College Visits

This fall has been flying by! We've been busy with college applications, school, work, and life in general. I'm glad that for the most part the application stuff is finished. Now it's time to hit up a few colleges so informed decisions can be made once the acceptance letters come in.

First up on the schedule is the open house at the University of Maine, Farmington. From what we've seen online, the town is small and the school is very small. Sounds like almost the perfect place for Sweet Pea. The open house includes lunch on campus, campus tours, meetings with faculty, and I'm not sure what else. It should give her a good feel for the campus and the goings on there.

Next up will be another visit to Plymouth State University. We were there in February and took a tour then, which included lunch in the dining hall. Since we're going to be up there way again we wanted to stop here again to refresh memories and make sure it was still #1 on the list. We won't be meeting with anyone but walking around campus and getting a better look at the town will be nice. We've been there twice in the winter, once over Christmas break when it was brutally cold and windy then again in February which wasn't so bad. It'll be nice to check it out in the fall when we can walk around town, see where some of the other buildings are that we didn't get to before, and get a better look at the local area.

The last two schools are in Vermont, Green Mountain College and Johnson State College. Both offer the major she's looking for, both are near ski areas and in small towns. They seem to be what she's looking for, I guess we'll find out when we get there.

I'm excited about the trip, it's a great time of year to be heading to New England. We'll have some free time to spend in the mountains and driving around will be amazing with the leaves at their peak or just past. Hopefully when we get back she'll be able to say these colleges are still on the list, but this one dropped off. If nothing else, she'll have a better idea of what they all look like and offer so she can make a better decision. Now we just wait on the acceptance letters.

Food Fun!

Probably one of the best classes going on this year is Food Science. Both girls are working on it and we've been eating pretty well while they're learning about cooking and baking. Sweet Pea is working through Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food and Rosie Jane is doing his I'm Just Here for More Food. We loved "Good Eats" when it was on the air and these books are like an extension of the show. They describe the how's of cooking/baking and the why's of doing certain things. When the girls finish the book they are working on, they'll switch which means cooking and baking all year!

Here's a few samples of what they've been cooking.

These kabobs weren't from the cookbook, but the resting method's in there.

ricotta clouds

my chef, hard at work

Dutch baby bunnies (oh, so good!)

saltines

roasted tomatoes

the roasted tomatoes made into soup with the saltine stars

More good things will be coming!

October Already?

It's been a crazy start to the school year. We started later than I wanted because Sweet Pea was busy working extra time at camp, then we got a few weeks of school in before Bob and I went on a cruise to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We had a wonderful time in Maine and Canada and enjoyed being off by ourselves. The girls were at home busy with school and the rest of their stuff while we were gone. They mostly were able to keep moving forward while I was gone, but math was an issue for Rosie Jane and science was a problem for both of them, especially since I forgot to leave assignments for RJ. Oops. 

Now that I'm back it's time to finish college applications, get caught up on grading and reviewing work, updating records, and planning what's next. The year is moving by rapidly and we have things to accomplish before the snow starts to fall and we get immersed in snowboarding and winter fun.

Week 1 - Done!

Well, we made it through the first week of school. The girls haven't started all subjects yet but they will this week. Sweet Pea had a bit of a misunderstanding/miscommunication about her online government class and when assignments were due. She was stressed and working late to get things turned in and thought they were late so what was the point of turning them in...as it turned out, she wasn't the only one AND her current events report was the one the teacher held up as an example of how she wanted them done. Big sigh of relief! Rosie Jane starts her history/lit class this week, hopefully it'll go well. I think it'll be interactive enough for her that she'll enjoy it. We have a busy year ahead of us but I'm looking forward to it. The best thing I've heard in a while was something Rosie Jane posted on facebook this morning: I survived the first week of school! Luckily I have a great teacher to keep me focused. I'm happy that she thinks I'm a great teacher and wanted to announce it to her little part of the world.

A Last First Day of School

It's the last first day of school for my oldest. She's a senior this year and will likely be off to college next fall. I'll still get some sort of first day of school picture but it won't quite be the same.

It's been a long day here, getting back into the swing of things, but I think it'll be a good year. We need to get over the hump of college applications with Sweet Pea then see if she can't get a lot done before snowboarding season starts. She's hoping for early snow again this year but that means a long season, which is good and bad.

The Senior

The Sophomore

Here's to a good year!

The Big Push to Day 1

The girls are gone yet again this weekend (they left yesterday). I'm going to take the time to finish getting the school books and area organized, start writing down assignments for them, and generally getting ready. I plan to start school on Tuesday since they'll finally be home. It'll be a rather choppy week though since they have dentist appointments on Wednesday and Sweet Pea is working on Thursday at camp again. While I had planned to start last week, they need to be here and it looks like next week is as good as any to get going. We'll ease in with two 4-day weeks, then it'll be full weeks until about Thanksgiving. Sweet Pea will be working here and there at camp so she may be out some, but she'll need to figure out how to balance work and school, with school being the more important thing. Hopefully having me around to keep an eye on her and how she's keeping track of everything will help her figure out how to do this so she can do it better on her own next year when she's off at college.

I'm not sure how much we'll use the school area this year. They both have mostly migrated to their rooms to do their work. They both have an online class this year and I know Sweet Pea will use the computer in the school area since her laptop is old and slow. At least their classes are on different days.

I'm still waiting on the last few books to come in. I think I forgot to order a few but maybe I'll check the library first since I think they're ones that are going to be used for a short time. I still need to flesh out a bit more the history of dance class but otherwise I think we're good. I guess I'll find out in the next few weeks!

Books

Books are the lifeblood in this homeschool. We use books for history, science, and even math. Not boring textbooks, although a few of those have crossed the threshold here, but what are called "living" books, historical fiction, a few fiction, non-fiction, even the math books are written with a story line (Life of Fred books). I'm way behind this year in ordering books, behind in starting school (students need to be here in order for school to start and they're not, they're still busy with summer jobs), behind in everything really. I spent some time yesterday going over the girls classes and finalizing what books they're using this year so that this morning I could get online and order the books we need to get started. I know I'm not the only one still looking for books, I see posts on facebook and other places of people looking for school books so they can get their year started as well. Now I just need to get my girls home for longer than a day or two so we can get started.