Nscribe Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 We started "school" the last week of August, and it is odd to realize we are almost 1/3 of the way done with the year. This year I made the mistake of letting a few too many outside/away from home activities/classes creep their way into our mornings. Two of the three ended last week and I am realizing why it felt so stressed. The last of the three winds down in a couple of weeks, and I am looking forward to having that morning to focus as well. With all Dd does in the evenings for extras, we just can't swing high school work and being gone from the house in the mornings...lesson learned. We can do online courses in the mornings, but the drive and go anywhere before lunch thing just makes for too costly a challenge. Here' s to hoping for a relaxed, comfortably productive next 2/3rds of the year. How's everyone else fairing so far? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 DD's year is going fantastic. I can not really claim to homeschool her at the moment - she takes three courses at the university and does it all on her own. She also loads herself with activities: works two nights at the tutoring center, choir 3 times a week, english honors society, bake sales, manning stand for info session, volunteers to help other groups in her Shakespeare class to do their dramatizations... my head is spinning just reading it. But she does a fabulous job. We sort of "block schedule" with math and history covered at home over summer and winter break, and only her college courses during the semester (9 credit hours with lots of homework) DS' year is going well. He is auditing a physics course, which means he has to leave the house three mornings at 7:30. His extracurricular activities are three evenings and Saturday morning, all martial arts - but the schedule does not interfere with school. On the one day a week when our homeschool group meets, we have "early out" 12 noon. All subjects are going well, except for Italian. It is so hard to homeschool a foreign language I don't speak. I am still ahead though. I need to force him to do more vocab studying, but I can see why it is so boring. He loves duolingo though, and we have started with an Easy Reader, for variety. We have three more weeks of school (including this one) until a one week Thanksgiving break. Then two more weeks of college for DD, three more weeks of homeschool for DS - and then it's Christmas break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 We made the "too many outside commitments" mistake last year. This year started off really well. However, ds's college class has gotten more intense and he added a Bravewriter class about the same time. I'm feeling the stress pick up. Bravewriter is short though and I think he's ok. I'm keeping an eye on this because he'd like to do a similar combination in the spring. Dd had a bit of trouble adjusting to the workload this year (which I don't think is too heavy at all!). She has hit her stride though and things are going smoothly now. I can hardly believe our semester block classes are almost over. I'm looking forward to holiday breaks and new classes starting in January! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 We have three more weeks of school (including this one) until a one week Thanksgiving break. Then two more weeks of college for DD, three more weeks of homeschool for DS - and then it's Christmas break. We were posting at the same time, but this is us exactly too! I may be more excited than the kids about the breaks coming! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 I am a bit concerned about the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. Dd is just getting the stride and I wonder if we will pick back up after a break smoothly. However, I think we both need a bit of a breather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 This year is going really well, with some adjustments and hiccups. Things that are working GREAT: Ds16's online CADD class that has really perked his interest and is hopefully helping him form a career vision Co-op classes for the youngers: LOVE our Little House on the Prairie study and Exploration Education physical science Mornings at home and a rhythm to our days (until 2:00 that is) Bible time -- still plugging along through the Old Testament. We're in 1 Samuel and memorizing Psalm 51. This is hands down my favorite part of the day. Things that have needed adjustment: I should have signed up Ds16 for a couple of dual-enrollment classes this semester. He's the only one who missed fall semester of his junior year, but on the up side, it did force us to find the CADD class which has been a huge blessing. He's super ready to start dual enrollment in the spring. Ds14's football schedule! LOVE that he's doing football but this has been the heaviest sports schedule I've encountered yet. I've had swimmers, basketball players and track and fielders, but this football beats all. Ds14 -- otherwise a good student -- is having to use Saturdays and Sunday afternoons to catch up on Latin and math. I'm so grateful that we can continue to homeschool. I never even thought that my homeschooling days might be in jeopardy. They aren't immediately, but the future likely holds another Bar exam for me and picking up a day or two of work. I think I still got it! :D Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam L in Mid Tenn Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Ds and I were just talking about this last night. Last week I did a "where are we" review over all the books and materials we are using this year. Percentage wise, we are just where we should be. He said he is getting a little bored with the same old routine and assignments with school. He loves the material, he is just bored with the assignments. We had a cleaning day on Monday. (Sometimes the housework gets so far behind, we just take a day and clean! Tuesday was a "sick day". He had a headache and did not even want to go to speech/debate. I think that we need a break NOW. Waiting until Thanksgiving seems such a heavy burden. During our conversation I told him that I would try to switch up the assignments a bit this morning. I usually do that in Nov and Dec anyway since I'm a retail manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-M- Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I'd say our year is going well. Too quickly, much too quickly, but well. Although we’ve sorted our academic calendar into three terms for the last few