(no subject)

[altarflame]

Me, my 5 kids, Laura, and her 2 kids are gathered around the dining table starting to eat.

Me: Ok, let's pray everybody.
*general cacophany as they all try to cram two bites in their mouths and get a sip of tea before we start...then, quiet.*
Me: God, thank you so much for all this yummy food -
Brian: Yeah!
Me: And for this great day -
Brian: Yay!
Me: And help us to remember you in everything we do and to have a good night. Amen.
Brian: *clapping wildly* WOOHOO!
Laura: He's Baptist.

---

I'm contemplating sending Isaac and Jake to first and K at the fine arts charter school that is like, 3 blocks from my house and attached to City Church, where we sometimes attend services.

Pros:
-They REALLY WANT TO GO. BAD.
-That is super close, and already familiar
-the school is small, and well rated (and I know some of the super nice staff)
-Jake and Isaac are both really academic and social, they don't have any of the issues Ananda and Aaron do (dyslexia, selective mutism, SID)
-it would be kind of a relief in some ways

Cons:
-It would be a little overwhelming to deal with the scheduling aspect of structured school - we've never dealt with having to get up early every morning or having to do things at peak times when everything is crowded, and there will surely be times when specifically homeschool activities that are still important to A and A interfere with pick-up times...especially with Grant on this late schedule it seems challenging. This might seem menial if you're used to school, but we're used to road trips and have a whole family slumber party tomorrow night and left my mother in law's at 2 am last night. It would be a massive adjustment.
-We are beyond broke right now, with all these medical things following NY, so the uniforms and supplies could be truly prohibitive, whereas I have everything I need here already for homeschooling them
-uniforms, what? Come on. So weird.
-Just weird in general to send a couple of them to school when we're so entrenched, as a family, in homeschool
-this might not even be an option, for all I know they have an insane waiting list

---

There's a meteor shower tonight at around 11:30...for South Florida anyway...and I'm thinking of driving out to the Everglades with the kids to check it out.

The AM will be all Usborne, all the time. I'm heading out alone to talk to various people and then coming home and making a million calls.

In between, school, and maybe scones and tea outside with books.

Comments

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

We've actually been thinking of sending Ananda to art classes at the local public school for awhile. I wonder if Somerset would let us do something like that...I could take all four of the older ones for art a couple of times a week, and would be willing to help donate supplies or watch little kids or whatever they needed...hmm.

[witchbabybat.livejournal.com]

Hi I found your journal through custard_kisses and had to comment. This is what I did all through high school. Here in California it's known as concurrent study and the public schools allow it. I took art and photography (plus maybe another class I found interesting like WW2 history I took one year) and our local high school and then taught myself the rest.

Also look into local community colleges. When I was in high school they let me take language classes there and lots of other home schooled kids took classes there as well.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

In Florida the public schools also allow this - we're planning on having Ananda in art classes at a local elementary school soon, and she has a personal goal for herself to do dual enrollment (comm. college and high school at the same time - done this way, here, cc is free and a lot of local homeschooled teens take advantage of this as they have way more free time to devote to the college part than if they were in public school).

I love hearing from adults who were homeschooled and feel good about it, btw :)

[witchbabybat.livejournal.com]

I was both homeschooled and did public school, but I HATED going to public school. I really thrived in a homeschool environment and I was able to learn and experience so much more than I ever would have been able to if I had been left in public school. My closest friends are the ones I met through a homeschooling group and we're all now in our early 20s thriving in college or graduated and really happy that we were home schooled. :D

Doing the whole duel enrollment thing while I was still in high school really paved the way for my success in college. I know a lot of people who went to 'normal' high school found their first years really difficult because they had gone from an environment that took attendance and was highly structured to a place where it was up to them to go to class, do their homework etc. etc. I don't know if Ananda wants to go to university one day, but if she does going the duel enrollment route will help her tremendously in that goal.

Also, totally off topic but you live in Homestead? Some friends and I were camping in the Florida Keys but had to be evacuated because of tropical storm Bonnie and we ended up weathering the storm in Homestead. :p

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Yep! And, this is all great stuff - thanks.