The constant motion (commotion) of a good summer has passed. The steady stream of visitors didn't trickle out-- it came to a sudden and startling halt when the Klein crew flew out and we returned to a (much too) quiet house. With Colin back to school in Kenya and Jesse and Trevor not even making an appearance here (the nerve of them to have lives!) the house is a little echoey and strangely tidy.
Heather and I have turned our attention to home school. Ah, the blessed activity that occupies our mornings. Ah, the drain on my brain and aggravator of my nerves; the perpetrator of some-time tears and the sneaky presenter of surprise joys.
Home school has its good and bad. For me, teaching Algebra is bad. And yet, we're making progress. As our third week of classes begins, we're doing ok. Neither of us are flunking out, which is nice. Heather is bright enough, but her teacher is a little cloudy when it comes to numbers. Vocabulary is much more fun. We are decoding the meaning of words based on their Greek or Latin roots. That's just plain entertaining.
But the things that Heather really enjoys are not the things we do at the desk. She loves her riding lessons, hip hop class, piano and photography. (I didn't list the p-words above as they didn't fit in my cute alliteration.) She thinks it's a great travesty that she can only ride once a week so the 3 day clinic (45 minutes on horse-back daily) over this last weekend was a veritable equestrian happy-fest for her. She also has a voracious appetite for musical things and wants/needs more.
So, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for an array of opportunities available in this town that don't come with heavy-handed pressure or out of reach pricing. I'm thankful for Arlene, the woman Heather rides with. I love to hear her telling Heather what the horse is thinking. I'm thankful for Joy, the woman Heather plays piano with. I love the way her face lights up when a piece is complicated and they way Heather feels happy when she's been with her. I'm thankful for dogs and cameras and hip hop and baking. I'm thankful for books and darts and squash and the odd foray into the bush. If we're going to home school, it might as well be fun, right?
Happy school year! I just hope I can keep up.
6 comments:
Laughing, laughing, laughing at your brilliant stream of what homeschooling is in your home. Heather is a fortunate young lady to have you as her teacher and her mama! :)
you are much braver then me! Teaching Math, oh my!
Enjoyed reading about your continued hs journey. :) I tell you what saved my sanity is Teaching Textbooks. It's like having a professor in your computer for every single problem.
Thanks, Sarah. We're really in 8th grade and she's in Algebra 1/2, but that's still too much Algebra for me! Colin really liked Teaching Textbooks and I LOVED that I could turn it over to him. But Heather doesn't like it, for some reason. I tried my best to convince her of its many merits but she really wants to do Saxon this year so... Here we go!
Do you want me to send you some Exedrin Migraine? :)
I've got the big bottle of ibuprofen standing by ;-)
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