We meant to go get doughnuts last Friday, to celebrate the completion of our first week of school, but it didn't work out, so we decided to do it this week.
We're off to a great start. Anna's only doing one course in her senior year -- British Literature Honors. We're enjoying "Beowulf" and Bede, and now we're moving on to "Morte d'Arthur" and Chaucer.
Julia's school year is going very well. She's taken 2 spelling tests, completed 3 sets of science questions, begun a diligent study of Latin grammar, recited Scripture and catechism, wrote a story in Latin, read 3 books and written summaries on them, done nearly a chapter of math review, 10 pages of grammar, and lots of history outlining. I think one of my favorite things about homeschooling is that, with a little diligence, the teacher and student can cover significant amounts of material in so little time. (She also sat in on all our British Lit discussions on Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxons.)
Peter, on the other hand, is down at the local high school this year, by his own demand. I am not at all happy with this choice, of course. He is taking a 9th grade English class because they simply could not be flexible on the fact that he already had World Lit in 9th grade, and American Lit in 10th grade, and they refused to put him in British Lit, which would make sense. They couldn't make AP Lit work with his schedule. So, he's stuck taking an English course way too easy for him, which drives his English Teacher Mother NUTS! He's also taking Chorus, which he enjoys, Spanish II (he's made 2 100's on quizzes thus far), and Forensics.
Forensics. When Adam saw this course listed, he enrolled Peter in it, because (silly us) we assumed they meant the classical, REAL meaning of "forensics" which is "oratory, public debate, having to do with argument in a court of law." The boy loves debate. Sigh. After the class started, we discovered he would be studying crime scenes, blood stains, bullet patterns, and that his homework was to watch CSI. All I could do was sigh and roll my eyes. Thus is our public education system.
Still, I'm sure it will all turn out reasonably well, and a little public schooling for him won't be the end of the world. He's in bliss. He walks to and from school, and runs cross country in the afternoons.This activity is good for him, and is preferable to his behavior last school year, which generally involved sitting on his bed all day when we weren't homeschooling. He just really hated it.
An honest assessment of where we are educationally this year. Life is messy. Sometimes there is not one, perfect answer. So I give it up to the Lord and ask Him to do what he does best: redeem. Redeem the messy parts of life, and turn them out well, to His glory and our good.
1 comment:
Having homeschooled two boys, I can say that the boys, as they become young men, seem to really need to be out in the world proving themselves, and in our society it's hard to find a way for them to do that outside of the school venue. I think you are right to be at peace praying that he has received enough foundation at this point that he will truly thrive.
When my first two kids left our home school--in their late teens--I felt that I was definitely not finished, that there were so many things I'd wanted to study together. It was barely a send-off I'd given them....
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