first day of school 2014/2015

This is will technically be our 9th year homeschooling. We count from the very beginning:  Noah's birth. We have had to teach him everything since then after all! But more officially, we've been doing this since he was three for preschool in 2008. Crazy looking at this old post from that time.  

After that, there was formal Sonlight preschool when Noah was four. Here's all of our books, which was crazy because it was JUST preschool and he did not need all of that stuff! It was definitely more like kindergarten or even first grade! I was so worried though.

Then we had so much curriculum left over and I didn't want Noah to be the youngest boy in his class (April 19 birthday) that we decided to hold him back for kindergarten. So when Noah was five, we did preschool again, using up the other half of our Sonlight preschool curriculum. 

Finally then there was Kindergarten when Noah was six.

For First Grade in Rapid City, Noah was 7 years old and Evie did preschool at four. 

For Second and Third grade Noah was 8 years old and Evie did Kindergarten at five.

And this year, for third/fourth grade Noah is 9 years old and Evie is doing 1st grade. I've decided that Noah is too old to be doing 3rd grade and he's ahead already so we're pretty much doing 4th grade work this year.

That was a fun trip down memory lane for me! Wow, we've come so far already.

In South Dakota, in order to homeschool, all you have to do is fill out a little form and get it on file with your school district. Evie and I took care of that on the last possible day - the Friday, August 22nd, before school started in Rapid City (and our home) on the 25th. She wanted her photo taken in front of the School Administration's funny blue fountain. 

So Monday, August 25th, dawned clear and bright and we started school. I had good intentions of getting Noah ahead in some subjects over the summer to get him closer to 4th grade work, but that did not happen. So we started cold turkey. This is what I found when I went down to the nearly remodeled school room:  The kids are also learning piano this year. Not Samuel though. Just Evie and Noah.

One last relaxing rest on the couch before we buckled down. 

Okay, so maybe I took some photos real quick first. Here's 1 year old Ezra who is learning to...walk better. Yeah. 

Next is three and a half year old Samuel who is continuing to improve his caveman speech through some speech therapy and the school district's communication preschool. 

Goofy six year old Evie is doing first grade. 

Firstborn (in every sense of the word) Noah, who is nine, is essentially doing 4th grade. 

I had to get a group shot before we sat down at the table together and realized how difficult it was to begin after a long summer break. Here we are blissfully unaware.

Everyone knows home schooled kids are "weird" so here you go.