Courageous Joy

Totally Tuesday

Quote of the Day: Jared - "Playing Knights of Honor pays off. I know where all these places are." ::snort:: AND Jared says it will count for logic too. He thinks I should remove the computer time limits and count his play time as geography/logic.

Did I already confess to my insanity in STARTING SCHOOL THE FOURTH WEEK OF THE MONTH????? ::snort::

Yes, plodding...one foot in front of the other. I CAN do this.

Worked out with a Step Video this a.m. I don't SAY it, but I spend time in the Word most mornings as well.

We got math and phonics done. I made a big salad for our monthly PAC meeting.

I grabbed Jared and we headed for base. The meeting was good. The salads were all yummy. Ivey does a great job feeding us each month.

Jared and I ran by the bank. He now has all the $ for World View in his account. There is a fundraiser on the 15th, our hope is that he'll be able to leave some money in his account. We shall see. I'm so glad both boys have earned their way to this camp.

Jamin and I continue to talk about his school options. This topic deserve a seperate post. Basically, we want to prepare him for all eventualities and yet we don't want to bore him to death "checking boxes" when he's already checked all the boxes that the state of Maine (where our cover school is accredited) requires. OK - I could say more but it really IS involved and should have its own post -or I should simply not say anything. LOL

I spent a few hours getting our TOG order together. Well - sorta. I had DREAMED of being able to order redesign and then simply pick the packages I would need, click a button, and have them all HERE. To do that would cost us $1800....on TOG only...not math, not science, not all these wild high school electives, not Christian Writer's Guild - just TOG. I can't do that. NOW - before you write off TOG as expensive - remember that I have a child in each level. AND I'm talking about paying full price, buying it all new, and not combining books. I spent this afternoon making sure we have the books that are multi-unit and the first unit titles. It was still more than I had right now. I was hoping I could pay for this part of the curriculum with the share and save credit I have of $158. I began to realize that in classic TOG I got very used to using one book for 2 or 3 levels and so I looked to see where we could combine...and that saved some $. Then I looked at the library and they had some surprising books. I'm guessing someone else has done year 1 in this town before me...if I could only FIND that person maybe we could have some TOG fellowship. LOL I also found books that weren't the EXACT title of what I needed but that will work fine. I did order all the rhetoric titles that I couldn't find because I really want to know that the things I hand my older student will either 1. be from my world view or 2. have teacher notes to warn me of what to address. I was bothered several times last year to hand adult books to my children on significant topics when I really didn't know the slant of the author. In ohter words they weren't recommended by TOG, they were the only books in our library on the topic. LOL My TOG order was still over $158. I went to Amazon and found some of the TOG books quite a bit less and some were quite a bit cheaper at TOG....so I chose the cheaper at both places. I was finally ready to enter my S/S code and it wouldn't work. It's after business hours in the East, so I'll have to call them tomorrow. I refuse to feel like I wasted my day. Several books are on their way via free 2 day shipping from Amazon. I'll call first thing in the a.m. to see about the TOG order. I'll have all the books I need that are multi-unit and the first unit's books. I'd hoped not to have to buy month by month this year - but it's OK. God is faithful. Where God calls, He equipts and so I have to assume that He thinks I can handle the library trips another year. ::snort::

I called Math U See. Jamin was in the middle of Saxon Alg 2 and I pulled him out. *I* made the choice and Jamin was relieved after the fact. He HATES us to spend money on him and, lately, he's been expensive. ::snort:: He didn't want to throw out a text we had, to BUY a new one. He was spending 3 - 5 hours EVERY DAY BUT SUNDAY on Alg 2 and only made it 1/2 through the book. It wasn't clicking. I finally told him we had to do something different. I was used to that many hours on upper level classes but to only make it through 1/2 the material was simply too much work for one silly credit. The plan was for him to test through the early material of Alg 2 in MUS and then do the last half of their course. He likes the MUS. He is acing the ALG part but they have 5 review questions on the tests - and they are geometry. Those familiar with Saxon (at least the editions we own - they ones carved on tablets they are so old) know that there isn't a full geometry course between the two Algebras. I called MUS. Should I switch and buy Geometry and do that before Alg 2? They said I could either 1. skip the geometry review questions and not count them in his grade - DUH! I guess that's why they are the experts. ::snort:: or 2. do geometry now because it will help him on the SAT test and finish Alg 2 next year. What to do? Still not sure. We'll talk about it tonight.

THEN I nabbed Josiah and Jamin and we ran to the library. I got the books that I'd found online and then browsed the shelves for more books on Ancient Egypt. We came home with all these books for our lower grammar, upper grammar, and dialectic students. This will keep them busy - and it saved me hundreds of dollars. It was worth the hour....all those little dewey numbers got to me though. I really DO need to make that appt to see the optometrist. I'm getting a headache.

I printed out the sample of Ancient Egypt that Tapestery of Grace gives out (link in the sidebar). It is the first three weeks of the year 1 redesign. I really like it - a lot. I found the 50% off coupon for the redesign. I'll order it on pay day....I figure they'll turn it around fairly quickly (I hope) and I have 3 weeks before I need it. If worse comes to worse we'll do a few weeks out of the classical stuff or I'll wing it. I honestly think that I could wing it now with a library card and a general outline of what I wanted to cover. That's the joy of having homeschooled 17/18 years. LOL

A bright spot in the busy day. Mike bought these dresses in Korea for the girls. This WAS Arielle's but Stacia has found it. I couldn't get her out of the garbage bag to get a proper picture...she really does have the Dumpster Diva title down. ::snort::

All of us are home tonight - or will be when we get Michael - so we're going to have some fun.