Swallowed up by school

I have no idea how other moms of high schoolers get the kids to be done with school in 3 or 4 hours but that is not happening at our house.  We are completely swallowed up by school.  The first day it was 8:30-5pm, Tues 8:30-4pm and yesterday was 8:30-12pm then a homeschool basketball league practice from 12pm-3pm, back to school from 3:30-6pm, dinner, youth group, school from 9:15 -10pm.  This does not even include the writing class or if that falls through, our own writing.  Sonlight is intense, even though the Hakim history books are for the first three books written on a 6th or 7th grade level.  The teacher guide tells me that the last 8 books advance to higher levels.  I find them interesting and decently written but I have to go over it with them to discuss the 35 million years ago, radio carbon dating methods, and what not.  I am happy that these books are not so adult, this way the info is clearly discerned and disclosed in an interesting manner.  Chemistry and Algebra II are intense and take about an hour each. 

I am sure that all this work and time consumption are do to the fact that I am a little TYPE A (understatment of the day) and conversations like this never happen in our house:

mom "did you do math?"

Child "yep"

mom "did you understand it?

child "yep"

mom "good! now go put away your books."

I have at times been this mom, but what I found over the years is that -

1. They often forgot to do things entirely (hmmm!)
2. It was not complete (how does this happen?)
3. They make careless mistakes so they don't learn to check their work, because of no accountability.
4. They really don't get it.
5. In history or literature they are missing out on gathering the relevant info, missing plot themes or all together missing the character issues and world view of the book.  They read w/o really thinking.
6. They may flat out lie
7. They don't do a job well done, just enough to get by

If school is their work for this season in life and if I am the one training, teaching, instructing them in this, then it is my job to make sure that their work ethic and character is being developed and stimulated to a higher standard just like I hope their minds are being developed over the material they are learning about.

I struggle and wrestle with this all the time.  My own flesh says "good enough" , but if I am to do my work unto the lord, then shouldn't I train them to do theirs with the same mindset. If I battle the good enough mindset, then I know that they have the same fleshy tendencies as me.  So if they "forgot" to do the last 3 problems in their math book, then that has to be addressed from a character point of view (not paying attention, skipping something that is hard, not asking for help, trying to get away with something, etc). When you educate at home you can have the tendency to not have all the accountability factors set in and things slide and children don't have consequences so they get lazy, very lazy, real fast.  Being the "teacher/mother is not always an easy road to navigate at home. 

 My window is closing with these two, I only have a short time left to do what needs to be done with them.  Did I do enough?, was I good enough?, do they have what they need to succeed?  All of this plagues my mind as I tackle another year of school.  Ultimately, I know that Gods grace is sufficient.  It really is, and more than anything I want to hear "well done good and faithful servant, come and enter your rest."  That sounds heavenly right now.  I only hope that I can persevere until death or Christ.  In case I seem morose, I am not.  Last year and this year were years that I have looked forward to.  I love my big boys, this is probably the second best season in my life with my kiddos.  I love this age and all the things we are learning together. (except Algebra, it stinks!!!!)

Ready, set, GO!

I finally finished ordering all my curriculum.  We plan on starting school on Monday minus science which has not come in yet.  The Sonlight box arrived Thursday to much fanfare, it is so fun opening that box and seeing all those books.  MathUSee arrived on Saturday so we are ready to begin.  This is what they are doing:

Evan: Sonlight Core 100
includes Bible, Lang Arts, spelling/vocab, Literature, Geo and History
MathUSee - Pre Algebra
Apologia Science - General Life Science
IEW (Writing) coop class starting in late Sept. (this is still tentative)
Rosetta Stone Latin America Spanish

Austin: Sonlight Core 100
MathUSee - Algebra 2
Apologia - Chemistry
IEW coop
Rosetta Stone Latin America Spanish
Drivers Ed online course

In other news; Austin got his learners permit.  I was a nervous wreck.  It was not his future driving that worried me, it was waiting at the DMV for hours and him taking his test that frazzled my nerves.  Every time I glanced at him he seemed to be getting something wrong.  I could not read the test but I could see red lettering, and I knew from just having taken my motorcycle license test last year that if you passed a question blue lettering came up.  He passed with no mistakes to spare and drove us home.  Since Nate was at work all last week I was the one taking him out.  I thought I did great, but he said he would rather have Dad.  I need to ask him if he still prefers Dad after this weekend, because Nate sure instructed and critiqued him a lot more than me.

I did it! It's Sonlight again

I can't tell you how much I loved doing Sonlight this past year with my two big boys, and so once again I bit the bullet and bought another core.  Last year was a year of condensed world history and this year I choose Core 100 American History in Depth.  I debated and debated, thus the seemingly last minute decision.  The tricky thing with Sonlight is they use great books, but not all pass our standards and this years selection definitely have some titles that need my reading it first to see if it will pass the litmus test for us.  The history books in this selection are from what I have read in the reviews a more liberal world view and lacks a biblical perspective.  They do include LOTS of discussion questions and info to counter balance the history.  The literature books come with a warning on the individual titles if it has questionable material, there seemed to be half a dozen or so of these warnings and I could tell with further investigating that I did online that I will probably eliminate 2 of the books, but some like To Kill a Mockingbird will be suitable for my kids ages.  I look forward to my big box arriving in the mail next week.

In math news we are sticking with Math U See.  Why fix something that ain't broke?

I am hoping to enroll them both in a Grammar/Writing class this year.  We pretty much neglected these this past year, not entirely, but it was not a focal point, so I want make it a priority this year. I haven't heard the details yet or confirmed it, but I was interested in it last year and hopefully they are offering it again.

The truly sad news that has kept me up at night is that neither of the Science teachers are offering classes this next year.  For Evan that is no big deal, he did Physical Science last year as a 7th grader so he is ahead and can afford to have a science free year.  Austin however has to do Chemistry this year.  CHEMISTRY!!!!!! I have to oversee CHEMISTRY!!! I NEVER took it. I was too dumb for the class, because I didn't pass Algebra 1 till 11th grade, (failed it 2 times).  You need to be in Algebra 2 to take chemistry.  I am sweating bullets already.  I scored a perfect Apologia Chemistry book at a yard sale for 50cents while visiting Tonya this weekend, and although the deal of the century made me happy the book may as well be written in Greek.  I am in over my head, big time.

We are still using Rosetta Stone for spanish.

That is all for now, I am not quite done yet