All four of us made it through the first week of school. Whew! It’s the hardest week of the year. For teachers, at least!

So far I am pretty impressed with Davidson Academy. The kids have adjusted well and have already learned so much! On the way to school yesterday, Ephraim said, “God made light. God made the sun, and the trees, and the animals. God made houses and trucks and the ice cream truck.” 🙂

Madeleine corrected him, “I think people made houses and trucks.” I said, “Well, God made the materials we use to build them – like we use wood to build houses.”

Then Ephraim continued with a 3-year-old version of the garden of Eden. “And God made the tree and said no! No eating it! But the snake came and they got in trouble!”

Wow! In one week, he’s learned the stories of the Creation and the Fall!

Madeleine studied creation this week, too, and on the way home yesterday, she said, “I don’t get it. If God created everything on earth, didn’t he create dinosaurs?” She knows that dinosaurs were around before humans, so I understand her confusion. I am no expert on evolution/creation, but I don’t think the seven “days” were necessarily 24-hour periods. However, I didn’t think she would understand that. I just said, “Well, maybe God created them when he created all the other animals.”

Madeleine had a memory verse, which she memorized without my help, really. And she had her first homework assignment, which was to design sort of a paper-doll version of herself using any materials she wanted. That took almost an hour! She had to do it all herself! She used photographs, yarn, tissue paper, craft pom-poms, crayons, and markers to create Paper Madeleine.

The kids have both had Spanish class this week, and they both told me, “Hola!” when I picked them up after school that day. Madeleine has been singing songs in Spanish all week. She’s a natural!

When I picked up Ephraim yesterday, the first thing he did was go to his bag and say, “Come here! I want to show you something!” He pulled out a little toy dragon. I said, “Where did you get that?” He said, “From the treasure chest!” Ah! The treasure chest. Doesn’t every teacher have one? This was Ephraim’s first experience with the treasure box, and he was delighted.

My first week was good. Other than dealing with a few crying little ones (Pre-K and K kids want Mama for the first few weeks), I had no major ordeals. My students are precious and I am enjoying them so much! Steven had a pretty stressful week between teaching and coaching middle school volleyball. Hopefully things will get better.