Yes, it’s been 18 months and 3 weeks since my last post. We’re still homeschooling, and the boys will finish 9th grade and 5th grade in the next few days. I challenged them this morning (Monday) to finish and start summer break by Wednesday — and that I know they can do it, easily! These 18 months have been filled with challenge and love and grief and learning we can do new things — but left no opening in my mind or heart or days for blogging.

In October 2009 my mother’s fight with cancer was clearly entering a late stage. Just before Christmas I flew out to Seattle for a week, to see her and join my brothers in making plans and decisions. Mom died at home under hospice care January 2, 2010. In late January we flew to Seattle for her memorial service.

I scarcely remember spring and summer, except that they were full of activities, including a small tornado that led to a new roof, my road trip with a dear friend through many of the intermountain Western states, the boys’ Scout camps and church camps, and our older son’s two-week trip to the National Boy Scout Jamboree by way of Philadelphia and D.C.!

In October my father-in-law received a shocker of a diagnosis. Although we were spread across the country at the time, thankfully my husband and his sister were immediately able to fly out to California to spend a week with their parents. Two days after they had both left, my beloved father-in-law died at home under hospice care, October 11, 2010. Shortly afterward, my husband and older son took a week and flew out to help my mother-in-law prepare to move back to her home state.

Winter and early spring were full as always. In early April we drove to Ohio for my father-in-law’s memorial mass, inurnment at the cemetery, and time with family there.

It’s kind of incredible that we are finishing this year’s schoolwork just two weeks later than usual, with the feeling that it was a pretty solid year. Thanks be to God (first year of homeschool high school!).

Eighteen months filled with challenge and love and grief and learning we can do new things. Amen.

After ups and downs, crazy-busy weeks and me getting wound up and tense about whether we’re on track, in later October I started to look for ways to be more relaxed and yet continue catching up on the essentials. It worked!

Our absolute essentials are math, Latin, writing skills (for Son1 primarily through his history curriculum), and, for Son1, science. Everything else can be done as we have time and opportunity. I realized the boys’ secondary subjects truly get done over fewer days and in less time than I planned. I chose to stop fretting over whether each boy gets 20 minutes of reading in each of three different subjects every day.

Also, I started looking for opportunities for discussion with each boy. In particular, Son1 and I discussed his history topics rather than making him do yet another three-level outline or create a presentation (the history projects are fast and furious lately). This allowed him to catch up in history while still practicing analysis skills. Son2 and I discuss the books he reads. I’ve asked dear husband to conduct a weekly Socratic dialogue with Son1 about his current physical science topics.

Somehow all of this has freed me from the recent tyranny of my daily and weekly plans, making homeschooling more relaxed and yet successful. The boys are back on track with their essentials, and not far off with the secondary subjects. I rejoice, also, that reading time is being enjoyed again, now that we do it "after school".

The boys’ weekly checklists felt like another tyranny of the "must do", so yesterday I reworked them. I removed the mention of specific days, kept the checkboxes (four per week, two, one, whatever), and rearranged everything into three groups: essential, important, and occasional. Now the boys will be able to see our weeks the way I am looking at them.

Hurrah!

The work has been a bit hard lately. This quote encouraged me today.

“It is not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt (Paris Sorbonne, 1910)

After two weeks of school (we started August 18), I bought some 1-inch, 3-ring binders, tabbed dividers, and a few other school supplies, the lack of which I was really feeling. Last Monday the boys and I set up our personal school 3-ring binders. I feel much less scattered now.

My binder is home for my planning documents for this year, which I developed this summer, as well as my records and other helpful materials. Follow the links to see each document over at Google Docs. I did most of them in OpenOffice, using tables (it’s what I use instead of Word).

Son1 and Son2′s binders

1. This week’s checklist for each subject, customized for each boy.

2. Tabbed dividers for each subject in which they keep work and/or references.

Mom’s binder

1. The weekly routine. Mondays and Wednesdays are similar; Tuesdays and Thursdays are similar; Friday is its own thing.

2. This week’s log page for each boy.

3. The current six-week-period checklist. This is my checklist.

4. My book list for each boy. I’m still tweaking this, of course.

5. Subject materials for the week’s planning or my reference. Right now I have at my fingertips a little basic music theory; the table of contents for the current and next Algebra chapters; the upcoming history lessons; and info on literary analysis at a middle-school level.

6. Previous log pages for the boys, along with brief info on field trips, outside classes, etc., that we did.

7. Latin, Greek alphabet, and soon German reference materials for my use when I study ahead.

8. Our school year calendar.

9. A reference page, "One Week’s Work" for each boy. I worked this out to figure out the pace for each subject to be on track for the year.

Where we are UPDATE.

Over the last three weeks we’ve made some changes and I’ve made some decisions. Time to record it all!

