I have to admit, I've come into this new school year feeling less ready and able than ever before. It's a year of a lot of firsts and firsts can be a little intimidating. For starters, it's my first year to have six students. Six! And yes, Eli fully counts as a student. : ) Secondly, as those students get older their work becomes a little more demanding. Combine that with the start of co-op classes for the big kids and a few little preschoolers that I don't want to unintentionally leave behind and you have a teacher being pulled in lots of different directions and all at the same time. I felt anxious to come up with the perfect schedule that would flow seamlessly from the very start, one that allowed for uninterrupted time with each child while the others all continued on peacefully and joyfully with their own work. I wanted to be certain that the little boys would be content to go and play sweetly (and quietly! and without fighting!) after their preschool time and that Eli would take consistently long morning naps so that the big kids could work efficiently. I had hoped to have worked out a good cleaning routine so that each of the major jobs were accomplished on their given day throughout the week. I was planning on returning to my weekly menu planning so that dinners were already thought of and prepared for each night and all of the necessary ingredients were in the kitchen ready and waiting.....

I'm glad the my six students were far too ready and willing to begin our new school year to wait for me to attempt to pull everything together and hold on to it all as if my life depended upon it. Yes, I am more disorganized at the start of this year than I ever have been before. Our summer has been wild and busy and I'm coming into this school year a little more weary than refreshed. I've worried that not having these details nailed down before hand was going to wreak havoc on our school day and that we weren't going to be able to accomplish all that I know we need to accomplish.

Today we jumped in with both feet and the Lord has been good to remind me that my job is not to be the perfect teacher who fills my students heads with all of the perfect facts, but rather their loving mother who loves them, disciplines them and teaches them about Jesus. And as impossible as that job feels sometimes it sure feels a whole lot easier and more freeing than my attempts at perfection!

I am excited about this year. I am really looking forward to the topics we will discover and learn together, I'm excited about the conversations we will have now that our kids are old enough to begin to process the information that they are learning rather than just take it in as fact, and I'm relieved to have been given a fresh perspective on my role as teacher to these students.

I may be a little biased, but I think I have the best roster of any classroom around.

Back to school joy...