Latin......or not?

We are in our second year of learning Latin. D loves it and is doing amazing. I have been checking out private schools for 9th grade and none of the schools I have looked at offer Latin. It makes me so sad. I was really hoping D would go far in Latin.

So now I have a dilemma. Continue with Latin for 8th grade or drop it? Add Spanish? Spanish only?

Decisions decisions decisions.

For Spanish I had always planned to use Oklahoma State Universitys online class. I did it with my daughter for 8th grade and she did amazing. She also had 2 years of Spanish in public school so it was for the most part a review. D will not have had any Spanish at all. Kinda makes me a teeny bit nervous. Especially being the schools we will be applying to will see his grades.

Decisions decisions decisions.

I think I am going to purchase the Spanish books in the next month or two (when I have $$$) and begin Spanish in January. I have had about 12 years of Spanish 1 so I know I am good to get him started.

These are really good, progressive private schools we are looking at so I am not sure why they are not teaching Latin. I guess that will make for an interesting parent interview question!

High School woes

Why am I worrying about high school? My child is only in 7th grade. Seventh grade has only just begun! I'll tell you why. Because I am a planner. And I have to have everything planned out months/years in advance.

Adding to my stress is my child says he wants to go to school for high school. You know, the brick and mortar kind of school. The kind that does not involve doing history at the kitchen table.

What???????

His sister goes to a private school that she adores. My son has been there with her and sees what an amazing time she is having (did I mention she made High Honors!!). She was home schooled for 2 years (hated it) and had no issues transitioning back into school.

My son has been home schooled since 2nd grade. I think he barely remembers public school. I remember only too well and still have nightmares about it. And he only went for kindergarten and first grade!

I am going to use an educational consultant to help me scope out schools. We are going to visit and do the required parent and child interviews. We will take the SSAT (uggh) and fill out the applications. Then we will sit and wait to see where he is admitted.

Even if he is admitted I am not certain he will go.

He is super smart but needs a teeny tiny classroom setting. Socially he is probably a 5 on a scale of 1-10.  He doesn't think this will be an issue, I obviously feel very different.

Most importantly, I want him still to be that super smart student. I don't want him to suddenly become a C student. I don't want him to be stressed all the time because of social issues.

Then I worry if he stays home for high school what program am I going to use. Am I going to like it? Is it accredited or do we do a homeschool transcript? I can't take the stress!

Its not easy being a parent.

I love math!

I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. 

My son is doing Saxon Math 87 and I love math! We actually began with Saxon 2 and have been doing it steadily since second grade. 

I feel like I am learning math all over again. 

This time I am good at it!

Math and me ran into problems around the 4th grade. Knowing your multiplication tables back then was a big thing. I didn't know mine. I didn't really care if I knew mine. Someone apparently tipped my parents off that I didn't know mine (thank you very much teacher!). My mother made me practice them so much I went from being worst at them to #1. 

Sadly that was my last moment of math glory. 

After 4th grade it continued to go downhill. I often wonder why my parents never got me a tutor (they could have afforded to hire me a private math teacher full time!). Anyways, no one wants to hear me rant about what my parents did not do 30 years later. 

I am just so happy that my child is having this amazing math experience and I am part of it!!! I could not be prouder!

Reading reading reading

Its 9:35am and D is still asleep. I told him he could sleep in this morning and we would decide on school once he woke up. 

I'm really not happy about sick days but what are you gonna do. 

I remember when my kids were little and one would get sick and we would be home for days on end. Then the one child got well and the other child got sick. OMG......talk about boring. Its only been 1 day and I feel like the walls are closing in on me. I felt guilty about leaving him home alone yesterday so I skipped the gym. Now I feel awful. 

While I sit here I decided to go reserve books at the library. I am forever adding them to my amazon wish list and then it can take forever to get around to actually ordering them from the library. So I just ordered 5 books (3 of which they supposedly have on the shelves). 

I'm just finishing up a book I bought at the library for 25cents. Its really good and it feels really good to be reading. 

Day 27 will have to wait

Today was supposed to be our 27th day of school. Its going to have to wait. I have declared a sick day. Its so rare that we have a sick day that I think I shocked myself. Did I just really declare a sick day?

Yesterday I thought it was allergies. Then I started to think maybe it was a cold. I let D sleep till 9:30 this morning where I usually wake him up at 7:30 and we start at 8:30. He sounded so congested when he awoke that I knew it wasn't allergies. Off I went to CVS for cold medicine. 

We read aloud from Seventh Grade Space Station. Then I sent him to finish the last 2 chapters. It took him forever and ever. I kept checking he had not fallen asleep. On top of that he was reading while soaking his foot in a bowl of hot water (for an infected ingrown toenail, that he is also on antibiotic for). 

When he said he did not want to go to the gym to workout I knew he really, truly was not feeling well. 

We could have slogged through the rest of the day but it would have been a waste. He would not be paying attention and we would just have to review the lessons anyway. 

I keep telling myself this is so much better than school where he would miss the days lesson never to hear them again. Gotta love homeschooling!

edited to add: D has a fever. Now I feel better that I mostly cancelled school. He actually took a nap this afternoon (unheard of!). 

Long time, no see

Its hard to believe how much time has gone by since I last posted.

We survived a broken wrist!! If you have lived through this you know what an accomplishment this is.

Its hard to believe that we are 21 days into 7th grade already! I'm not sure how I feel about this. I feel high school breathing down my neck and I am scared.

I used to wake up every morning excited to start school and now I just want to pull the covers over my head. Luckily the cat has other plans for me and I am forced to get up.

13 year old boys are not always fun! My son became a different child towards the middle of last year and his teenage behavior is rearing its ugly head again. His head is on his shoulders but somehow his brain is about 10,000 feet above in the clouds.

We were just reading a fiction book and the father of the child in the book is a college professor. The kid in the book is in 7th grade. He is commenting to the wife he would never teach middle school. Not a chance! He then went on to describe my son perfectly. It was hysterical (my son did not appreciate it) and made me feel slightly better.

Off to make sure my 7th grader is actually doing his history reading or is he daydreaming.

I hate vacation breaks

Things were going amazing this year. Then we break for vacation. It was seriously needed and welcomed and things were going fine.

Then my son falls at ice skating and breaks his wrist. His right wrist. The hand he writes with.

OMG!!!

I want to cry. I had several days of depression (so did he though for different reasons).

Today is day 1 of being back to school with giant cast on arm.

I had to type up the history and science notes because he can't write with his left hand. I will type up the vocabulary definitions and make the latin flashcards.

English class is for the most part taking a back seat till the cast comes off (hopefully early March). We do an online class (that we love) but it is 99% writing essays which is difficult at this point. So we are going to get as much done in other classes as we can and start English in March and hopefully finish by July.

Standarized testing also has to be pushed up several months.

On a happier note I finished book 1 in the 52 week book challenge.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is amazing!!!! I think it is going to be my favorite book of the year.