Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7



Thursday, September 01, 2011

(9/1)...streaming



Happy September, dear friend. I do love September. Like March, September is a transition month. We go in on one side during summer and come out the other in autumn. We go in hot, (over 90 degrees today!) and come out (hopefully) cool. We pick apples, sweep acorns, watch college and high school football, and enjoy the beginning of autumn and winter cooking. We have glorious blue skies and strong warm breezes. It's a glorious month.


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Faith and I started school this week. I really don't intend to "rub it in" if you have a whole houseful of children to school, because a whole houseful of children is really a beautiful thing in so many ways. But homeschooling one, sweet-tempered, darling child is just. so. wonderful. I never knew that homeschooling could be so enjoyable. Not that it was not ever enjoyable before, but when there are children squabbling with each other and tugging you (by the heart, if not physically) this way and that, it just wears you down after a while. If you are homeschooling a houseful, I hope to give you an image of your homeschool farther down the road. Faith and I have several more years together (she's only in fourth grade now) and I hope that they can all be as enjoyable as this week. I did not experience one typical "first-day" moment on Monday. She was happy. I was happy. It was good.

I hope to write a short post on what we are doing in school this year, because it is the most I have ever branched out from a standard curriculum since we started this homeschooling journey nine years ago.



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Noah has had quite an adjustment to school, in some good ways and some bad. I write this because I know that many homeschoolers eventually send a child off to school, for many reasons, and they often wonder how it will work out.

Noah left his very first to-be-handed-in assignment at home on Friday. That's a casualty of being homeschooled your entire life -- you never have to pack up and take anything with you. If mom grades an assignment, she does it at home.

Fortunately we got it to him and he received and A-. Yeah for Noah! Homework has been the hardest adjustment. Rarely at home did he have homework and usually it was because he fooled around and didn't get something done and I wanted him to learn a lesson. It's really hard to go to school from 8 to 3 and come home and do three to four hours of homework, especially if you have never done homework on a regular basis. In addition to teaching him to take notes last year I should have more frequently given him after-school work. Live and learn.

He is making a lot of friends, however, and I think, overall, he is enjoying himself. It's very funny that this enormously shy boy (he used to hide behind the furniture when we had company) is actually very popular at school. It turns out he's a bit of a ham and enjoys his comrades' attention.

He is taking band this year, which is an elective class, not an extra-curricular at St. Charles. A condition of buying drums for him last Christmas was taking band at school. So he has been taking private lessons since January, and now has a lesson every day for an hour in eighth period. He was very excited to share that he will be doing the drumroll at the beginning of the Star Spangled Banner at this Friday's football game (it's not a marching band but a pep band). He'll also be playing Eye of the Tiger -- big stuff. There are several percussionists in the band so they take turns, but I think Noah got some great parts. He told me that he can letter in band if he takes it for two years, and I think he will. We're starting to talk about T.B.D.B.I.T. L. a little bit. That's really big! :-D


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Joshua's echo and stress test were normal. That's good. Now the doctor wants him to wear a 48-hour monitor to see if they can figure out what his heart is doing when he feels whatever he is feeling. They want him to take the medication that he takes for ADD while he is on the monitor because even though he doesn't normally take it during the summer, and has not taken it when he has experienced the fluttering, it sometimes exacerbates heart rhythm issues and I think they might see more of what he is experiencing. In many ways it is like caffeine, which I suspect is what caused the problems to begin with. Just a hunch. Let's hope.

Thanks so much for your prayers. We are going to get the monitor next Tuesday and he will wear it until Thursday.


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The basement redo is almost finished.  Yesterday I put down all the carpet tiles (except for the ones that needed to be cut and Doug did those.) The room is about 15 x 25. That's a lot of carpet tiles. My butt is very sore today -- either the sitting on the hard floor or the up and down. Probably the up and down. The floor looks nice. We decided (I decided) to use dark brown and dark gray tiles and checkerboard them. The only problem is we used every single full tile and now have no spares. The whole point to using the tiles was so that if one gets ruined (stained) we can replace it. I now would have to buy two full boxes (because we -- I -- used two colors) to have spares. That will run us $100. I know we're going to need spares and will be really glad to have them, but $100? Sigh.

I promise to have pictures as soon as we get the sofa moved down there and the other furniture back in place -- hopefully next week.


That's all folks...





5 comments:

  1. I'm glad the heart issues are on the way to being figured out. Is there another med he can take?

    If it makes you feel any better, my kids were never homeschooled and ALL of them have forgotten assignments at home, even when I nag: "It's not done until it's packed!" I swear they'll put that on my gravestone...

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  2. Fritz is doing 8th grade CCD this year and he has homework assignments and papers...the one due yesterday was autobiographical. I swear, the kid tried to run away from home (at least until CCD was over) to avoid doing it. If I homeschool next year (likely) I need to figure out more accountability methods. He can't hide whenever an assignment is due!

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  3. I can picture homeschooling just my 6th grade daughter ... it would be very different! Four boys added to the mix do make things more animated and loud.

    The accountability needs to happen wether they homeschool all the way or just part way. I hope to add a bit more of that this coming year for my oldest who is a freshman. College will be here all too soon. Glad your son is adjusting well to school and having fun, too.

    Also great to hear good news on the heart front. Hope that the next test is just a formality that doesn't amount to any change in the routine.

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  4. Our oldest boy, 2nd child, really blossomed in school. We actually sent him in 8th grade instead of 9th becasue he was/is so smart. I thought he would struggle more with the social stuff, but he and Noah sound like the same types!

    Where will Faith go to school, if the boys are at a boys' school? Is there a feminine equivalent?

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  5. I'll be remembering that phrase, Barb! Last night he did the same thing, but I caught him.

    Michelle, last night Noah was studying for four quizzes and his first history test. He would definitely have run away if he could. Tell me why the faculty can't get together and discuss who is doing what? Who wins when you have four quizzes and a test on the same day? No one. Urg.

    You are right about accountability, Suzie. They do have to learn it, irregardless of where they school.

    Sara,
    Right now, I don't know. Our Catholic community in Columbus has been trying to open an all-girls' school for many years, with the bishop's approval but not his support. Sigh. People want it but not bad enough to put their money in. The diocese knows that girls would flock to it and the four co-ed schools would lose students. St. Charles used to be a seminary and has been around for a long time. They get 180 students per class and I guess the bishop is afraid to lose 180 girls each year from the four other schools. I don't understand it because the diocese should operate as a school district -- all funds pooled and the money goes where it's needed, but that's not the way it works. They all operate independently and they compete terribly. If you are an athlete and you want to attend a school that's not your high school, you are sunk. The school will not release you.

    So the long and the short is -- I don't know. She may stay home if nothing changes. I feel strongly about same-sex education for high school.

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I appreciate your comments -- sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself!