Welp, time for my official transcript/record of what we are doing this year...
Ian backed out of Running Start when he found out he was going to have to ride the school bus to the park n ride and take the city bus to the community college. Too bad he didn't study harder last year. He could have been driving. Oh well. Life lessons can be tough ones. He is back at Peninsula High School as an 11th grader, safe in a system where I can breathe down his neck, email his teachers, and make sure he is turning his assignments in on time. Of course I'm not jumping in and rescuing him! This is a punishment! He is taking AP Physics, AP US History, AP Language and Composition, Spanish 3, Pre-Calculus, and Ceramics. He didn't want ceramics, but hey-when you trade your educational freedom in for government school, you don't get to choose your electives! Or your other classes because when you back out of Running Start and your mom has to handle the last minute paperwork, she gets to choose based on what she know you are capable of. See? The joke is on him. And man, I love his hair.
Shane is taking a Biology class with a local homeschool mom/science teacher. He is taking World History, Current Events, and PE at Co-op. And he is using Math-U-See Geometry. I had him using Memoria Press 9th grade, but I changed my mind about using the whole program. He just isn't a Shakespeare/Homer/Virgil kind of guy. He will be using bits and pieces though: Latin, Logic, and Composition. I will be creating his Literature one book at a time. His first read is Animal Farm. I'm looking forward to seeing how his year goes. He was supposed to be a 9th grader this year because I wanted to hold him back due to the late summer birthday, but he really wants to be a 10th grader. So I guess I better backtrack and get a real high school transcript started for him! He is still participating in Sea Scouts and orchestra. He is a great kid to have at home.
Genevieve is using Memoria Press 6th grade even though she is a 7th grader this year. Memoria Press is academically advanced and super challenging. She is getting an amazing education and is on track with the advanced classes at the local middle school. In a month, she will be part of a language arts class with a local homeschool mom whose kids have moved on to university. In addition to her academics here, she is taking choir and needlework at co-op. She is at the age where she just wants to be around people her own age and has started bugging us about going to public school. We won't even have that discussion until high school, so I may only have to plan one more year of curriculum.
Fiona and Daniel are combined in Memoria Press 3rd Grade. Fiona has fallen pretty far behind for several reasons, but this is her year. I just know she is past that late bloomer phase. I am going to finish off this school year with the both of them, but if things don't go well I'm going to reconsider homeschooling these two. Fiona is still doing orchestra and Daniel is a Cub Scout.
All the kids, from Shane to Lula, are in Taekwondo with Mark. Mark started a class just for black belts that meets on Friday nights, just so Genna and Shane and a few select students can have an advanced workout.
Lula, now a first grader, loves learning. She is so excited to sit at the table and do workbooks. I have her using Memoria Press for Language Arts, Math-U-See for math, and all her other learning is at co-op. She has an amazing line up of classes that includes stories and art, science and nature, and geography projects. And she is reading! She isn't my earliest reader, but she is very good at learning phonics and is picking up spelling nicely.
Heidi is PreK age and has some dollar store workbooks for letters and numbers, plus a few fun classes at co-op. Her fun classes are called Multisensory Play and Character Club. I haven't really figured out if I'm going to do anything planned for her and Jason. I really want to use Junior Kindergarten with them from Memoria Press, but I just seem to run out of time. They are such a distraction and Heidi doesn't have Lula's studious personality. We will see which way the wind blows her...
Jason's classes at co-op are Center Time and Character Club. Today was his first day going to class without me. He acted like a total clingy baby, but I was able to sneak out when he was distracted and every time I checked on him, he was fine. But he was totally worn out by the time we got in the van to come out.
What about me? I'm going to keep working my three jobs (Harbor Press, Harbor Health, and Sound View Camp), volunteering as the co-leader for PreK-K at my new church sprout: Waypoint South, going to MOPS and being the table leader for the moms with older kids, going to a once-a-month book club for moms and daughters, and being an admin for several Facebook groups for homeschooling and our local Buy Nothing group.
