We kicked off our school year Wednesday. It was less of a ribbon cutting than a slow meandering to the start thanks to our status not just as Straddle Parents, but as a fully functioning Straddle Family. Life has had a lot of perfect storms in the last week, and more are brewing just off the coast of our current day to day. Being good sailors on the sea of life and good stewards of the time we’ve been given has meant utilizing an extra measure of flexibility. Our first day of school, by necessity, fell in the midst of that. And we survived… even without celebratory donuts or a teatime with the most delicate cups.
It’s a funny feeling, as I knew it would be, having just these five to lead throughout the day. In multiple still moments I found myself making mental lists of what I needed to do, and checking in with Jack to see how he was doing was always the first thing. Having no high schoolers is both strangely freeing and also a little sad. But my goodness, these five are in such a delightful window that I really can’t complain.
John Mark is loving tackling his Bible in a Year (he figured out that this time next year, he will receive our family’s much celebrated Finishing Award of an ice cream cake and Nepali khukuri, ie. sword), and Birdie ran with her first book study, devouring it in two days rather than a week. Phineas was disappointed that Wednesday was not, in fact, his first day of our CC community, and honestly hasn’t really recovered from that, but is dutifully plodding along and can now tell you that buck deer lose their antlers in the spring. I was worried a bit that the gap in purposeful reading instruction would have set Simon back a bit, but to my surprise he picked up The Story of Columbus (affiliate link) and has needed minimal support to read it aloud to me. And eager, sweet Jude has had his first two reading lessons now and will joyfully tell you that “m” says “mmmmmm” because it is a Mighty Mountain, and “s” says “ssssssss” because it is the Silly Snake.
It’s good, good stuff over here.
The next week will continue to have abundant waves of disruption as our family briefly expands to fold in some older members (and honored guests) before sending them on to their own next port of call. Mary Hannah returns from her summer as a seasonal park ranger on Monday, but both she and Mathaus return to their college the following weekend.
And then, it will just be us. In our new rhythm, finding our sea legs, and learning to read the waters in which we find ourselves. I think it’s going to be a year of adventure, of growth, and of learning new things not just from books and activities and field trips, but also from life. I’m looking forward to see where the current takes us.