Back to School!

The Academy is in full swing--okay, partial swing. We can never start off with FULL swing. That's just bonkers :) 

This year the Crew chose a circus theme for our classroom. It's my annual chance to be creative and play with things like foam paper and school glue :) The door design reminds me throughout the year which grade everyone is in . . . my tightrope walker in 10th, my juggler in 9th, my ringmaster in 7th, and Mr. Muscles in 6th. Any and all guests are required to join our circus (since there's no place else for them to sleep, ha :)



Graysen said he wished he had real muscles like his door character; I told him he'd better grow the moustache first. Our neighbor said he's got a great sense of humor, and that's better than muscle or a moustache any day! He certainly can be our class clown on occasion. He said very matter-of-factly at a dinner table discussion this week that, "Caelan is more mature than the other three of us all together." Buck and I were cracking up! Some were offended, some agreed :)



The principal stopped by after his doctor appointment to check out the classroom and pray for the school year. He's got a couple of curriculum things picked out that he wants me to look at adding to the roster for him to teach the kids, and he is doing a Bible study with the boys, while I do a study with the girls this year. Neat that he's home to get that rolling!



As you can see we have  A LOT of books! Nearly all the science came from my high school neighbor, Pam, who homeschooled her crew and then gifted me with giant boxes of curriculum before she, so very sadly, passed away from cancer a couple of years ago. I think of her every time I see those books, and remember her loving generosity and the giant hug, that she knew was goodbye, that she gave me.

Could you guess that the bunk has turned into a circus wagon? Those wheels took me the better part of the Young Messiah movie I was watching on the kids' computer. Whew, I know the boyhood account was historical fiction, but the times Jesus grew up in were so ugly! He was called a man of sorrow for a reason. 

Back to the wagon: the fabric for the curtains was almost a steal at Hobby Lobby; it may become clothes in the future because Gabby has her eye on it :) And did you see the familiar face peeking out from the circus wagon? It's our supervising grandma, festively dressed for the circus theme! Oh how the kids giggled when they saw her. Who knew that missing our farewell picture last year would lead to so many fun photogenic opportunities in the future?

A lot of the classroom décor was chosen by Buck when we did our Hobby Lobby date (maybe because he wanted out of there as quickly as possible :) He came up with the characters for the door, and insisted I buy wall stickers of animals. I turned them into a pyramid balanced on a ball, and Brennen said that was his third favorite thing in the room. The first was the rainbow canopy *big top,* then Grandma J with a clown nose, and then the pyramid. 

Getting the elastic glitter bands to stick to the shelves was no easy feat. I finally bought some Command strips for posters and laid them sideways on the shelving. I'm hoping they'll remove as easily horizontally as they are supposed to when pulled straight down. But THAT I don't have to think about until next year :)


We're on day three of school, heading towards day four and so far no one has cried (well, at least school-related tears) and we're getting the hang of the curriculum. There is a lot of piece-mealing this year (is that the right expression?), so I'm starting to see some gaps in the planning and scheduling of our schooldays. But that's part of why we start off slowly, so I can get those things straightened out effectively without going into a "IT NEEDS TO BE PERFECT RIGHT NOW" crazy spiral. It will never be perfect, but I think *pretty awesome* works just fine for us :)