Hardly a "Weekly" Wrap-Up

Sometimes, I wonder if I ran out of things to say.  Or, maybe other things just became more important.  Time might have been an issue.  The fact is, I haven't written a blog post in nearly four months.  Four months!

This blog was born out of a desire to document our homeschooling journey.  And if any of it encourages others, that's just icing on the cake.  This year, I have written very little.  Sure, I still take pictures.  And for me, that provides its own level of documentation.  But, I enjoy writing about those pictures.  At least I am pretty good at organizing them and labeling the folders I store them in on my computer.  So, maybe I'll be able to go back and realize that each picture is worth a thousand words, and the words weren't necessary during that season.

So, what have we been up to?  School.  Co-op.  Gymnastics.  Homeschool Swim & Gym.  Orchestra.  This year is a total contrast compared to last year.  So far, it's been mostly good.

In Science, we've done lots of experiments (I'll try to do a separate post with lots of pictures.)  In history, we're finding that the 1850s-Modern Times is an exciting time period to learn about.  We just entered the turn of the 20th century.  Learning about all the industrial growth and inventions has been fun.  There are so many other highlights but in an effort to speed this up and prevent a short novel from forming, I won't even attempt to remember it all right now.  Other subjects are moving along slower than I'd like, but I'm learning to try to relax and trust that it will be ok.  However, since this is January, I do plan to make some changes to prioritize what I believe is more important, rather than what I find easiest to to teach and assign.

We joined a new co-op this year.  We didn't attend one at all last year, so this is a big change.  We're only there for three classes plus lunch.  Katie loves her classes, and why wouldn't she?  Art, Gym, and Home Ec.  What's not to love?  The only class Emily likes is science, which came as a total surprise to me.  We tried doing the Apologia General Science at home last year and it just didn't fly.  When I saw that the co-op offered it as a class this year, I didn't hesitate to sign Emily up for it.  She dreaded going at first but found that she loves it.  She also has a creative writing class and study hall.  Believe it or not, she's not a fan of study hall.  She's much too active to sit quietly for an hour.  But there were no other reasonable options that hour.  She despises the creative writing class.  And that may be an understatement.  At first, I just thought her dislike of the class stemmed from her dislike of the subject itself.  Then, I began reviewing some of the work she does in class, and I'm not crazy about it myself.  I expected more writing, and more instruction.  It seems that it's a very casual class with very little expectations.  I'm not sure how we'll enter this second semester.  I've considered trying to switch her to another class, but I'm not even sure that's an option.  It's just not what either of us expected, so it's been a bit of a disappointment.

Gymnastics is going well for Emily.  We are trying to adjust to having a new coach.  It's not easy after having the same coaches for years.  We had four coaches that all left at about the same time.  I won't lie.  That's been rough.  But, we're managing.

Katie is taking homeschool gym & swim two days a week (swim one day and gym the other), and orchestra one day a week.  She absolutely loves them all!  She has met new friends and really enjoys the activity.  And I haven't really minded driving her to those activities.

I've spent the past week fighting the flu and bronchitis, so we didn't do much.  I'm just now starting to feel better.  Since we've had so much snow and cold weather, local schools have closed and delayed a lot, so orchestra was cancelled this week.  We skipped swim on Tuesday because I was sick in bed.  Hubs has been driving the kids to everything else, which gave him a greater appreciation of all I do.  That's not such a bad thing. :)

We visited my grandma a couple weeks ago to celebrate her 102nd birthday!  Yes, you saw that right - 102 years of life!  She was so happy that we took time to go see her.

No doubt, I've left a lot out.  But, that's what happens when I try to cram four months worth of living and learning into one blog post.  Life happens!



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