Yee-haw!!

Well, we made it through the first two days of school!!! YEA! It's really unbelievable. This is our 3rd year homeschooling. Branche is now a 6th grader...eeek! You just don't know how thankful I am that I do not have to even contemplate what this year would hold if he was still in public school. I shudder to think!!! Truly!!! I am so thankful to God that he MADE me homeschool my boys!!! Our first two days have been fantastic in a couple ways and predictably hard in others. First, the hard way...Carter. Being "on the autistic spectrum" he's my special challenge. Mostly he's my special sweetie....in school however, he's not always so sweet! He's spent a LOT of time screaming, but hey....it's truly just the change. He does NOT deal with upheaval and scedual changes well. So, the first week or so will just be torture!!! I know it'll get better. Now, the good stuff!!! Branche was my real challenge the past two years, being that he did NOT want to be homeschooled, hated math, and language arts. THIS year, I made some changes....we discovered "Teaching Textbooks" math program...done on the computer, he LOVES it!!! I don't even have to grade his math...it's on the computer, so it's automatic!!! yahoo! Also, I switched the language arts program to "The Latin Road to English Grammar". Yahoo! He hasn't even gotten mad or yelled about it or asked to skip it! WoohOO! ALSO!!! He loves the new art program I got him, it came with a cool backpack full of supplies...he's in LOVE! ALSO, I love Sonlight...he's so excited about the new books we get to read this year. We're studying the Eastsern Hemisphere and the 10/40 window. Really cool, considering this is the part of the world about which I know the least! Also there's this notebook thingy they invented called "THe Eastern Hemisphere Explorer" . It's directed research that he does primarily with the World Book encyclopedia CDs. WHich by the way, I HIGHLY recommend!!He absolutely loves it. I thought he was gonna complain endlessly about it because every week you pick a special project to work on as well as your normal research stuff....so it seems like "extra" work. That's his favorite part so far!! LOL!!!! MAn, I'm lovin' it this year! I know, I know, we're two days into it. But trust me....it's not always this good even or especially the first week!!! I kid you not!!! My first week of homeschooling ever was a real ordeal. I had a headache every day by lunch. I cried evey afternoon. I just wanted to call the public school and say "Hey, I made a mistake...my religious beliefs definitely include giving you my kids for 12 or 13 yrs.!!!" Ha. Anyway, that's gone. That was for those who may be considering homeschooling or have started it and it hurts.....it'll get better. It would be hard for your first experience to be worse than mine!! HA! ANyway, I need to go to sleep...I'm worn out from all the excitement! HA! J