This is too funny! I wrote this back in early December...about "catching up" and here I am just releasing it! That seems fitting. Here it is, warts and all:
It's been awhile. My cup is overflowing with blessings that keep me happily busy. It seems like everywhere in my life I am trying to catch up. Catching up with my sewing, catching up with house chores, catching up with reading, baking, Christmas stuff. I thought I'd take some time to catch up on my blog.
We are heavy into dance. Jane dances 6-7 days a week now. It's a total of anywhere from 12.5 hours to 16 hours a week with 6 of those hours being on Sunday afternoons for Nutcracker rehearsal. Ruth dances 1.5-2.5 hours a week. Her regular class is 1.5 hours long and then there is another class she sometimes picks up. The house has dance shoes and bobby pins everywhere.
Co-op is going okay. Still not thrilled with things there. Jane is still doing great in geometry and literature. Once in awhile, she'll get stuck in geometry, but so far I've been able to help; sometimes by just guiding her to find the answer. In literature, they just finished reading Hound of the Baskervilles and now they are reading Frankenstein. She is whipping through them and does great in class and with the study guides and tests. Chemistry is a different story! She and I both hate it. It makes our brain hurt....I'm not kidding. Marty, my husband, said at the outset of homeschooling that he would be no help in science, so we are on our own. Fortunately, the text is really good; it's Apologia science, Exploring Creation with Chemistry so it's a very student friendly text. We are muddling through and every month that goes by, we say a little prayer of thanksgiving (and add a prayer for help for the next month).
Ruth is doing awesome. She has finished her reading comprehension and her religion book on saints and her geography on eastern europe. At co-op for geography we are studying the states, capitols, and identify continents and countries. She is midway through her social studies, finished her science, and will finish her 4th grade math by the end of January. Her english is moving slowly, but that's because I'm keeping her on pace with the co-op class. In January, she'll begin a new science, new geography, new reading comprehension and 5th grade math. Right now, Ruth is not liking piano, but that's because our teacher had the girls learn a trio on the piano that they are going to play for the recital and it's not going so well. I think once that is over, she'll make friends with piano again. She generally loves it.
I have been trying to get back into sewing. I am sewing some elastic-waist sleep pants for Sam. They are soft cotton flannel and have two pockets. Everything is cut out and one whole leg is done and the pocket is sewn onto the second leg. I am honestly not sure it's worth the effort. Somehow, if I finish, I imagine that the endeavor will bring me a sense of accomplishment. We'll see.
The house is a disaster. The chore chart failed miserably. I can't help but wonder if I had started with the house all clean, would that have made a difference? I don't know. No one seems to care but me. I look at it (it being any room in the house) and sigh. Then, one time, Jane came up and said, "What's wrong, mom?" I sadly replied, "Just look at this mess. When am I ever going to get it cleaned up? It's horrible."
"It's not horrible, mom. It's a happy, busy home!" said sweet Jane. I looked at her and said, "Really? Is that what you see?" She smiled and nodded. I'm gonna go with that....that sounds good. Not sure that it's true, but I like it!
I'm still working 7:30-4:00 on Monday's and Wednesday's and teaching at the co-op on Friday mornings. I still work at the dance school on Saturdays 9-1pm and it all seems to be working. Sam's doing great his senior year. Martin got a new, better job and is making plans to get back to school. Leo will come home for the holidays this weekend. There. Now you're all caught up!
Musings on the daily trials and triumphs of a homeschool family.
