Super C is in 7th grade.
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| My junior higher says he has no clue what he wants to be when he's older. |
Super E is in 3rd grade.
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| He still wants to be a veterinarian when he grows up. |
Quiet Tiger is in Kindergarten.
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| She either wants to be a teacher or she'll take over daddy's business and become a financial advisor. |
Our school room isn't done yet, as we haven't yet bought a table and chairs (other large expenses like a fence and a new washing machine came first). But we are looking good with curriculum on the bottom shelves. Other supplies like pens, pencils, rulers, colored pencils, highlighters, are stored in the laundry room. For now, we'll just do school at the dining room table. But I'm anxious to have my official school table and I'm hoping for a bargain at a resale shop or garage sale.
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| School room. Curtains will be lengthened. Table and chairs will be purchased. It all takes time. And money. |
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| Supplies hanging in the laundry room. |
In Minnesota, I had to send in a form to the local schools, per state law, to announce my homeschooling decision for my kids. I had to send in vaccination records for all my kids as well. At the end of the year I will have to test my children, per state law, but no one will receive those results, interpret those results or store those results, we just have to be able to prove that standardized tests were administered if need be. Dumb, but what can you do?
This year we are sticking with Sonlight curriculum again for 7th grade and Kindergarten. I found 7th grade pretty cheap on a used curriculum website at the end of the school year last year. Kindergarten curriculum is being borrowed from my friend Amy again. Somehow, something got mixed up a little with Super E's curriculum. Not sure how it happened, but had we stuck with Sonlight this year, he would have been in a core that Super C started in 4th grade. I knew Super E wouldn't be ready for it in 3rd grade. For him, we are taking a Sonlight break and trying My Father's World, another good curriculum that I found used on eBay. Some of the books we have already done last year, but it will be okay to skip those few books this year. My friend Hilary will be lending us some science curriculum from Abeka. I'm also trying something new for Language Arts this year, Writing Strands, that is on loan to me from a sweet, sweet adoption friend whom I have never met in person, but is a sister to me. Thank you, Jeanine!
It was a hard decision for me to choose the appropriate schooling this year for Quiet Tiger. You may recall what happened when we tried public school for her last year. Utter disaster, despite all my best intentions. I was glad to pull her out. I'm not sure what the best thing for her will be this year. I'm not. All in all, my biggest hope is that this year of homeschooling will bring us closer as mother and daughter. We butt heads a lot and I've always said she has "mommy issues" not wanting to trust or listen to or give control to an adult woman (think of all the nannies she had in China). She thrives on fighting me daily and manipulates grandmas constantly when they visit. Should homeschooling not be the right decision for Quiet Tiger, we will enroll her in public school or a charter school immediately. For now, we'll give homeschooling a try. Fingers crossed! She'll be using Sonlight curriculum but I'm waiting for the teacher's guide to arrive, so in the meantime, she's doing workbooks at home.
Being close to my dear friend Hilary will bring added school fun this year. Surely, we will figure out how to share teaching and we will plan field trips and sports. Our kids are already enrolled in Homeschool Softball this year and my boys are excited! We didn't sign Quiet Tiger up for softball due to the fact that she didn't listen to her tennis coaches very well in Texas, so we thought we'd take a break from sports for her this year. I sure do miss my Texas tennis Wednesdays though, when the kids got to learn from some great coaches and I got some adult-time with my good friend Nicole!
Here's to a fun and successful year ahead.
All prayers appreciated for teacher and students alike!