= Math =

    Son1: Now he is alternating weeks, not days, with online Kinetic Books Algebra I and the Singapore Math 6B textbook.
    To use next:  After Singapore Math is done, study of logic and geometry (Living Math book suggestions, then Euclid’s Elements?).
    Later:  Singapore Math 6B Intensive Practice, weekly use (have it). Zome Geometry (have it)

    Son2: Now he has moved on to the Singapore Math 4A textbook and 3B Intensive Practice book, both daily.
    Add:  Living Math book suggestions.
    Later:  Singapore Math 4B & 5A textbooks (have them).

= Composition & related =

    Son1:  Now he’s doing a full lesson every day (!) of History Odyssey and its writing projects, summaries, and/or outlining, to finish Middle Ages soonest. Also routinely writes Boy Scout patrol minutes; occasional emails and thank you notes.
    After we move on to HO Early Modern and 3x/week history, I will add back in:  Classical Composition: Chreia (have it) lessons for progymnasmata exercises on days with little HO composition work, probably adapted so it is fun and very different from the HO writing. Occasional copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin.
    Then add:  Spelling words, Son1′s request; I’ve decided to use the National Spelling Bee 2009 Spell It download for the themed word lists and spelling tips, and, as needed, phonogram and other resources I’ve found online.
    Later:  Possibly do a block of Analytical Grammar.

    Son2:  Writing Tales Level One at a slightly faster pace, combining lessons when we can; this program includes grammar, editing, progymnasmata exercises, and a little spelling. Thank you notes.
    Add back in:  Copywork from history, literature, the Bible, and Latin, for language and handwriting practice.
    Then add:  Spelling at, Son2′s request; I decided on All About Spelling, a program that uses Spalding-style phonogram fundamentals rather than memorization of word lists.

= Latin =

    Son1:  We just got back to Latin Book One, two lessons/week, and he is fine with competence and simply feels rusty, yay! I am ready to have him write the exercises on his own now.
    Add:  Solid memorization of conjugations & declensions; consider chants or example sentences. Introduce Latin dictionary. Study short Latin prayers & Bible texts. Begin free composition in Latin.

    Son2:  Have not yet tackled this. Decide! Lively Latin ($$) or Latin Prep. ORDER & begin.

= History =

Renaissance, explorers, Reformation & Counter-Reformation. Next, "early Modern" — late Renaissance, colonization of Americas, slavery, revolutions (agricultural, industrial, American, etc.), nationalism.

    Using:  Son1 — powering through the last of History Odyssey 2 Middle Ages, doing one full lesson each day. Parallel reading in This Country of Ours (the USA) and Our Island Story (Britain); catching up in History Lives 2: Monks & Mystics (church history). Son2 — essentially finished with The Story of the World vol.2: Middle Ages text & activity book.

    Have ordered:  For Son1, I’ve ordered History Odyssey 2 Early Modern and History Lives 3: Courage & Conviction (church history). For Son2, we’re moving up to the History Odyssey Level One program! It still uses SOTW, he is ready for more mapwork and lesson work, he doesn’t care about coloring pages, we can find our own projects, and I can use book lists in HO and online to run with at the library. So, I’ve ordered History Odyssey 1 Early Modern, the required Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History, and The Story of the World vol.3: Early Modern!

    Later:  any HO-Early Modern required books that the library doesn’t have, and History Lives 4: Hearts & Hands (church history). More church-history-related stories and biographies, too.

    Continue with:  This Country of Ours (the USA), Our Island Story (Britain).

= Science =

    Chemistry study. Also, a variety of DVDs and TV programs, and bird habits and identification since we now have bird feeders.

    Son1:  Periodic table/elements exploration and Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry I, weekly. Read The Mystery of the Periodic Table.

    Son2:  The Elements (a periodic table exploration), weekly.

= Literature =

    Son1:  Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. History Odyssey assigned books. Greek Myths (Coolidge); In Search of a Homeland (the story of The Aeneid, by Penelope Lively); The Classic Fairy Tales (Opie & Opie).
    Add:  I need to research and get a study guide/overview for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Poetry.

    Son2:  Favorite Greek Myths, Favorite Norse Myths (Osborne); Viking Tales (Hall); fairy tales; American folk tales; Oscar Wilde’s Stories for Children; The Children’s Book of Virtues.
    Add:  Poetry.

= Piano =

Back to daily piano practice and music theory with the Schaum books.

= Bible literacy =

At some point I want to return to Bible Study Guide for All Ages, 2x/week, but so far I’m not making it happen.

= Scouts =

    Son1: Boy Scout merit badges — Citizenship in the Community, Communications, Environmental Science, Camping. Community-building activities with his fellow district Scouts attending the 2010 BSA Centennial Jamboree

    Son2: Bear Cub Scout electives.

= Later =

    Geography. I really like Trail Guide to World Geography and Trail Guide to U.S. Geography, but now is not the time; we’re working hard on enough stuff as is.