So we wrapped up the year on May 30 then left right for vacation. That means that I'm behind on so much! We had a good time on vacation but now I need to get moving on school admin stuff. I have things that still need to be graded and figure out final grades, update both girls' transcripts, get rough drafts of course descriptions written and print out book lists, work on NCAA paperwork for Rosie Jane's freshman year. That about takes care of wrapping up last year. Then I need to finalize the courses the girls are taking this fall, figure out what books/texts they're using, and start ordering books. I also need to get our paperwork into the county for next school year.
I think I need to get a list written down, prioritized, and start working through it this week. We plan to start school again in early August since we'll need to be done by the end of May so I need to get working on things.
15 June 2014
17 April 2014
Thinking About Next Year
Snowboarding kind of took over my life for a while late in the winter but now it's time to get to thinking about next year. Hard to believe but I'll have a senior and a sophomore in the fall. I've talked to both of them some about what they'll be doing next year and things have changed a bit since our first conversations earlier this year. For a few classes, I've already decided what they're going to be doing and what we're using, for others (mostly electives) either I've given them a choice of things or they've given me a few ideas to look into for them.
Sweet Pea, the senior
Government (semester class using Sonlight)
finishing trig, then calculus (Life of Fred)
Literature (semester of classics/semester of American)
Food Science
Art history
Logic
Other things we're thinking about - meteorology (probably will do this), continuing French and Russian (need to figure this out, probably some sort of self study for French)
She'll also be applying to college, writing college/scholarship essays and working on her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Rosie Jane, the sophomore
American history
American lit (both of these will likely be an online class through CurrClick)
Algebra (Saxon)
probably Marine biology or maybe Geology
Home Ec
Other things we still need to figure out - German (again, probably with OSU although we may wait until next year and she can take it at the community college), art/music history, history of ballet/modern dance, maybe art at the local co-op. Most of these things she'll be doing, we just need to figure out if it's this year or next year.
It's going to be a busy year for both of them, but we're going to find ways to enjoy it!
Sweet Pea, the senior
Government (semester class using Sonlight)
finishing trig, then calculus (Life of Fred)
Literature (semester of classics/semester of American)
Food Science
Art history
Logic
Other things we're thinking about - meteorology (probably will do this), continuing French and Russian (need to figure this out, probably some sort of self study for French)
She'll also be applying to college, writing college/scholarship essays and working on her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Rosie Jane, the sophomore
American history
American lit (both of these will likely be an online class through CurrClick)
Algebra (Saxon)
probably Marine biology or maybe Geology
Home Ec
Other things we still need to figure out - German (again, probably with OSU although we may wait until next year and she can take it at the community college), art/music history, history of ballet/modern dance, maybe art at the local co-op. Most of these things she'll be doing, we just need to figure out if it's this year or next year.
It's going to be a busy year for both of them, but we're going to find ways to enjoy it!
02 March 2014
First College Visit
We were in New Hampshire visiting family and took advantage of being there to add a college visit to the itinerary. Bob, Sweet Pea, and I went to Plymouth State University for a look around. We took the official tour, had lunch in the dining hall, and got to catch up with an old friend of mine who works there.
This is Sweet Pea's top school at the moment so we really wanted to get her there to take a look around to see how she liked it in person. Turns out, she liked it a lot. The tour took us through an academic building, she got to see a dorm room (bigger than she was expecting), the student union building and it's gym and fitness center (the athletic fields and arena are down the road, across the river), and finally the dining hall. After the tour, we ate lunch and the food was good. She really liked that they had a salad bar.
We went back to admissions so I could talk to someone about her transcript. The director of admissions talked to us and really liked her transcript. That's a good thing. I never did get a clear answer if they want course descriptions so I guess I should work on those so if they do want them, I'm not in a rush to get them done by a deadline.
When we were done in admissions we went to meet my friend. She works in the student services office. It was good to catch up with her since I haven't seen her in over 15 years. It was also good to get a really good idea about what the student services office there offers, lots of study helps for all students, not just those with an IEP.
