And then there were two.

The twins started 3rd grade today and now I only have two kids with me most of the day.

Did you hear that?

Yeah.
Me neither.
It's ridiculously quiet in this house right now.

Here's the one decent picture I managed to capture as they were eating breakfast. As soon as we stepped outside to take the requisite front-door-first-day-of-school picture my lens fogged up with the humidity. So we'll have a re-do session when they get home today.  Because really, the humid pics look like I am sending my precious kids to school in shorts in the middle of a snow storm in August. Not cool.

Big boys are being home schooled this year for 7th and 8th grade using a mostly online program that is nothing short of totally awesome. It definitely fits their ages and their learning styles. As I was discussing/commenting with Annie the other day, It's amazing how you start out in life with these grand declarations:

I will have two children. Two is perfect!
Uhhh. yeah right.
They will have a hot breakfast every morning!
Cereal anyone?
I would never have twins! I know nothing about having twins!
Uhhhh. yeah.
Adopt? I know nothing about adoption. Certainly that's not for us.
Uhhh...big yeah.
We will always be in private Christian education!
Let's inventory shall we, after 7 years in private school we now have:
Two in public school. We are incredibly happy there.
Two being home-schooled. Incredibly excited.
Two in China TBD on where they will be educated...but let's just say you would have to pry them away from me with the strength of 12 enormous men before I let them go anywhere anytime soon! :) I've missed out on 6 & 7 years of their life already, I don't intend to miss much more by having them gone all day, but we will follow their lead and see what will work for them.

I think you learn after a few years that what works for one may not work for all. (Talking to myself here so that I can read this 35 years from now and remember what I have learned.) They are each unique beings hand crafted by the Maker. Since He took such great care and delight in forming them I need to take great care and delight in finding who they are, and specifically, in regards to this, how they best learn. Will we always home-school? No idea. One year at a time. As they change and grow we will change with them. 

Jason and Jordan's program does not start until September 8th.
It's August 9th.

They have two words for this:
Par-tay!
I have two words for this:
Read-ing! 
(My word wins.) 

We are going to be reading the biography of Rosa Parks and then taking a trip to some local museums that feature her and her life.
Week one.
Then we are going to do the same for Martin Luther King. Complete with tours and museums.
Week two.
Week three is all about Abe. We just returned from a visit to his official presidential library and museum which, hello....was amazing.

Follow that up with some testing and preparation and we can fully say hello to school year 2010-2011!