Online-ish

Paul is wireless as he has a PC and was able to follow the online tutorial. I didn’t have the call to India in me yesterday so I am sitting attached to the modem. I heart wireless! Why won’t it heart me too?

Saturday Paul and I attended his 20 year high school reunion. It was a reunion for me too as we went to school together and I was a grade behind.

We had a great time. After the majority of people left, around 1 a.m. a small group of us sat down in the lobby and talked for hours until Paul and I got up at 6:00 because I needed to be at church at 7:30. If I hadn’t had to go, we might all still be there.

We’re done with school for the day. This is our fourth week of school. After two years of getting August blues and then starting the week after Labor Day, exhausted from a busy summer with the entire school year looming before me, I decided to change it up. We took June and July off and then started the first full week of August. That Monday I had the “Oh yeah we’re starting school, I better get my act together!” moment and then did what I could with what I had prepared.

Almost every homeschooling parent has the low level dread that his or her kids aren’t getting enough, that he or she isn’t doing enough. Starting early, or rather, shifting our year is my antidote to those poisionous thoughts. We hit walls around here, as most readers of this blog know, and that isn’t just a metaphor. (Eden will happily point to the dent in the door where I whacked it with a ladle on a dark – again not just figurative, it was a winter in Michigan – day when Paul was out of the country.)

It has been going really well. I feel like I’m cheating. Out and about I hear everyone checking in about back to school, “Are you ready?” and I breathe a sigh of relief, counting the weeks we already have under our belts. Putting in this time allowed me to start slowly and establish a routine without guilt and dread. It also frees us to take frequent breaks throughout the year and to end by Memorial Day. Cue the Hallelujiah chorus.

For now, we are focusing on Science and History, doing all the projects and every stinking experiment. And, amazingly enough, we are all having fun.

I am learning to shoulder the weight as well as enjoy the freedom that carrying the full responsibility of my children’s education brings.

But now I need to go cuddle with a four year old and read some books.