First day of school 2021

“There are all kinds of courage,” said Dumbledore, smiling.  “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

My busy assistants helping me with teacher inservice.

I’ve been reading Harry Potter to Jason of an evening.  He enjoys the bedtime story, and I’m delighted at how fully he’s been drawn into the story, since he’s only watched the far-inferior movies.  Dumbledore and so many other characters are full of wise remarks and the complete story is so profoundly satisfying.

At the end of the summer we spend two evenings at the county fair—one night to work in the Ruritan snack stand on behalf of the swim team, and the other to play.  (Did you know you can deep-fry hot dogs, and that they let 9-year-olds prepare the food? Totally worth the $12.)

I had child labor to help me get the school room ready for the new year—thankfully, they did a ton of work for me.

And then we started school!  We had to gather quickly before Jeddy’s 8am physics class and snap a few first day shots so he could log on, and the rest of us have embarked on school really without him.  

One leg is out of the nest.

The whole dynamic of school is changing, since Lizzy does a huge portion of her work on her own now; she and Ada will do assignments and then make me a “homework” pile of things ready for me to check when I’m done with Caleb’s lessons.  

Day one in science: we made ice cream (because chemistry).  They all three promptly decided science was their favorite subject.  That may have changed on day two when they had to look up definitions and write a report, but day one was surely a success.

Our fuzziest student.

Jeddy has an appointment in a few weeks to take his driver’s license test; Lizzy is learning to type; Caleb started piano lessons; Ada went on a youth group retreat…. And just to drive home how old I really am, a young woman who was a student in a 5th-grade Sunday school class that I taught is now teaching my child in Sunday school.  

Circle of life and all that.  You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Praise God that as I seem to age faster and faster, I am hurtling toward the day when I meet Jesus face to blessed face.

Also we took the kids to a Japanese steakhouse, where they cook the food in front of you and spin the knives around and all that.  And just for fun, the chef got out a samurai sword, blindfolded himself, and prepared to slice a small paper that Caleb held out.  No children were harmed in the performance of this trick.  Also, Caleb may be flinching, but he didn’t back down.

*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

*James 4:14