Banman Academy Year 3 Begins

Please let me introduce to you....

the class of 2012-2013!

Mikayla Grace.

{almost} 13

Serious, perceptive, caring, helpful.

Interests: Dance, Taylor Swift, AIO, reading.

Do I even have to say it?

{yes, yes I do...here it comes..}

When did she grow so big?

She gets two pics cause she's starting middle school:)

Mailee Joy

{almost}11

Sweet, particular, fun-loving, jokester, sensitive.

Interests: Collecting Barbies, Taylor Swift, fashion, Paris.

Again...

What's up with all these girls growing up before my eyes!?!

Maddie Faith

8

Focused, conscientious, exuberant, multi-talented, thoughtful.

Interests: Giranimo Stilton, Taylor Swift, animals, Adventures In Odyssey.

Caleb Michael

6

Full-throddle, Black and White, kindhearted, intense.

Interests: Lego, Star Wars, WII.

Caity Hope

3

Loud, confident, indépendant, grown up too fast!

Interests: Lalaloopsies, play dough, Dora The Explorer, Grandma Crick.

Oh little cutie pie!!

She gets two pictures because it's her first year in school!

Mike surprised the kids by dressing up and making an appearance as the principal!

The teacher and her class!

(plus an extra...and why yes, that is a toothbrush she is holding.}

What a great bunch of kids!

I love them and I have high hopes for this year!

The honest truth is I am exhausted from our first day back to school.

There were unknown passwords for the online courses, a lost CD for science, lots of "mom, Mom MOM!'s" (all at once usually) a schedule that didn't get followed and a few cranky impatient moments from yours truly.

I want this to be a productive and enjoyable character-building, faith changing, academically challenging kind of year.

I don't want to just survive or "kind-of" finish.

You know?

I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day and God has grace for me and our school's imperfections!

First Day Of School 2011

We started school today!

I have 4 school aged kids!

(stick with me...there's a video at at the end!!!)

Meet my students....

Caleb Michael

Loud, boisterous, clever, into puzzles and lego and baseball.

Maddie Faith

Can-do attitude, precise, math-minded, observant, loves animals and purple.

Mailee Joy

Careful, imaginative, sensitive, detail oriented, loves all things pretty and romantic.

Mikayla Grace

Organized, ambitious, responsible, intuitive, loves reading and quality time.

The classroom line-up!

We have a little sweetheart that will be doing preschool alongside the big kids.

Here she is!

Caity Hope

Confident, clever, determined, loves pink, potty training and reading stories.

Our kids with the Principal!

Teacher and her students.

The kids are obsessed with lockers.  This is something we do not have in our {home}school.  Today they were talking about a hilarious poem about a locker. (They saw this on Good Luck Charlie) They decided to act it out for their first day project.

Check it out.

First Day Of {HOME} School

Potentially, we could have started at 10.  We could have worn our jammies all day, we could have gone to the beach with a bunch of the other homeschoolers for the "not back to school beach day".

We could have.

But we didn't.  

That's not us.

At least that's not me.

We got up at 7, made beds, ate breakfast, did hair, got dressed, stood out front and took the traditional "back to school" photo and were all ready to go at 8am.  All that went really smoothly and quite "perfectly" for the most part.  The rest of the day was a little rough and not quite as seamless as I envisioned it.

I didn't think about the fact that my kids would still act like my kids during school hours.
I guess I thought they would display the exemplary behaviour I have heard about over the years from their school teachers.

Not so much.

All the same family drama followed us into the schoolroom.

"She's sitting too close"
"you took my pencil"
"that's not fair"
"I want a snack"
"No! I don't want to do that"

At times I was wondering if this was going to work but I had a peace the entire day.  I had one thought that kept rolling through my head; the kids are home with me, that these hours together are going to be quality hours of working toward a goal together as a team, that their character and the health of their souls is going to be enriched by these hours spent together and that this is such a fantastic opportunity to embrace this role that I have as their mother, their teacher, their sister in Christ!!

As comforting as those thoughts were, they were battled by the rest of my feelings.  I get hung up on the schedule and the panic that it may not all get done or that we may fall into laziness or that we {I} might fail miserably.

YIKES!!!  I suppose I need to relax a bit.  K maybe a lot but give me a break, baby steps please!

Anyways, I am excited to try again tomorrow.  All the kids were also very eager to know what we would do tomorrow so I think that is all in all a WIN for team Banman!

I must add here that Mike is the best team-mate a girl could ask for!  He has taken on the math responsibility, been willing to help and offer encouragement, and he's cute to look at too:)

And the rest of our team...

Caleb: Starting Preschool.

Maddie: Starting Grade One

Mailee: Starting Grade Four
(she won the award for changing her outfit the most times before school started:)

Mikayla: Starting Grade Five
(she had hot pink converse she was planning to wear for the picture but she had freshly painted nails so that prevented her from being able to put on her shoes:)...thought you may appreciate the inside scoop!!

Look at those little scholars!

Never too young to learn something new!
(check out that new owie...she ran into the corner of a wall yesterday)

So proud of his finished project!

My little *teeny* bit of structure!
(they wipe things off as they finish their tasks.  When their row is clear, they are done for the day!)

Maddie spending some learning time with Caiters.  SO cute!

Here she is showing off her "work".  She was very proud and so was Maddie!

Posing for my picture, my last little team member!  Caitlyn: not yet a school girl but VERY interested in all the new activity at our house!!

I am excited to take on this new challenge.  Not sure how I will make bows and plan birthdays and sleep and have a new baby too but I am sure that God has a plan and the more I ask, the more He will guide me.