In Full Swing

We haven’t taken a true break from school, but we did have a lighter load for the past couple of months.  Not any more… we are in full swing.  I now have all our subjects integrated back into our days.  Next week we will begin CC, and in a couple weeks Co-op—and that is full on school!!

I’m working on finding my groove as now Clara has much more school to do, which requires more from me, which gives me less time with Lucy.  Lucy is pretty much self sufficient with school—but there are still things I am needed for. 

One class Lucy is taking in Co-op (and the reason we actually agreed to do co-op again this year) is a General Science class.  It’s a heavy duty class (I guess now that we hit 7th grade—they all will be from here on out huh?!!).  She is supposed to be through the first chapter and have read the 2nd.  That is a TON of work!  The first chapter alone had 4 experiments!!  We are just about done with it though, so we are in good shape.  It helps that Lucy is loving it, and I have to admit I am too!  I’m gonna have to steal the book from her at night so I can read it too  :)

The first experiment we did with it was on density.  We have done this before, but it never gets old  :)  Lucy is having to do lab reports now too.

The other experiments Lucy got pictures of, but I did not apparently.  We did have our friends come over for one of them, as it is always way more fun to do them together!

As for co-op, we are going for half days—and Lucy will be taking 1.  Babysitting (which she will be CPR certified at the end of this class, which I’m thrilled about since we can leave her and Clara from time to time now)  2.  DIY Girls where they will do hair, nails, and stuff from Pinterest.  Lucy’s first choice was photography, which she was so excited about, but the woman who was going to teach it threw her back out and will be needing surgery, so she pulled out—I know how that is, bless her heart!  3.  General Science. 

Clara will be taking 1.  Art with Susan (this is a major art class—I have seen the things the kids make in previous years and have been mega impressed!!  I really wanted to get Clara into an art class to help her “see” things as it appears the dyslexia gene has not skipped her either.  She doesn’t just flip from back to front, she will flip from top to bottom as well!  We have found another reading program though that is working beautifully, so we are super excited about that!!  Anyway, 2.  50 States and 3.  The Big Book of Why. 

We are going back to WM co-op this time around and the girls are very excited about it.  We will do mornings there and then CC in the afternoons and then there is church that night—so getting all our stuff done on Wed I think will help us to stay home more and get more actual school work done  LOL!!  We will do our core classes M, T, and Th, and then Fri will be co-op work, history, science and anything else we do—like games to reinforce, review, etc.  It will be our “fun” day  :)

My brain has been school, school, school here lately!  All curriculum needed is now bought.  I have reorganized my school room to make it much easier on me.  As an added bonus, a friend gave us their kitty house they made that their cats don’t use.  We put it in the school room and the kittens LOVE it, which gives them a great place to play/sleep while we do school that isn’t on top of us!  Yay!!  I’m really excited about this coming school year, and so are the girls!!  I absolutely love to see their love of learning!!

Mike and I are now on the homeschool group board and we had to help out at the forum a couple of weeks ago.  I was working the curriculum table and I got to share with many up and coming homeschoolers about how I fought the call to homeschool for a long time and how I tried all I could to get out of it!  Now however, I can’t imagine life any different!!  The time I have with my kids, the bond I have with my kids (especially as Lucy is going into the teen years), the redemption of my own education (apparently I learned nothing the first time around), and the tremendous blessing it is every day to be with them and mold and shape them to become the women God designed them to be---wow!!  No one gets to the end of their life and says “gee, I sure wish I spent more time away from my family.”  I am so thankful God was so persistent in this!!