Yesterday, we “re-started” another homeschool year and made it really “official” by FINALLY enrolling the kids in Kolbe Academy. Below is a screen shot of the email that came with Kolbe’s Welcome Packet for enrolled families:

Yes, after much prayer, consultations with other homeschoolers (both enrolled locally and homeschooling independently, some with Kolbe, some not enrolled anywhere at all), more prayer, lots of wrestling with doubts and fears, we have decided to continue being independent homeschoolers.

We believe that it is God’s will for us, for now, but will always stay open to His leading. (I’d like to give a special “shout-out” to my friends and fellow homeschoolers over at Catholic Filipino Academy, The Master’s Academy and , who patiently entertained all my inquiries, answered all my questions and prayed with and for us during our discernment process — we are blessed by your love and support!)

Anyway, we didn’t do much formal academics yesterday, because I wanted to keep things light for the kids. We started off with a “special” brunch, in honor of Saint Therese of Lisieux’s Feast Day and to celebrate our 2 “school-going” children (“Tt” is for “Therese” — both the saint and the girl — and “Timothy”):

Cheese sandwiches for Rysse and whole wheat pancakes for Timothy! :)

After brunch, I had Tim take Kolbe’s End of First Grade Assessment Test. (Um, yeah, that’s how I “keep things light,” ha, ha!) He happily proceeded to continue building Lego creations after the test. I’ll try to write more about my thoughts on his test results and how I reacted later, because it totally calls for an entirely different post! Let’s just say I’m SO grateful to have fellow homeschooling moms who totally “get” me and my family! (*Waves and sends virtual hugs to Mommy Blessie!)

In the afternoon, I put the toddler down for a nap and let Rysse spend some time on Starfall.com, while Tim kept busy with his blocks. We also played “Buying, Buying,” so Rysse learned a bit about simple addition and identifying Philippine currency.

Later on, I let them watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (again, for the nth time!) while I prepared dinner. You can read Tim’s “review” of it here on his blog, if you want. He wrote it last week, and when I asked him to give me “a paragraph” about it yesterday, he basically said the same thing. 😉

The highlight of our day, of course, was our first “Nameday” celebration. I had been wanting to do this for the longest time, ever since I first saw it in other Catholic moms’ blogs. We didn’t do anything grand, but we did have cake!

The cake shop left out the “St.” part, even if I gave specific instructions about it! Oh well!

We also watched this super-short , and read about Saint Therese from this book. Even if we didn’t have anything special lined up, and our plans to play some St. Therese-inspired party games didn’t push through, it seems our little flower still enjoyed celebrating her Nameday!

On the other side of our choco roll, I had the people at Red Ribbon write, “Home is Cool” and “Mt. 6:33,” to commemorate our official first day of homeschooling. Matthew 6:33 is our family’s life verse, and the anchor verse of our homeschool (hence, the name, “Kingdom-Seekers’ Academy). :)

Finally, since October is traditionally the month of the Holy Rosary, we prayed the Rosary together before our usual bedtime read-alouds. Anthony and Tim took turns leading it. 🙂 If you have any prayer intentions, please feel free to share them with me via the comments, or on , and I’ll include them in our nightly prayers!

Whew! I know I said I’d try to do this every day but it seems like so much work! Ha, ha! 🙂 Should I or shouldn’t I keep this up, friends? 😉 What do you think?