Nine More Days

My husband of 25.5 years and myself will leave our home on January 4, 2013 with a van stuffed full of college paraphernalia and our firstborn child…. to just drop her off in Oklahoma and run for the border.  It’s a first for our family.  Children leaving the nest.  Much preparation, turmoil, tears and rejoicing have gone into this event.  Way more turmoil than I originally anticipated for a college departure.

There are nine more days to teach her everything she needs to know for infinity and beyond.  That is the key right there that keeps me from losing it… again.  Infinity and beyond is what really matters.  Kingdom thinking.  Have we prepared our daughter (the one who once asked for scotch tape and a box of envelopes for Christmas) to love God and serve people?  That people are more important than things?  To build others up and give a helping hand?

Yes, she plowed through algebra and ancient world history… but that is knowledge and not necessarily wisdom.  Wisdom is what matters in life.  Proverbs says that we should seek after wisdom and that it is found in those who take advice.  And wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men.

Yes, she can effectively run a household, hold down a job and save money… but it is her heart that matters.  Getting to this point with child number one has helped me focus with children numbers 2,3 and 4.  They will also make it through algebra and ancient world history… but I need to be an example of love to them no matter the circumstances.

My firstborn daughter and I watched Les Miserables in the theater in Mission, B.C., Canada last night.  My favorite line was “To love another person is to see the face of God.”  A GREAT movie to see before heading off to college.

(I can do this. I can do this.  I can do this.)

School Starts Today…..bahahahahahahah!

Yes, that was my sinister laugh. You see, we homeschool.  We don’t start today….but the rest of the kids who live in Phoenix do.  It’s 9:23 am and two of my three kids are still asleep…. happily dreaming of sugar plums and their favorite mother/teacher who doesn’t want to start school until September.  We are in a co-op for the boys that starts on the 31st.  So I guess we will be starting in August…. barely.  We’re studying Africa for four months.  Should prove entertaining.

My junior in high school starts this Thursday with one class, Economics (only on Thursdays).  That gets her warmed up for next week, when she starts Spanish 2 (only on Tuesdays). THEN the following week she starts Chemistry (only on Tuesdays, too.)  So she’s slowly starting her third year of high school….. not the cannon-ball style… the wade-in-slowly-while-you-get-used-to-the-water style.  Algebra is an ongoing force in her life.  And I still need to pick an English course for us to do together!  Yikes! (Hey, I have two more weeks!)

I’m not ready for school to start.  Usually by now (two weeks and counting down) I am full-blown into planning and gathering needed supplies and books.  Not this year.  I’m terribly distracted by our coming Colombian princess.  I knew I needed to finish her room before school started… and I finished last night!  Whooo HOoooo!  I asked the boys what they thought of starting school in November.  They smiled and thought it was my most brilliant idea EVER!  But it was a cruel joke.  My heart is in Colombia…. not Africa.  What doesn’t help my motivation is that we will travel to Colombia during the school year… which will wipe out about six weeks of school when my mind is mush.  I always thought I would have the kids bring at least math with them to Colombia.  I’m not thinking that anymore.  Spanish immersion is enough.

18 More Days!

Of homeschooling for the year!  Wahoooo!  I do not understand the folks that homeschool year round. At all.  My happiest days of the year are when my job for the past nine months has come to a close…. End of May, June, July and half of August!  Freedom!  This is the first summer, however, that some summer school will be occurring for two of my three pupils.  One just didn’t get her act together to start Algebra when she should have…. and the other needs some remedial spelling work.  Come to think of it, my third pupil could use some review on multiplication tables to speed up the math process.  But still, I don’t have to wake up at a certain time and schedules are optional.  Ok, Ok, those who know me well are laughing loudly and saying, “She doesn’t wake up at a certain time now!”  It’s kind of true, but not entirely.  We almost always get school rolling before 10 a.m.  Stop gaffawing.  That means we had a hearty breakfast and the dishes are washed and put away…. we are all dressed (most days) …. the chores are done and some piano lessons have been played.  10:00 a.m. means we are all sitting at the kitchen table talking about the same subject together.

Today I tested the boys on the spelling for the year.  They both improved over a full year’s worth in eight months.  That is great!  But we still need to keep at ‘er for a bit longer.  Spelling is definitely a born skill.  Some have it and some do not.  Those who do not have a fairly good chance of improving their scores by rote memorization and rule learning…. but then again, there is spell check and dictionaries and editors if need be.  I’m not the best speller on the planet and sadly, two of my children follow in my phootstepps.  Compensation skills can be taught!  And they are being taught.  I never knew any spelling rules except “i before e except after c or in sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh.”  When I started homeschooling I found out that rule only applies about 1/3 of the time.  Great!  I have since learned other rules like “G and J say their soft sounds when followed by i, e or y.”  That one works 99% of the time, but I never learned it in school!  That would have been beneficial to know! I could bore you with more, but I’ll spare you this once.

Anywho, 18 more days to sit at the kitchen table and learn together.  I haven’t announced it yet, but I plan to read a few novels aloud this summer.  We read Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome last school year and the boys loved it.  I discovered that it is the first in a series of ten or twelve books!  So we began Swallowdale this year, but have been distracted by scientists’ biographies like Pasteur, Lister and Jenner.  Also grand architectural stories of Wren, Pippo’s dome and St. Paul’s Cathedral.  There are simply too many books and too little time.

School Starts in the Morning! Aaaack!

This is a picture of me a few years back, teaching Keeve at the chalkboard.  OK, back to reality.  I’m so thankful to be able to teach my kids at home.  I love it.  I love them.  I love being at home. I love learning.  I love watching them learn.  It’s the best.  I can’t imagine sending them away all day.  (I CAN imagine what I would do if they did go, but not the actual sending them part.)

However, school starts in the morning and I am nowhere near as ready as I’d like to be.  Oh well.  We’ll still take our first day of school picture on the front porch (in front of the school house.)  We need to clean out the boys’ binders from last year and test everyone to see how much smarts seeped out over summer.  There won’t be a general cleaning of the bookshelf this year.  First time in 9 years.   Again, oh well.  Worse things could happen….  and probably have.

Yes, this is year number NINE!  Wow!  We have lots of field trips lined up already for the boys with a great group of families.  That is new and exciting.  We are starting a new math program, VideoText, for Larisa and possibly Austin… that is ALWAYS fun with a capital F.  AND we’re starting with breakfast at the table together each morning.  You’re probably asking yourself, where did they eat before?  We didn’t all sit together.  We slipped in and out of the kitchen chairs at our convenience all before 9:00 a.m. Not no more.  (Ain’t that great grammar!?) 

I bought a Christian worldview curriculum, Thinking Like a Christian, that we will be going through together to figure out what we believe and why.  It’ll be good.  I promise.  Right after the Wheaties.

We are also ALL taking Spanish(except the principal.)  Watch, right when I get all these great ideas rolling along merrily, we’ll get our referral call and all my planning will be blown to bits.  But that’s ok with me!  Bring it on!

Happy schooling, for those schooling!