A 'Monday' Morning If There Ever Was One.

Coffee on the deck this morning. It's damp and gloomy. Warm, though.

My tomatoes and hot peppers are tying to grow, but with the cool temperatures lately, it's slow going. 

Today is 'Back To School' for most of Canada. In my mind, it's the Monday morning to beat them all. It's like everyone is to returning to the way they think life should be. It's like the whole summer was ramping up and waiting for this morning. I hate it. The little boys across the street are on week #2 of school. The French board always goes back a week early. The bigger girls across the corner from us have been out on their deck since I came out with the dogs at 6:50, waiting for their bus. It's 7:40 now and they're still waiting. My teenagers are still sleeping. I'll go annoy them awake at 8. 

Back to school for us is looking great - for the last 24 hours. Before that, I was getting increasingly stressed and annoyed. 

On one front was the virtual school that was on holidays (well deserved and traditional, I'm sure). No fall classes confirmed, no communication, not a lot of information on their website. 

The other front was the absolute inability to sit uninterrupted for more than 10 minutes before being needed for something. Normally this wouldn't bother me as I would use September to plan and prepare our schoolwork. This year, not being able to sit and plan was A Problem as both kids have chosen to be Scheduled and Schoolish. 

All was resolved in one website update. The virtual school posted one of those messages that makes neurotic homeschooling moms settle down. Don't contact us, we'll contact you. We're rolling out classes as we can; grades 9 and 10 first, 11 and 12 following. Watch your email for updates. 

So I'm quite pleased to be able to be so Scheduled and Schoolish, yet to have this gentle start to the school year. We'll take in the local Not Going Back To School Picnic and that's about it for today. It's the way I prefer to do it. As the fall weather gets cooler, we find ourselves indoors more, ready for some bookwork and reading and diving into interesting stuff. Taking the time to renew our journaling habit, thinking about personal goals and looking forward to the kids' sports and extra curricular activities. A couple of weeks for getting books and paperwork in order, making lists and still being able to drop everything for a nice day. 

The Girl Child has planned 5 courses for first semester (Sept.-Jan.). Algebra 2, Biology, English, a computers/programming course and Ananomy & Physiology. She'll be fencing at the university and working as a library page. There is also a boyfriend and plans for an additional job and volunteering. We're calling this year Grade 11 1/2. By age, it's her Grade 12 year. She could be graduating and heading off to university this time next year. But we decided to have the extra year of high school. Plans are to do a co-op placement for second semester.

The Boy Child has planned English, Algebra and Science for first semester. Science will be at the virtual school, math is a homeschool course and English will be cobbled together as usual. He will keep up his music - focussing more on piano than the guitar, but hoping to add in a new guitar teacher and do some performance. Once the planned work is under away, we'll see about adding in something else more interest based (astronomy or physics probably) and maybe a new part time job. Hockey and volunteering on the ice with the young hockey players is planned. It's his Grade 10 year and the plan is to attend the high school for second semester. 

That's the plan so far. It's interesting I to write it out and see it look so prepared. I wonder how it will all play out. 

♥Mrs. A