So all in all a good visit. One more coming this summer - University of Maine, Farmington. We'll head up there sometime in August.
I think it will be a tough decision because both campuses are situated in similar places - small town New England, close to the ski slopes (very important), they are similar in size, and offer similar programs. She'll have to dig into more details about her intended major to figure out which might be better.
This is Sweet Pea's top school at the moment so we really wanted to get her there to take a look around to see how she liked it in person. Turns out, she liked it a lot. The tour took us through an academic building, she got to see a dorm room (bigger than she was expecting), the student union building and it's gym and fitness center (the athletic fields and arena are down the road, across the river), and finally the dining hall. After the tour, we ate lunch and the food was good. She really liked that they had a salad bar.
We went back to admissions so I could talk to someone about her transcript. The director of admissions talked to us and really liked her transcript. That's a good thing. I never did get a clear answer if they want course descriptions so I guess I should work on those so if they do want them, I'm not in a rush to get them done by a deadline.
When we were done in admissions we went to meet my friend. She works in the student services office. It was good to catch up with her since I haven't seen her in over 15 years. It was also good to get a really good idea about what the student services office there offers, lots of study helps for all students, not just those with an IEP.
So all in all a good visit. One more coming this summer - University of Maine, Farmington. We'll head up there sometime in August.
I think it will be a tough decision because both campuses are situated in similar places - small town New England, close to the ski slopes (very important), they are similar in size, and offer similar programs. She'll have to dig into more details about her intended major to figure out which might be better.
29 January 2014
It's Been One of Those Winters
It's been one of those cold, snowy winters, even here in Virginia. We got another inch of snow last night and it's about 16 degrees at 1:00 this afternoon. We've had a lot of really cold weather, we've had snow (although it's usually been too cold out to play in), and the public schools have been closed quite a bit this month. We still have February to get through and most school systems have already gone through all their built in snow days. I'm so glad that we homeschool. By this time, if my girls were in public school, they'd be climbing the walls of boredom. The Wii and computer can hold their interest for only so long. Since we homeschool, they've pretty much been moving right along, school as normal. It's a good thing since we've got a firm "finish by" date this spring.
23 January 2014
The Busiest Time of Year
We are now into our busiest time of year. Since mid-December, Sweet Pea has been snowboarding which means that Wednesday and Thursday afternoons she's got to wrap up school and head to the ski slopes for practice. She's on the snowboard team at Massanutten Resort and competes in snowboard cross through USASA. The biggest issue is that we live two hours away from Massanutten. Yes, I do lots of driving this time of year. Besides the Wednesday and Thursday practices, she's also got practice on Saturday mornings. While she wishes for a teleporter, she loves snowboarding, has been learning a lot of new skills (including patience), and can't wait to compete in the next few weeks. Hopefully she'll do well enough to get another invite to Nationals and we'll have a spring break trip to Colorado.
Right now Sweet Pea has something going on every day of the week, between snowboarding, work, bible study, and church stuff. Rosie Jane is keeping me busy as well, when I'm home, with her dance, babysitting, and church stuff. One issue we have right now is that one of our cars is in the shop so I'm back to driving both girls all over. My day is mostly spent helping with school, getting the basics done (laundry, grocery shopping, cooking), and driving to the mountain. Can't wait for April to come when things will slow down a bit.
Right now Sweet Pea has something going on every day of the week, between snowboarding, work, bible study, and church stuff. Rosie Jane is keeping me busy as well, when I'm home, with her dance, babysitting, and church stuff. One issue we have right now is that one of our cars is in the shop so I'm back to driving both girls all over. My day is mostly spent helping with school, getting the basics done (laundry, grocery shopping, cooking), and driving to the mountain. Can't wait for April to come when things will slow down a bit.
13 December 2013
Chemistry
It's been an interesting year for science here. Sweet Pea is doing chemistry labs with a good friend of hers; they're each reading the text at home on their own. Rosie Jane is doing biology labs with a local co-op. She's really enjoying it, getting to see her friends and I'm happy that the biology labs are getting done somewhere else.
