Accountability Thread 6/23-6/29

[Critterfixer]

Last week of June! Is everyone ready for fall yet? Are you? Are you? Because I am....not. I've got so much planning to do and things to catch up that I should never die. But the next month and the end of this one are booked solid. Have to squeeze planning in somewhere between eat, sleep, write.

So far, I'm am just getting a notion of what I might like to do for tenth grade year, but I need to get a look at how I want to award credit hours and then build from there. The boys are pretty much sailing through algebra (I wanted them to finish all of CLE 8 because there's good stuff in there, and so they just started the Algebra in May. They are about 4 books in now, and mowing down the geometry prep I gave them, too. So I have to decide where we go next sooner rather than later. There's some art related electives I want them to do. I have college level geology books, so we'll do that for science, and I expect we'll do ancient history this fall, too. I think I will come up with some electives based on their interests that they can pursue--one boy is really into fishing right now (to the point he has individual kinds of lures memorized) and the other really needs to do something related to sailing ships because he just loves them.  Latin and French are going to be our foreign languages, I believe. I need to do a music appreciation course--neither of them are interested in playing an instrument, and I won't push that unless there is interest. Writing will be pretty easy to plan, as will literature. 

I just...

Have to do it. In all the spare time I have. 

[Critterfixer]

Morning. Boys have school. Just basic stuff--Math, Latin, and whatever they want to read or write, then they can spend the summer day as they please. I'm going to finish a synopsis today, and get words on my two novels. I also want to paint. There's the usual laundry and so forth, and the kitchen is really in need of cleaning.

[serendipitous journey]

On 6/23/2019 at 6:41 AM, Critterfixer said:

Last week of June! Is everyone ready for fall yet? Are you? Are you? Because I am....not. I've got so much planning to do and things to catch up that I should never die. But the next month and the end of this one are booked solid. Have to squeeze planning in somewhere between eat, sleep, write.

...

I'm not even ready for today.  !!!

I am working hard on planning, but it is going so slowly.  I spent a lot of time last summer sketching out what Ursa Minor's upper years would look like, but a bunch of things went wrong with our school at the beginning of the year (let us not consider stuff that hit life in the middle of the year!) AND I realized that certain parts of UM were going to be a terrible fit for my sensitive child who is really saturated on ancient history.  😉  I want to do something similar this summer for our actual plans, which would give me a sense of how we are getting to the necessary and desired elements in the long run, but am so demoralized. 

Yesterday the boys & I took younger DS to a local gamestore's Pokemon afternoon, and he had a good time.  He is a very intense, mastery-oriented gameplayer, which I had not totally realized.  A friend who helped him with his chess was almost insistent that we get him into a chess club and now I see why, though the child isn't interested in that.  At any rate: hanging out at the gamestore is a new kind of homeschool vision for my classics-oriented, book- and nature-loving self, but we really need to help younger DS get used to people and he's feeling vulnerable after Church Disaster lost him a lot of relationships and he loves Pokemon enough to play it with strangers.  The people at the store are really lovely, too. 

Today we're going for Dungeons & Dragons for the elder.  !!!  Did I say: !!!  He's all like, have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons? and his father is all like "Yes!  I had a great time!"  and I'm all like "No way! Everybody thought it was satanic!" so very different backgrounds there.  I don't think it'll erode any ethics or spirituality but part of me is longing for a more photogenic (Instagram-friendly?) extracurricular.  Hallelujah that elder DS's tummy issues are better enough in the evenings for us to begin setting him up in martial arts.  That starts this week, too: getting used to the dojo. 

On the docket: keep toes in math & language arts.  House & garden stuff.  Planning stuff.  I need to exercise, got almost none last week and am totally unmotivated about this so have to imagine the difference between my Old Self hiking a grandbaby up a hill in a carrier & my Old Self stuck at the base of the hill waiting for everybody to get back.  Hang on a minute.  Sitting around in my old age is starting to sound appealing!  (not really.  not VERY appealing)  And get kids to D&D evening.  !!!!

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by serendipitous journey

[Critterfixer]

Go Dungeons and Dragons! Get him into costumes and you'll have your Instagram friendly extracurricular! 

I took the boys to the lake yesterday, and they promptly vanished with their boats to fish and explore, so I got a lot of character work done. Today is going to be hot, but the boy has squash blossoms on some of his plants, and with the recent rain and the heat, they should grow like weeds now. The boys have school today, but tomorrow off, because I have to work. Today for me is writing as hard as I can to see if I can't get both of my novels over the 50K mark. One is, the other has further to go, but it's also low priority compared to the other. 

[Critterfixer]

Working today. I might get some school planning in place.

[Critterfixer]

Afternoon! Busy day. I spent the morning putting together a gift for my niece. Art related. Since then, I didn't feel well, so I am spending the rest of the day on the couch, writing, and resting. Making a little supper soon. 

[Critterfixer]

Another busy day planned. Today we have family to visit, which will take all day. I'll be taking along some writing to do, but that's it.

[serendipitous journey]

Critterfixer, hoping that you are feeling better & that the visit goes well & that you have time for writing.  Hurrah for writing!!! We <heart> writers here!!!

You totally cheered me RE D&D and photogenicity!  🙂  The boys had a really grand time; our "game master" (seems locally preferred term to "dungeon master", one can see why) was really a gem.  He took a group of 3 adults (incl. me) and 3 boys, half of whom were experienced players and the other half (me & mine) total newbies, and gently massaged rules & standards so that by the end everyone was having so much fun.  That particular game will run bi-weekly.  I was so happy to see the boys having fun with other folks, and it was great that we ended up in a group with mixed ages & genders: one of the grown-ups is a retiree, I'm pretty sure, and the other was another woman. 

Yesterday was re-balancing and some schooly stuff, trying to ensure we get wonderful ideas, good music, and something beautiful into their heads daily.  As long as we really try then we're good. 

Today: go by the lab for DS the elder's labwork; grocery shopping; 3Rs, piano, literature and ideally music; exercise; work on the house & garden.  For my own self: total kudos if I get some AoPS math done & a chapter or article from my reading pile.  I did a chapter of "The Clockwork Universe" this AM which was rewarding and only a little frustrating -- I disagree with the author's approach/perspective, but am nonetheless learning a lot.  It is good to keep thinking.