years, we were forced to adopt a semester approach this year, as my older daughter will graduate in late May or early June 2014. My younger daughter will also have met all of her graduation requirements by that time, but for many reasons, we had decided to call this her junior year (when her same-age peers are sophomores). Her ACT scores (September, first time), though, and conversations with admissions counselors prompted some discussion about graduating her in late May or early June, too -- an idea I am approaching with a mixture of, I will admit, pride, yes, and caution. In any event, our terms will sort into fall semester (mid-August to end of December) and spring semester (January to late May / early June). At this writing, we have already completed the following from this year's rather eclectic reading list: ■The Merry Wives of Windsor ■King Lear■Richard II■Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand)■Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)■The Narrative of Frederick Douglass ■Moby Dick; or, The Whale (Herman Melville) We are knee-deep in Stephen Mitchell's translation of The Iliad, a work we decided to revisit when the Court Theatre announced its intent to restage An Iliad with award-winning Timothy Edward Kane reprising his role in the one-man show. (Can you hear the geek Squeeee! coming from our house?) We are ahead in math and science and spot on in Spanish and history. The September ACT pleased them. College visits have been fruitful. Their music studies are going well. And although they have not outperformed the personal bests they achieved in this summer's long course regional championships, they would say the swim season is going well, too. We're enjoying a full calendar of theater, symphony, opera, and museum adventures, too: The City of Chicago remains as much one of our classrooms as the livingroom or library. But our homeschooling journey is approaching its end, so I relish days like today: We awoke to the gray curtain of a rainy autumn morning, the purr of the heating system, and the fragrance of raspberry chocolate coffee. It feels like a sloooow morning, we decided. So, as we have on mornings like this one since they were quite young, we grabbed books, pencils, and large mugs of black stimulant and headed to "the big bed." There, we reviewed math problems, discussed the documentary Blackfish, read Vladimir Mayakovsky's last poem, and prepared the itineraries for our two trips into Chicago later this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Ds16's online CADD class that has really perked his interest and is hopefully helping him form a career vision That's great. Would you mind sharing what class you are using? I'd love to have a resource to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Ugh. I feel like I've been trying to get my head above water since we started. The only outside activity that was added is a robotics team, and it's in the late afternoon/early evening, so I can't really blame that.My current plan is to plug along as best we can until Christmas, and pray for a very productive January-June. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 My son's year is going well, I think. He is doing his first semester of dual enrollment, with three classes at the local community college. And he's doing two FLVS high school classes, too. Thus far, he's managing the academic load well. He's running a middle B in Freshman Comp, but A's in everything else. He also significantly stepped up his time at the dance school this year. He's there between two and six hours at least four days a week, taking class and assistant teaching and rehearsing with the competition team, all of which he loves. Just when I thought we were finding a good rhythm and had a plan for the next couple of years, he threw a wrench into the works by deciding he wants to try applying for full-time college admission this coming fall, instead of waiting a year. So, now we're trying to juggle his academic and extracurricular load -- which was already more than enough, in my opinion -- AND pack all of the college application stuff that normal people take a year to do into about four months. And that's, you know, fun. He has a big challenge coming up at the end of this month. Two of his DE classes have long-ish papers due, one right before Thanksgiving and the other right after. He's registered for a dance convention/competition over Thanksgiving weekend (Thursday afternoon through Sunday), for which he still hasn't finished learning his solo choreography. And the first two college applications are due right around the beginning of December, and he hasn't yet written his essay. He assures me he has everything under control. We'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 Jenny: My thoughts and best wishes are with you as I follow your son's story. So far he has found the answers in the pinch, here's to him making magic once again! We have a couple of friends who found themselves in the graduation/college application fray this year (earlier than they may have thought). I am hoping the fever doesn't spread to Dd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Jenny: My thoughts and best wishes are with you as I follow your son's story. So far he has found the answers in the pinch, here's to him making magic once again! We have a couple of friends who found themselves in the graduation/college application fray this year (earlier than they may have thought). I am hoping the fever doesn't spread to Dd. Thanks! My daughter did more or less the same thing: flailed about for a year or so trying to figure out what she wanted to do, then decided on what looked almost like a whim that she wanted to go to college right away. In her case, we ended up pulling together her application in about 10 days, I think. (It was different, because she applied only to one, specialized program, but still . . .) I am consoling myself with reminders that, by contrast, four months is luxurious. He's also preparing for the possibility that this may not work out. So, I'm trying not to panic. One bit of advice: If you don't want your daughter to get college fever, whatever you do don't start requesting information from any schools you think she might actually like, especially if the campus is photogenic! My son went from, "I'll think about it later," to, "Can I apply for next year?" in pretty much the blink of an eye when a brochure with pictures of students on horseback riding past a big white building with columns on the