Back in the swing...

Joel is sitting at the table (coughing, poor guy) and reading about Mendelian genetics...

Matthew is in the family room in the old, old recliner reading about Congress...

I am heating up water for tea and getting ready, when M gets to the end of his reading, to start SAT critical reading review with him. Yep, it's that time. He takes the SAT later in January and we're doing some review. I know the test is not the measure of all he knows. I view it rather as a necessary evil for anyone who wants to apply to college. (Some colleges are recognizing that this is not really a great way to assess students, but for now, it's still what most colleges use at least as a starter for making the cuts in admissions) Anyway, we do the grunt work, study the review books, answer the daily online question, just bone up in as many ways as we can. I'll handle the verbal side of things, Coty the math, thank goodness.

We're getting back in the swing of lessons after a lengthy, lovely, and complete break from anything resembling school work. I needed the rest. It was a challenging fall and the spring will prove no less rigorous.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made two resolutions. As I look ahead, I am happy with their elegant simplicity and broad applicability in all spheres of life. Here's how they will begin to play out in our learning lives...

Procrastinate less will mean getting biology lab preps done earlier in the week, reading American government and prepping for time with our AP kids before the night before, grading biology labs from the class I teach the day after they are handed in rather than the night before I am supposed to hand them back, starting earlier in the morning and sitting down with each boy every day.

If you are a younger homeschooling mother reading this you may not believe that a day can go by that you don't actually sit down with your child to "do lessons" but when you have older children that are self-directed, this is not unusual. The danger is that you let them to themselves a little too much...I fell off the horse on that side a bit last fall...I'm climbing back on.


Reading more will mean more poetry with the boys (reading aloud and memorizing), more of the extra articles for American government, and perhaps a novel or two that Joel and Matthew are reading for their co-op lit classes, in addition to my own personal reading list. Now, this is a tall order and one that will require that I discipline myself to actually stop cleaning the kitchen sink and sit down and read. I do love to read, but I confess, I am very easily distracted by the things that seem to need to get done. Since I fall asleep in the evening if I try to read, I'll have to do this earlier in the day...or go for a run at 7:00 PM so I'm more awake in the evening.

The tea water is now hot. Matthew is ready. So, no more writing for now....time to put #1 into practice.

Cheers all. Happy schooling.