A Day in the Life

Update . . . after 2 months of nothing

Well, we have not disappeared off the planet!    I don't have any excuses for not blogging.  So here goes what has been happening the last 2 months.

Our school started Aug. 27th.  We got off to a good start.  The kids were working hard.  Our schedule was going well.  Aaron got his own room and therefore, that is where he did his work.  He does better with quiet.  I thought I was pleased with everything, but things changed (more about that later).

In September our homeschool drama group started up again.  The boys were all going to be in the junior group (ages 6-12).  The play for this year was to be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  The boys were all excited about being in that production.  Tryouts were the next week.  Aaron was trying out for Peter and Edmund.  Ben was trying out for the Fox.  Nathan wanted to be one of the wolves.  They practiced and memorized their parts (although not required).  Auditions went well.  Aaron got the part of Peter, Ben the Fox and Nathan one of the wolves.  They were all happy.    It's very good when things go your way.  So now we have drama each Friday.

In the middle of October, Aaron started Middle School soccer with the homeschool team.  We play against Christian and private schools in our area like a regular school team.  Practice was only 5 minutes from me so that was great!  The first game is tomorrow and Aaron is excited about it.  We have 3 games next week so that will keep us busy with practice on the other two days.

Now back to our school.  About the second week in October, I just started feeling that I wasn't happy with our curriculum.  I had added a Konos co-op in at the last minute just before starting school.  To be honest, I wasn't happy with it.  I felt like I was trying to get too much in and not accomplishing my goals for the kids.  I kept asking God to lead me.  Well, I started to get emails from Sonlight (not sure how that happend, but I'm glad).  I had looked at it over 10 years ago, and for some reason, I decided it wouldn't work for us, but I can't remember why.  Anyway, I read about Sonlights great 18 week guarantee.  During the same week, I went to our homeschool meeting and someone was talking about Sonlight.  There were catalogs so I took one home.  I visited the website and read through the catalog.  It looked good.  My concern with what I was using before was that I lacked direction in certain areas (mainly history, reading and writing essays and papers).  With Sonlight I could still use my math, science & grammar (which I was happy with).  I felt reading good books and incorporating writing assignments into our day was very important (especially preparing for the college load).  This is what Sonlight offered.  Within the end of that week I had placed my order and in a few days I had my box.  And what a great box. 

Reading over the Intructors Guide, I was pleased with my purchase.  I cannot read everything my children read and it had real answers to the discussion questions!  I couldn't believe that.  No more skimming through books to find answers to questions.  It even included a Bible reading and memory schedule, which is extremely helpful for me.

My son watched me open the box and take out all the books.  He asked if he was suppose to read all these books.  I hesitantly said yes, not wanting to hear his reaction, but thankfully it was "oh, cool".    That wasn't the answer I expected, but it was the one I got! 

We've done Sonlight for one week and I'm pleased to say that he has kept up on his reading and I have kept up on my read alouds.  It's been a good week.  This coming week we will add our writing assignment.

A Rebecca update:  Our college daughter is doing extremely well.  She has had TONS of reading and writing assignments.  She has done her share and more.  But the work has paid off with great mid-term grades!  She has made many great friends and has done so many exciting things!  She's gotten to see several plays and performances and heard interesting lectures.  We are so looking forward to seeing her for Thanksgiving and then having her home for several weeks in December. 

Well, that's it for now.  I hope not to wait 2 months for the next update.