BOX DAY!!

I was thinking this morning, as I checked tracking information online for the seventeenth time, about how I could explain the joy of Box Day to a non-homeschooler, or a new one who hasn't experienced it yet. I thought that first I should lead off with a definition.

Box Day (n.) - any day in which a homeschooling family receives new homeschooling supplies via mail, UPS or FedEx. Although typically books, may include software, manipulatives, etc. A homeschooling family may have many box days throughout the school year, but the primary Box Day is the day on which the majority of the coming year's school supplies arrive, usually in a large box.

We actually received a large-ish padded envelope along with our big box today; inside was our geography curriculum for the year, Around the World in 180 Days. I'll admit, it looks very, very dry on in the inside...but the whole point is to investigate everything from other sources, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Anyway...how to describe to you the feelings invoked by the arrival of the box on Box Day? Well, Rachael actually summed it up quite well for me this year. As I was removing the tape from our giant box from ChristianBook.com, she said, "It's just like a birthday or Christmas!" Ah, yes, the gift of education. Love that girl.

As you can see, the girls were quite excited to get past the wads of paper and to the actual contents of the box. I am so glad that they share my love of a brand new book, unopened, unread, fresh and full of possibilities. And then, there they were:

I started pulling out book after book, and each one was met with ooh's and aah's from the peanut gallery. Even the math book was well received, which is a drastic improvement over last year's boo's and groans. Milly was thrilled when a book came out of the box that was just for her. After looking through it for a few minutes, she hastened it away to upstairs locations unknown, where her sister would be sure to not lay one grubby hand upon it. (I finally convinced her to bring it back down and leave it with all of our other school books.)

Rachael was quite happy with all of the selections, but was most enamored (unsurprisingly) with the art book. She was also quite happy to see Volume 2 of her beloved history curriculum, even if it did come with a test booklet (gasp) and an accompanying activity guide roughly the size of the New York telephone directory.

Although I didn't take pictures of what came next, I can assure you that I spent quite some time paging through each book myself, and already have my lesson plan for next week nearly complete. I also took much nerdish delight in the installing of Switched-On Schoolhouse, playing with the background themes and customizing the assignment calendar, and I can't wait to do the tutorial with Rachael on Monday.

The best thing about Box Day, other than seeing the delight on my girls' faces as they looked through their new books? They're begging me to start school tomorrow instead of ghoulishly forcing them wait until Monday. (How many public-school kids do that?! I certainly didn't.)

But wait they shall, for Mrs. Mommy needs to finish with the lesson plans. Besides, the first day of school is always a special day, and I have to plan for that too.

And now, I'll be in the kitchen poring over our new math curriculum if anyone needs me.