HMJ: Back-to-School 2018

Well, our first week of the school year is checked off and, at the current trajectory, I am looking forward to all the rest!  It was a GREAT week, though Friday was a bit rough as I think the weight of new routines bore down and Brooke was less than excited about an 86% and 91% she received on a couple assignments.  Perhaps an over-achiever at times, I had to remind her they were ONE grade in what will be the midst of many!!  Yes, I am planning an article on how and why I grade later this month as I know it is a tender issue in some homeschools.

She was REALLY excited to be starting (no joke!) can you tell by her smile?  It was dim in the dining room Monday morning since we had storms off and on darkening the sky. I should have gotten a full shot of her shirt, which says, "Are you cold? Come sit in the Corner, it's 90 degrees" alongside a picture of a Right Angle.  We love math puns!  This one proved how ready she was for all her math to finally start that day!

The 3 math classes weren't as bad as I thought they would be.  Although, I am lamenting I wasn't aware of Teaching Textbook's more affordable online option before I bought Alpha and Omega's math Lifepacs for Geometry and Pre-Calculus.  I don't know if it is my lack of mathematical adeptness showing through or just the curriculum I buy (or both!) but hindsight being 20/20, I hear Teaching Text is the bees-knees.  I could never afford the texts (especially when I was teaching multiples) but now that they are offering a fully online option for half the price, I would totally rather have budgeted for that instead!

I mentioned this to Brooke and she smiled and cheerfully suggested 'we got this', just us and the curriculum God has provided.  With that sort of positive mind-set, who am I to doubt!  We are, however, talking about possibly getting her a tutor before she takes the SAT just to be certain my math teaching is sticking.  We'll see how she does on the PSAT first. I will keep you posted on that in the coming year.

It was late and she was tiered, but Brooke's face couldn't contain her excitement here.  I decided to give her a small clothing budget for school this year.  Even though she is HOMEschooled, she still attends youth group and other events and was longing for some wardrobe updates.  She also wanted to show class-spirit and so ordered both a t-shirt and sweatshirt to proudly display her graduating year.  The t-shirt came right away, but the sweatshirt was delayed and finally arrived last week, just in time for school and youth group to start back up.  I don't think I have ever seen anyone so excited for a clothing item as she was to tear into the shipping bag containing this... and then speedily don it so we could all see!  Expect to catch it (and her t-shirt) a lot more in pictures throughout the year!! (as mentioned, it was late and poor lighting in my office = blurry picture... sorry).

Other first day/week randomness....

Brooke has decided that a fun new pen for each school year is necessary to the supply list.  She found these glowing pens at Office Depot.  I'm also working with her on keeping some form of planner or schedule tracker as a life skill and she chose a 365 Planner very similar to my own.  We started Monday by going over our schedule for the week with planners (and pens!) in hand.

A sort of... different... first day of school 'tradition' is pot-pie for dinner.  I like doing special meals and pot-pie is my kiddos' fave.... and super easy to throw together after a busy day.

Some sort of apple dessert always hits our first day menu as well.  Brooke had the idea to do dumplings because they retain that apple shape and, of course, apples are always associated with school!  We used extra dough from our pot pie and she arranged them to look like little apples!  They were a delicious end to our back-to-school kick-off!

Our fluffy Aslan kitty was quick to take up his usual school day spot at the table, particularly in Brooke's arms.  Notice is paw on book.  He is our book cat and with all his schooling in the last 4 years since we got him, he should be pretty smart!

Ashley is 20 now.  Still trying to work out the intricacies of having temporal seizures.  We switched care providers AND it has been four years since her last scan so she is re-going through base-line testing with the new Neurologist to finish exploring the path we started and never finished before (her old neurologist wanted to use her as a medical guinea pig at the age of 15/16 because he didn't understand temporal seizures or know how to treat them. We were NOT Ok with that.).  She had an MRI this week and then goes in for an EEG on the 12th.  Her follow up to discuss findings isn't till October.

We have mostly been able to fit her appointments around schooling, with the exception of the EEG.  But working schedules is no big deal -  I'm just glad to finally have a very thorough doctor and one who also supports more homeopathic methods of treatment since temporal seizures aren't quite as serious or dangerous as Grand Mal seizures. It is all proof that, no matter how old your 'kids' get, you never stop being mom nor stop being needed!

That about sums up our first week of school!!  I still havent' quite figured out regular article content for the blog in the midst of our schedule, but I trust the good Lord will open up the time windows He sees fit!  The newsletter miraculously made it out on time!  I was thanking and praising Him for that!  The newsletter is for anyone who enjoys any of the content on my blog.  However, if you or someone you know has a preschooler, you may be especially interested in the Early Childhood Education segment I started putting out with the newsletter this month.  It has articles on preschooling, activity ideas and printables... and it is all FREE!  There is more info at the bottom of this article. 

How is your school year shaping up?  Have you started yet?  I pray you see God's hand on each moment as September gets into full-swing!



Blessings,

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