Homeschool Update

This morning it occurred to me that it would be really cool if someone did a homeschool weekly report/wrap-up in haiku.  Not that I'm planning on doing it, but it would be fun to read.

See, I've done the work of coming up with the concept -- now I'll pass the torch to someone else for the detail work.

(I spent much of September contemplating how an existentialist would write a homeschool weekly report.  For that matter, what would homeschooling look like in an existentialist household?  Anyway, another concept that someone else can work with, right?)

As for us, last week was sucked into a miasma of spent working backstage at a ballet.  The kids were supposed to help load in the sets on Wednesday, except I decided to Just Say No, since it would involve missing their typical Wednesday classes.  They were there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, though.  Annabeth ran the light board, and Thalia was a stagehand.  This was part of a Technical Theatre class they're taking -- earlier this fall they painted the sets for the ballet.

Which is why Jensen's continues to languish in not-getting-done land.  Aaargh!  And Medieval History isn't far behind, moving glacially slow, as though we're trying to recreate the timeline moment by moment in the present.

The co-op classes the kids are taking have stayed up-to-date:  Kinetic Physics and Notgrass World History/Literature for Thalia, Writeshop and Shepherd's Life Science for Annabeth.

And this week we haven't had A Big Event like the ballet, the Fall Formal, the everlasting bad cold, Thalia's Sweet Sixteen party, Halloween, or whatever else took all of that time a month ago.  So we've made progress towards getting back on track.

The big homeschool success of the week was that DAVE RAMSEY IS DONE!  Woot!  That's a half credit of personal finance completed (a little later in the fall than expected, but still before the end of the semester).  The next to last chapter seemed the most complex -- insurance.  We have several family members in the insurance biz, but, wow, LOTS of info.  The final chapter is on real estate, and seemed like it was mostly an excuse for Dave to entertain us with stories of his adventures in realty.  We also have a realtor in the family, plus have moved around the country buying and selling homes, so most of this wasn't news to Thalia.

Overall, I'd recommend the course.  I've heard people express dismay that it doesn't take too long to watch all those videos -- how can it possibly count for a half credit?  Well, yoohoo, that's what the CDRom is for -- look through the suggested activities, do some of them (some are better suited for a classroom, but you can still find plenty to do), take the tests, take the unit tests and the final.  Also, go on field trips -- an estate sale, a cash-advance business (okay, we did that one online instead of actually setting foot in one, and the entire concept was skanky enough to make an impression), follow the stock market.  Watch it as a family and discuss -- what do you agree with, what do you disagree with.  Assign extra reading (Thalia and I read Scratch Beginnings and discussed how the Dave Ramsey material applied -- what was the same, what was different).  It's an easy course to have your kid do, and it has a lot of great information.

Okay, so, failure with Jensen's, success with Dave Ramsey, neutral with pretty much everything else.  And all the other stuff that isn't really "school", like driving practice, ballet, tap, voice, Scouts, blah blah blah.

More tales of successes and failures, I'm sure (at least, I hope I'm not the only one who's got a failure-thing going), when you visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers' Weekly Wrap-Up.