front landed in the mailbox. (It's not really as superficial as it sounds. Thinking back, I can see he has been bored and working up to the idea for a few months. But to the naked eye, the pivot seemed very quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 My current plan is to plug along as best we can until Christmas, and pray for a very productive January-June. This is our current status as well. Moving twice in three months does not make for a super productive semester. :thumbdown: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Our year is going fairly well, better than I expected, so that's good. We're on week 12, we've actually accomplished a few things on the list, we're also behind in a few subjects. We're in a week of readjusting our sails (and expectations). I see ds emerging as a better student and willing to put in more effort. Improving his writing is a big goal this year and he just finished a nice essay. This month has a few challenges ahead. Once we get through those, I expect to buckle down in the winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 That's great. Would you mind sharing what class you are using? I'd love to have a resource to share. Barbara, The class is through The Potter's School. The class meets once a week for 1 1/2 hours with a project/assignment to be completed on the other days. I could not be happier with it! It had been highly recommended by a good friend whose child has gone onto engineering. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Barbara, The class is through The Potter's School. The class meets once a week for 1 1/2 hours with a project/assignment to be completed on the other days. I could not be happier with it! It had been highly recommended by a good friend whose child has gone onto engineering. Lisa Thanks Lisa. That sounds great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 Every year it seems I have to just remind myself the Fall "semester" just is tougher. The transition from summer doings to settling in and hitting the books just takes time to really see a consistency and flow. So many holiday's and must do during the late August to January 2nd period, it just feels choppier than the Winter/Spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Every year it seems I have to just remind myself the Fall "semester" just is tougher. The transition from summer doings to settling in and hitting the books just takes time to really see a consistency and flow. So many holiday's and must do during the late August to January 2nd period, it just feels choppier than the Winter/Spring. Funny you say that, because I am observing the opposite in our homeschool: the fall semester usually starts out strong because the kids are excited to go back to work after the long summer, but the spring semester sees less motivation, more dragging, more issues. Plus, it's cold and unpleasant, whereas fall here is gorgeous and sunny well into November. Now, at the university, the fall semester is definitely tougher, because the first break does not come until after 13 weeks (14 weeks this year with the late Thanksgiving) whereas in the spring we get a break after 10 weeks. Makes a huge difference for the students. So, for DD, who is hardly "home"schooled, fall is going to be rougher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 Funny you say that, because I am observing the opposite in our homeschool: the fall semester usually starts out strong because the kids are excited to go back to work after the long summer, but the spring semester sees less motivation, more dragging, more issues. Plus, it's cold and unpleasant, whereas fall here is gorgeous and sunny well into November. Now, at the university, the fall semester is definitely tougher, because the first break does not come until after 13 weeks (14 weeks this year with the late Thanksgiving) whereas in the spring we get a break after 10 weeks. Makes a huge difference for the students. So, for DD, who is hardly "home"schooled, fall is going to be rougher. It really is funny how it can be so different in different areas and with different kids. The Fall for us means everything starts and adjustments to the new routines. With each dance class, the replacements/sizings of shoes...theatre brings new rehearsal schedules...classes online or locally start and forms/paperwork for clubs and so forth all must be submitted. I think it hits us because there rarely is more than a week at most between the swift pace of one camp or intensive and another in the summer and all the beginnings. This year, we only had a weekend between the last summer actvity ending and the first online course beginning and several of the dance/theatre classes beginning. I hope to avoid that happening again. We honestly just bit off a lot this time around and it made everything harder than it had to be. The end of this tunnel is near...after Thanksgiving we can clear our mornings of any clutter. Fortunately, we are not hugely behind in anything, it just has been very stressful. Being shut in during the winter motivates us to get work done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I think it hits us because there rarely is more than a week at most between the swift pace of one camp or intensive and another in the summer and all the beginnings. This year, we only had a weekend between the last summer actvity ending and the first online course beginning and several of the dance/theatre classes beginning. Maybe that is the difference: we do not do camps or activities in the summer. Part of the summer we travel as a family, accompanying DS to his conferences (I only work during the academic year) or going home to see our family (sadly, not this year) and have a lot of down time. Everybody in our family is happy and eager when the new semester finally starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nscribe Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share Posted November 8, 2013 Maybe that is the difference: we do not do camps or activities in the summer. Part of the summer we travel as a family, accompanying DS to his conferences (I only work during the academic year) or going home to see our family (sadly, not this year) and have a lot of down time. Everybody in our family is happy and eager when the new semester finally starts. If the world of opportunities did not run on the public school schedules....oh a gal can dream right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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