{Insert clever title here}

We're 50/50 on the great public school experiment of 2013.  If I were writing this on day two, I'd be saying Jake is LOVING it!  Since it is now actually day four, I'll go with Jake is liking it.  It's a good little school, and I'm thinking it will be a good year for him. 

Madi is back to homeschooling.  She and I are very happy with this decision.  There are so many reasons for this, I don't even know where to start.  Since I couldn't even come up with a title, I'm pretty sure I don't have the mental energy to do this post justice, so I'll let the picture of day 1 do the talking.  Anyone who knows Madi can tell from this picture that this droopy shouldered girl is not Madi.  She's back to homeschooling (or will be when her virtual school classes kick in) and the sparkle is back in her eye.  It was only gone for 48 hours, but that was the longest 48 hours we've lived in a long time!

She did get a nice backpack out of the whole thing.

 

Jonathan is currently dual enrolled in three college classes and so far so good.

 

Mary has been a sweet and quiet addition to our family, tonight she had "pride night" at her school and came home with this...

 

Excuse all the mess in the background, I am a homeschooling mom after all.  I expect I'll have a clean house in about 8 years, until then I'm going to enjoy what I've got!!

7 QTs

1. Jake got the teacher that used to be a homeschool mom!  AND Josh from next door is in his class and sits right next to him!  Either they are really taking care of us at that school or God is giving us even more than I was asking for (or both)!  Of course I think Jake was praying for the teacher and Josh too, and I know I have a hard time saying no to him.

2. Madi got her schedule yesterday at orientation!  That was a huge prayer answered.  When we walked into the cafeteria at four minutes before the event was to start it was already packed in there and the guidance counselor and assistant principal were going on and on about how they did their best to get everyone's schedules, but some people, especially new kids, might not have them yet.  She did!!  Yay!!!  And it is mostly great!  She starts her day with Art and then Chorus.  The only glitch in the schedule is that she is in regular Geometry instead of Honors.  She filled out a request to change that, and my current prayer is that she can switch without it messing with the rest of the schedule (and all of the teachers we've already met).  An option would be to do Geometry Honors on virtual school, which would mean she could even leave school early.  The downside to this is that I'd still have to be the nag who says, "did you do your Geometry?" instead of the nice mom with cookies.  We'll see what happens next week.  They said sophomores might not get their requests addressed until the end of the week.  In the meantime, she might find out that the regular class isn't so bad and no one will try to sell her drugs or anything.

3. Jonathan starts three new dual enrollment classes on Monday.  He walked around at the school today to make sure he could find all his classrooms.  He is taking another English class (Literature composition I think), a math class (so I can stop hounding him about the Teaching Textbooks Pre Calc that he hasn't come close to finishing), and Intro to Theatre Arts (which he could probably teach ;) )

4. Mary has two Chinese friends here visiting right now.  I let them eat grapes up in her room. (Her room is Jake's room and it is so spacious and clean without all his stuff in it).  Jake's room is now the loft and it is as cluttered as ever! (Not ENTIRELY his fault.)

5. Little Mermaid pics...

 

6. I have a new baby cousin in CT!  He is my cousin Allie's baby.

 

Is he cute or what??  His name is Kade Matthew and he will be three weeks old tomorrow.  I don't get to meet him until Thanksgiving.

 

 

7.  School orientation pics...

Looking for more to read, go see Jen at Conversion Diary, I was the 156th person to link to that today!

Pretty Happy Funny Real

Pretty!  We went to our first ever Quincinera on Saturday.  It was Mary's first too :)!

Happy!!

 

Funny...

 

REAL

This is, as of now, the only curriculum that I am teaching this year.  The reality is, on Monday, Jake will be in fifth grade at the local elementary school, Madi will be in 10th at the High School, and Jonathan will begin three new college (dual enrolled) classes {he got an A in his first college class by the way!}  Mary already started school last week at a completely different school.  Today is Madi's orientation where she will finally find out her schedule, and tomorrow Jake has orientation and will find out who his teacher is.  There is a fifth grade teacher who homeschooled just a few years ago, and it would be awesome if he ends up with her.  It would also be great if he's in the same class with his buddy Josh, who rings our doorbell every single day. 

 

I'm off to tour the school...

 

 

 

 

Will be back with Little Mermaid pics eventually!

 

In the meantime go to Like Mother Like Daughter for more pretty happy funny real.

Mary

Today is our first day with our Chinese exchange student.  She arrived at about 9:15 last night.  She is currently in her room with the door closed and no noise coming out.  I'm letting her rest or whatever she's doing for a little while longer.  She ate breakfast with me, Jake and Madi this morning and we chatted for a while.  She played a beautiful song on the piano for us.  She was kind of looking at the piano and I told her she could play it.  She said something about her 20 hours of travel plus staying in Beijing for a few days before that, and I wasn't sure what that had to do with whether or not she could play the piano, but I know guess it was her way of saying she was a little "rusty" after not playing for a few days.  You would never know it by the way she played.  Just like you would never know Madi threw up during intermission when she was playing Ariel on Thursday and the camp that she works at was there to see it, but that's a post for another time... just remember I'm stress mama who wrote about EXTREME a few posts ago.  Back to Mary.  The other day Jonathan and Chloe were watching Tarzan (the Disney one) (they have this plan to watch 100 movies together this year) (Tarzan was the first movie Jonathan saw in the movie theatre, he was 3)  (this reminds me of when they do that pop up thing with movies on TV)  (maybe they don't do that anymore, was that a 90s thing?).  I mentioned how I am bugged by the part in Tarzan when they (Jane and company) teach him all about being a human with a five minute slide show.  I am reminded of that as we get to know Mary though, (whose real name is Hong Bing Pan {or Pan Hong Bing}), I feel like we were trying to tell her everything about being an American over breakfast on the first morning.  We mentioned things like Thanksgiving and Halloween, New York City, showers and dishwashers, junk food, cell phones, and of course the biggies around here church and theatre, so we're well on our way.  I explained how Madi and Jake have always done school at home, but this year will actually go to school.  Neither one will be going to the school she is going to go though.  It is a funny thing to have a stranger from a strange land move into your house. We had practice the past two summers with our short term exchange students, but this is the real deal.  It is kind of exciting.  She told us last night that she has fun with everything, we're off to a good start.