First day of school!

  We had a great first day of school today. After breakfast, the kids went in the front yard for their hour of outside time. I cleaned up the kitchen and then went outside, sat on the porch, and watched them play. It’s so nice to just sit 🙂

  As I had suspected, they [minus Rhonda, 15, and Carrie, 14] played Indians the whole time. The kids love playing Indians; they started the game about five years ago and haven’t stopped since. They sneak around the house or yard, using whistles, bird calls, and sign language to communicate, and spy on the white people–any family members not playing the game. They even have their own language made up, which every single one of them–even Lauren [4] and Thomas [5]–have memorized. The ten words and phrases most commonly heard around the house are plums [okay], flower [spy], waty [home], rock [no], broom [hush], hopicis [hello], piney [thank you], put-say [come on], dove nuf? [what is that?], and quackly [wait].

  When we came in, we had Bible time, and then they separated into their respective groups to do their school [the groups can be read about in my post Back to School]. We had a half-hour for chores before lunch.

  Lauren and Lindsay [12] were my lunch helpers today. Two of the kids help me with lunch every day, and two help with dinner. They love to switch, however [today Lauren was supposed to help with dinner but wanted lunch instead, so she switched with Carrie], which makes my life very complicated. 🙂

  Lunch cleanup went quickly, as did spelling, history, and reading. The little ones were down for a nap by 2:15; now the others are scattered around the house, reading, sewing, crashing monster trucks into the chairs of the ones who are reading and sewing, and the like. I think we’ll go to the playground this afternoon–there’s a large playground approximately two minutes up the road from our house.

  The first day of school doesn’t always go smoothly–hardly ever, in fact.

  This year, it did.