Friday, August 22, 2014

7 QTs first week of school

1. We had a great first day with two eager homeschoolers.  Madi managed to finish the never ending world history class last week and is already ahead in Algebra 2 on FLVS!  We've had a great week with Notgrass American History and we'll survive Chemistry.
 
2. Jake and I are contemplating dropping his FLVS Language Arts class.  There are pros and cons of each option.  He doesn't need to take it for any reason, my very well spoken teenagers didn't even "do language arts" in middle school, the material so far seems arbitrary, with questions that aren't really a part of the lesson, I know it has something to do with the whole common core issue that I refuse to engage in debate over, we could spend the time that the class would take actually reading (silently, aloud, and audiobooks) really good literature, facebook is filled with grammatical errors and everyday I could have him correct some of those for practice, etc...etc... Those are all reason to drop it.  Reasons to stick with it include: the teacher is really nice, and it doesn't matter what his grade is anyway (it is middle school) and it's not really going to hurt him to have more work to do. 
 
3. Speaking of great books...Jake and I are finally reading the third Michael Vey book aloud and we are listening to The Giver (Jake's first time).  The Giver is seriously my favorite book of all time!  I'm nervous about seeing the movie because I think I'll be disappointed.  I have lots of thoughts percolating about The Giver and life in general, but for now they will have to stay swimming around in my head.
 
4. My first take and picture have been sitting up on my blog for the better part of the day, somehow it posted earlier when I hit enter, I was vaguely aware of it, and I continued on with takes 2-4, then it was time to take Jake to band (and what is quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the day) the carline.  I'm not even being sarcastic here, I like the carline.  Basically people begin getting in the line one hour before school gets out.  Since Jake is only at school for one hour I generally drop him off and get in line to pick him up.  The carline is a good place for quiet time, daily readings,  regular reading, and a little Catholic Channel on satellite radio.  If I were to not get in the line then I could potentially go home and get in line much much later, but I'd wait until most kids were picked up because waiting in a stagnant line is peaceful waiting in a long moving line is borderline torture.  I can't wait that long on theatre days anyway, so for now I am enjoying the carline. (I've made carline one word in the same way that I believe homeschooling and breastfeeding are one word).  Eventually we will probably carpool with theatre people on theatre days and neighborhood people on other days, but I'm not ready to figure all that out yet.  In the meantime if you're looking for me between 3:00-4:00, I'll be in the middle school parking lot.
 
5. I'm getting pretty good at commenting on the local homeschool group facebook page.  Remember a couple weeks ago I discussed sharing the wisdom I have gleaned from years of homeschooling with those just starting out.  Today there was a question about how homeschoolers handle birthdays and socialization, and I didn't know where to start with that one so I didn't respond.  I can only do so much.
 
6. Jonathan has worked until o'darkhundred four nights in a row, getting home between 1am and 2am each night.  It is killing me.  I can doze when he is at work and on his way home, but cannot sleep soundly until I know he's tucked in his bed.  Tonight he is not working and I plan to be asleep before 10.
 
7. My mother-in-law is still staying with us (I've said that before right?), she bought a house 10 minutes away two years ago and moved down from Connecticut last month to live in it.  She's not ready to sleep there yet so for now Jake is once again misplaced, as she is sleeping in his room.  Twice she's bought bags of Hershey's nuggets and left them on our kitchen table...I cannot stop eating them!!  After the first bag I apologized and said we'd buy another one because the kids and I ate so many of them, but she said no that it was for us and the next day there was another bag.  If you're looking for me and I'm not in the middle school carline or in bed fretfully waiting for Jonathan to get home, then I'll be in my kitchen with my hand in a bag of Hershey's nuggets.
 
For what are sure to be more interesting quick takes, go here.

1 comment:

RAnn said...

I work so I pick up from aftercare. I was shocked when the principal told the school board (I'm a member) that the neighbors were complaining about our car line blocking the streets since we don't open the gate until 15 minutes before dismissal. It never occurred to me that people would be there that early. Your reasoning makes sense--but if you were home, why come so early? On early dismissal days when I have to pick up from carline, I am on time, but one of the last, since I see no reason to sit in that organized traffic jam