The One Where It's Box Day

I love getting ready to start a new year of school. Yesterday our box of new books came from Sonlight Curriculum. The people I know who use Sonlight affectionately refer to the day our books arrive as "Box Day". Some families celebrate Box Day with great fanfare. The kids delve into the box and eagerly look at each book with anticipation of what adventures it holds.

My boys look at the box and groan. They only see work and loss of summer fun. So, I have my own Box Day party without them. New books make me happy. I love to open them and smell each book. "New book" smell is even better than "new car" smell. I love putting color coded stickers on each book to identify the curriculum package it covers. I love putting together my Instructor's Guide and carefully placing each week's assignment into tabbed binders.

To start my Box Day party I carefully unpacked the contents of the box. It excites me to see the sheer volume of books that we will cover this year. The new books I order each year are always for Austin. Sonlight is a literature rich curriculum. We rarely use consumable workbooks, so I can always re-use Austin's books with Noah.

After I get the color coded stickers on the binding I am ready to put them on their shelf. I love looking at our shelf and seeing our whole school year lined up for us at a glance. I am tempted to open one of the books and begin reading it. I don't. I love to share the new adventure of each book right alongside the boys.

I love standing back and looking at all of the books I've gathered over our 9 years of homeschooling. The giant bookshelf in our room is big enough to hold books 2 layers deep. There are actually double the amount of books on the shelf than what you can see in the picture!

I spent the week before Box Day tidying up our much neglected school room. During the summer months it becomes the catch-all for homeless items. Getting the room organized and in order is such a peaceful feeling. I love having all of our books for the upcoming week lined up on the table with the Instructor's Guide nearby. It makes me feel ready.

I love our school room. I love the art projects the boys have done. I love the ceiling tiles they have painted. I especially love the NASA posters. My Aunt Connie stood in line for her entire lunch hour one day at a NASA convention to get them for us. Austin is especially interested in all things sky related. We were thrilled to add these awesome posters to our walls.

Monday starts a new era for us. I will be homeschooling a high schooler this year. Austin will be in 9th grade. The sheer impact of what that means can be terrifying. This is when it really counts. Noah will be in 5th grade. It is such an awesome feeling to know that I get to be there to share their educational journey. I am grateful!