always so difficult to have her separated from us during the day and having her own schedule of things she had to complete at night.  I really don't think it was healthy for her to be apart from us that way, definitely didn't help the bonding process.  But there wasn't anything we could do about it.  Now all that changes and I am so very glad!

So as we move through the year, I am sure I will have lots more to blog about on here as our homeschooling journey continues, all our activities resume and normal life rolls along.  Of course there will be more on adoption too, as that was one of the main reasons for me starting this in the first place.  So................ AWAY WE GO!