So far this year, chemistry has been going pretty well. She's doing understanding most of it and has had one tutoring session with a friend of mine that teaches chemistry in a local public school. She's really been enjoying the labs though. I think it helps to have her friend to do them with, plus they're actually kind of cool at least the recent ones have been. One week, they mixed up some chemicals and made the stuff that's inside glow sticks. Last week, they mixed up other chemicals, then heated them up, which caused a rather loud "pop." Startled Sweet Pea since although she read that it would do that, it was louder than expected. Yesterday, they mixed chemicals together (something about pH levels) and made pretty yellow, blue, and pink colors.
Can't wait to see what next week brings.
So far this year, chemistry has been going pretty well. She's doing understanding most of it and has had one tutoring session with a friend of mine that teaches chemistry in a local public school. She's really been enjoying the labs though. I think it helps to have her friend to do them with, plus they're actually kind of cool at least the recent ones have been. One week, they mixed up some chemicals and made the stuff that's inside glow sticks. Last week, they mixed up other chemicals, then heated them up, which caused a rather loud "pop." Startled Sweet Pea since although she read that it would do that, it was louder than expected. Yesterday, they mixed chemicals together (something about pH levels) and made pretty yellow, blue, and pink colors.
Can't wait to see what next week brings.
11 December 2013
Snow Days!
Snow days! Don't you love them? As a kid, to me they always meant a day off from school. As a homeschooling mom...my kids aren't quite as lucky. Oh, they do get to enjoy the snow, they just don't get a full day off to hang out, watch tv, do nothing like their friends who go to school.
When they were younger and we got snow, they were usually the first ones up and they were dressed and out the door early. They'd play in the snow for a while, until they got cold and hungry. When they came in, it was time for cocoa, breakfast, and a bit of school. When they had warmed up, gotten a few things done, and their friends were awake, they'd head back out to play again. Then it was time for more cocoa and finishing up school. And another round of playing outside, if their friends were still up for it although most of the time, they weren't.
It's only December 11 and there have already been two snow days here. We had a snow/ice storm Sunday night into Monday, then a snowstorm on Tuesday and the public schools were closed both days. Neither days would have been much fun to go out and play in, we just didn't get that much snow and too much ice. Monday they did a regular day of school; there was no reason not to. On Tuesday, we had a bit more snow and some cookies to make since we're close to Christmas. They did a bit of school, then went outside for a while. Snow days are more fun when there's lots of snow to play in.
If this portends what's to come this winter, it'll be interesting. I'll need to work to keep them on track on snow days so they can get the time off they need in February and March and still finish school by the end of May. At least they (and I) enjoy watching the snow fall so it's pretty easy to move to a room with lots of windows, watch the snow fall, drink some cocoa, and get math done and save the playing outside for later.
When they were younger and we got snow, they were usually the first ones up and they were dressed and out the door early. They'd play in the snow for a while, until they got cold and hungry. When they came in, it was time for cocoa, breakfast, and a bit of school. When they had warmed up, gotten a few things done, and their friends were awake, they'd head back out to play again. Then it was time for more cocoa and finishing up school. And another round of playing outside, if their friends were still up for it although most of the time, they weren't.
It's only December 11 and there have already been two snow days here. We had a snow/ice storm Sunday night into Monday, then a snowstorm on Tuesday and the public schools were closed both days. Neither days would have been much fun to go out and play in, we just didn't get that much snow and too much ice. Monday they did a regular day of school; there was no reason not to. On Tuesday, we had a bit more snow and some cookies to make since we're close to Christmas. They did a bit of school, then went outside for a while. Snow days are more fun when there's lots of snow to play in.
If this portends what's to come this winter, it'll be interesting. I'll need to work to keep them on track on snow days so they can get the time off they need in February and March and still finish school by the end of May. At least they (and I) enjoy watching the snow fall so it's pretty easy to move to a room with lots of windows, watch the snow fall, drink some cocoa, and get math done and save the playing outside for later.
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