My Quarterly Blog Post Where I Post About Not Having Time To Post

Halloween 2008.  I only know this because digital photos tell you when they were taken, thankfully.

A dozen or so years ago, I used to regularly scrapbook with several women from our church.  Some of the women were younger moms (like me), others were empty-nesters, and the rest were somewhere in between.  I remember one evening in particular where many older women were sorting through past Halloween photos.  Each woman was having difficulty remembering which year went with which costume. At the time, my children had lived through maybe three Halloweens.  I thought:  Will there really come a day when I won't be able to distinguish when or where a picture was taken?

The answer to that question is:  Yes.  Overwhelmingly, yes.

Now comes the paragraph where I explain (like so many times previously) how I want to take regular pictures of my children's learning, events, and activities and very simply post it all to this blog like I used to.  However, it's not regular anymore.  Nor simple.  It's rather sporadic, and I can no longer remember which Halloween is which.

So periodically, I'll log back into Blogger and inform the few people who read this that I love homeschooling teens.  I could not imagine my children's high school years being any different.  I firmly believe that we are accomplishing all that we need to (and more!) for a college preparatory home education.  Plus, my children have the added enjoyment that comes from not being in traditional school.  Our routine still looks very similar to what it did in the beginning of our journey -- somedays structured and other days completely unconventional.  (Although, now we do much more math.)

Last week, we finished our first 10-week term with the Y Homeschool Program.  We have one more week of workshops following Thanksgiving.  Since I have difficulty blogging regularly, here are ten highlights from the past ten weeks.

• We are all on LESSON 44 (!!!!) of our Saxon Math levels -- Algebra II for my son, Algebra I for my daughter, and Pre-Algebra for me.  (Side note: Last spring I told parents to work their way through Saxon 7/6.  I'll add to that challenge, and now say work through Algebra 1/2.  I can do Algebra II alongside my son, simply because of what I know from Algebra 1/2.)

• To my children, I read Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (not the easiest read aloud) and Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (excellent read alouds for teens!!)

• Along with Algebra II, my son is also in a Problem-Solving class that uses the book Crossing the River with Dogs.  The class promotes collaboration while teaching mathematical problem-solving strategies.  If you're looking for ideas for an upper-level co-op class, I highly recommend this book.

• My daughter has been in a Creative Writing class and has completed three short-stories (that I know of.)

• Both children were in a Psychology class that ended the term with this article.  Is there a correlation between smartphones and mental health in teens?  Most likely.  

• Cross-Country ended for my son a little sooner than he had hoped for because of a recurring pain in his left foot.  Even with an abbreviated season, he still posted some respectable times for his sophomore year.  

• Our YMCA program now boasts 400 students (and it continues to grow).  Originally, I was slated to work about 8 hours a week.  I'm averaging about 22 - 25 hours a week.  This is one of the reasons I am having difficulty blogging.  (And cleaning our house.) 

• My daughter's ballet company performs their version of The Nutcracker six different times in four different venues over five weeks.  She began performances last weekend and will continue rehearsing and performing until December 15th.

• We still have a puppy. 

• My phone died.  Literally.  It started dying a slow death after we got caught in a monsoon at a Muse concert last June.  I managed to keep it alive until October.  I am not interested in purchasing a new phone right now, so my son managed to make my SIM card operable in an old phone of his.  I'm now disconnected from all apps.  It's kind of nice.  On the other hand, I'm taking even fewer pictures than before.  Fortunately, I can 'borrow' pictures off of my children's devices (which I did for this post) and they are now old enough to help me remember which Halloween is which.

I hope your Thanksgiving is grand.