I Completely Forgot to Do Science!

That kind of sums up our first week of homeschool, the beginning of my 12th year.  You would think that by now I would have my act completely together, but I truly think that this year will be the hardest homeschool year for me--ever!  I know that I said that last year, but this year really is the hardest.

I have so much to blog about, and if I can find time to do it, I think that my blog posts will encourage you.  Not in the way that you think, but hopefully encourage you that you are not alone if your school year is not off to the perfect start that you hoped for!  I know that two of my closest friends have not had the picture perfect start either, and we have texted and shared our "war stories" from 5:00 AM each morning until bedtime.  It seems funny when you look back, but while we were actually living out this school week, it wasn't pretty.

Throughout the week my friends and I reminded each other that it was all ok.  That our attitude of love and service towards our children and our husbands was way more important than a completed school day.  I kept reciting to myself over and over again, "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."  Colossians 3:17

Here are a few highlights of my week:

• Like the title of this post, I completely forgot to do science with Leah and Sam.  For the first time, I bought them an official science curriculum, now that they are in the 1st and 3rd grades.  I plan to use Sonlight Core B Science.  I bought the Instructor's Guide.  I bought 2 sets of activity pages.  I bought the "lab kit".  I bought all of the required books that I did not already own.  I just completely forgot to actually teach the lessons.  Every single day this week.
• I am now 68 pages behind in Clay's read aloud book, Mara, Daughter of the Nile.  It's a great book!  It just has microscopic print, and we are scheduled to read three chapters a day.  We have read 5.5 chapters so far.  
• I had a surprise when Julie and I opened her Saxon Algebra 2 book.  I decided to no longer use Teaching Textbooks for high school math, and since Horizons does not have Algebra 2 yet, I chose to use Saxon.  Well, guess what?  If you use the 3rd edition of Saxon high school math (which is what I bought), it has geometry included in the Algebra 2 course.  That's great, except that the first part of geometry was included in their Algebra 1 course, which we have not done.  So, the first two chapters of Algebra 2 were geometry review from Algebra 1!  So far, we are spending 1 hour a day on math--and we are completing 1/2 a lesson each day.  I am hoping that it will get to the point where we can do one lesson per day, but one hour of math a day is my limit! In case you are wondering, we are not doing every single problem (about half of them).  It's learning the new (supposed to be review) concepts that are taking us so long.  And Saxon is a whole lot harder than Teaching Textbooks.
• Olivia's online college classes completely stressed us out the first few days of school.  I know that I spent at least 3 hours the first day of school trying to get it all figured out.  Half of that time was spent with my friend Amy B. at my side with her laptop---both of us trying to figure out Blackboard.  Her daughter is taking College Algebra too.  Apparantly, Blackboard (the computer program that the college classes use) was experiencing technical difficulties the first three days of class.  Frustration!  If we can learn the technology of online classes, I think Olivia will do fine with the content.  She has been emailing both her algebra and English Comp 1 teachers, and they are happy to answer our many, many questions.
• Sadly, I had two friends to lose loved ones (one a father, and one a husband), so there were visitations and funerals to attend.  Those events helped to put my stressful school week into perspective.  I am striving to concentrate on what is truly important.  I am striving to enjoy each chaotic moment.  I am striving to cherish my children and husband each and every day.

"Be joyful always.  Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18