Happy New Year!

Today dawned bright and early with a lovely headache. Which steadily got worse. Happy New Year to me.

The holidays have been full of visiting and family. Much of that family has been plagued by a nasty hang-on sort of cold and/or a mysterious flu-like affliction. With so much obligatory visiting (nothing like spending a week together vacationing to give the germs a chance to spread around) and a couple of cuddly, climbing babies, it's no wonder people were always at varying stages of incubation.

I think I made it through the holidays mostly illness free by sheer force of will. Either that or the universe knew not to tempt my wrath by messing with my schedule. These last two days have been the only 'do nothing' days I've had since the beginning of December. Noone has to go anywhere, do anything, the kids have do-it-yourself food options and lots of stuff to do and Mr. A has more new video games and gadgets than he has time for. If that's not a perfect set up for a Mom to take some sick time, I don't know what is!

So with much thanks to a short-yet-violent migraine or a 12-hour virus, I count myself included in the group of extended family who experienced every sort of state of being over the holiday. I'm just very thankful that I didn't have to be miserable at a family dinner or while laying poolside in the hot sun.

Tomorrow we return to regularly scheduled programming. I begin thinking of school work, groceries and meal plans. I look forward to catching up with friends who were also busy with extended family over the holidays. Perhaps it's the sheer amount of social media sending me messages, but I am feeling the motivation to go through closets and cupboards to reorganize and purge.

I hope your New Year's Day was more noteworthy and celebratory.

~Mrs. A.

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Holy Hannah.

If I could ever get near the PC for a span of time that was condusive to blogging, I would be a more prolific blogger, I'm sure. Locating the PC in the family room, next to the kitchen and beside the phone has benefits but there are some very significant blogging drawbacks.

Case in point: this post has taken me 27 minutes to finish.

~Mrs. A

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A Mostly Optimistic Outlook

About a month ago I checked in. A week later, we were off to our official start of a new-to-us homeschooling school year. As we were headed to our annual local HSer picnic, I remembered that I should probably take some pictures.

Surprisingly, the kids didn't balk. I suppose my '...in a hundred years when I'm old and alone and you're off gallivanting the globe all I have are pictures...' speech has finally started to sink in.

As I was saying...We're into our third official week of all things schoolish and I am happy to announce that I am feeling cautiously optimistic. We're being very schoolish this year which makes both the kids feel as though they are accomplishing things throughout the day. Now, if only I could get organized enough to get to more subjects through the week.

The Girl Child has begun her grade 9 year and as per her request, I am tracking her work so she can earn her high school credits or equivalent-to-credit. Of course, I must also plan and prepare her work. We are filling in a few holes in Science before starting credit work after Christmas. We are also planning for credits in Math, English, Art, Phys Ed, Science and an ILC Credit called Strategies For Success. Half credits are planned in History, Geography, Drama and perhaps Civics.

The Boy Child is officially grade 7 aged. He has a full schoolwork plate with some interesting things planned. More on that as the year progresses. It seems I'll need to brush up on my astrophysics. His guitar playing is moving forward in leaps and bounds. I'm gobsmacked at his playing by ear. I've ordered a theory book for him to start as I simply can't bear from him to continue lessons with no theory training! <--My hangup. The relationship he's developed with his teacher is absolutely perfect for him. I thought we'd stay no longer than a year with this particular teacher, but I've since changed my tune.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the school year unfolds. I scrapped all the planning I did over the summer (not too much, really) and I'm redoing it all. So I don't feel that I've got a handle on all the material we'll cover this year. It's coming though. Math, the first chunk of Science, Strategies For Success and the Shakespeare studies/Drama are all mapped out. I've outsourced Canadian History and French but am doing some supporting work at home. I've changed my record keeping and planning binder so that The Girl Child can work through just about anything we're to cover independently. This means I need an order of study and page numbers and worksheets ready to go. This was something that was really important to her - the option of being able to work on her own - so we're going with it. I'm more organized this way, to in theory, it should be a win-win scenario.

Challenges are afoot though. The Girl Child wants more social opportunities, a job and less time with her brother. They're both smarter and quicker than their mother! The Boy Child builds energy faster than he can drain it - and in a house full of introverted un-kinesthetic learning/working people, that's difficult! Staying consistent with a morning schedule that gets us (the kids and I) up and going is my particular nemesis, but I'm making progress. Getting off the sugar definitely helped.

So all in all a positive outlook and some general excitement about the coming year. I'm looking forward to seeing how we make out.

♥Mrs. A.

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