A Jedi Birthday

Day 2

Of course, since yesterday went so well, today was supposed to be the same, right?  Wrong!

Today was entirely different, and for a person who thrives on routines, it was a bit of a challenge.  Although, how much of a routine could we have established after one day of home schooling.  Today was the home school Jedi's birthday!  Of course that meant he couldn't sleep last night out of insane excitement and he was up at 6am ready to open his gifts.  I was only just coming in from at run at 7:00 and everyone was waiting on me at the kitchen table.  I thought I was the early riser in this family.

Swiftly, the Jedi opened his gifts and soon the Jedi Master and Jedi Sis were off to her school.  Then, the Jedi began his work...washing the dog?  What?  When did this kid get so helpful.  Sure, the dog stinks, but that's an ongoing issue...

One soaking dog and kitchen later...

The Jedi was back to his lessons.  I've been writing out lesson plans (yes, I know, nerd alert!) and he knows what we'll be working on together and what he needs to complete individually.  After we had our instructional time I let him work independently while I worked on my own school assignments. 

Fortunately, I only have one paper this week - woo hoo!  Last week I had three...and they were big 5-7 page papers each.  Anyhow, as the Jedi worked he occasionally had a question, but since both of us are pretty well-behaved, we didn't distract one another too much.  Then 10:30am hit.  He was finished.  Are you kidding me? 

When I wrote those lesson I feared it was going to take him too long and that he'd hate home schooling.  Well, he proved me wrong!  Looks like I'm going to have to re-work those lesson plans.  I'm sure we'll slow down when the work gets harder, but really, I was surprised how quickly he finished and still did an outstanding job.  God is good. 

I had the Jedi log on to the internet to work on a science curriculum I hadn't planned on starting until next week, but hey, he's supposed to do 4 1/2 hours of instructional time and I follow the rules.  Meanwhile, I did get a little more work done on my paper, but in no time it was lunch time. 

I think what I loved best about today was that the Jedi was really motivated.  After lunch we were able to play the new board game we gave him for his birthday, Act Your Wage!  Our family is on the Dave Ramsey plan and the Jedi actually really wanted this game.  We had a great time playing it and laughed when the Jedi won screaming, "I'm debt free!" 

The day wrapped up with youth group and the Jedi got to spend a couple of hours hanging out with his fellow padawans and hear about having a Bull's Eye faith.  I'm still waiting to hear more details on what he learned, but he'll blab when he's ready.