A shoes-optional classroom

It will go down in history as the most anticlimactic first day of school ever. There was no special breakfast or box of new supplies. We simply...started school.

In reality, most things seem anticlimactic after your little brother leaves home in an ambulance and mom and dad don't come home with him for four days. That little adventure pushed our first day of second grade and kindergarten back a week, and that's kind of the beauty of homeschooling. Life happens. We roll with it.

In an effort to regain some sense of normalcy, we took our first day of school pictures, and did some math and language arts and reading and history that the kids seemed to really enjoy. Although I'm fully anticipating the wonder and excitement of being "back to school" will wear off eventually.

Abby's starting second grade, and I'm no longer able to ignore the fact that she is hurtling through elementary school at an alarming rate. Caleb is starting kindergarten, which the state considers totally optional, and so do I. So we're not going to overdo it this year. He has lots of reading, writing and 'rithmatic, and plenty of free time to play on his syllabus.

Caleb thinks it's awesome that he gets to do math now, since Abby spent most of the summer building it up as this really Big Kid thing he would get to do in kindergarten. Abby is excited to have Caleb joining her for science this year. Since we're studying bodies of water and swimming creatures and our science book is filled with sharks, it was kind of an easy decision.

School took about two hours this morning, and nobody got yelled at. I'd say that's a good start.

We'll see how the next 179 days go.