Weekly Update--yeah, right...

I haven't done a true "weekly update" since last year, but thought I'd just go over what our week was like, for the heck of it.

At preschool, I am getting ready to do conferences with the parents. Because I have two classes and two co-teachers, I have to do half of each class' conferences. This means I have 13 children to evaluate. We are observation-based in our evals, which means we try to look very closely at what the children do naturally in the course of the preschool day, with very little "testing." We record what we see, and set up activities based on what we perceive the children's needs to be. Usually I can fill in a check list with just the copious observations I have taken during the year, but not this year. It makes me feel I have really fallen down on the job, having to call over kids to show me how they build block towers or take a sample produced on the spot of their writing or their drawing. Oh well, next year I will be doing something different, and I just have to chalk up this year's teaching experience as something I needed to do, did somewhat well, and grew from.

We had a very busy weekend--I went to a pretty good workshop that lasted allllll daaaayyyy....on Saturday, and then went to our church's chili cookoff--that was great fun. Sunday, we went to church, visited Sky, then dh and I went to Mt. Vernon for the Birthnight Ball. I wore a short, black dress, with a sheer black, soutache-covered shawl. The best part was sitting with our 83-yo df, who is such a wonderful, wonderful woman. She is everything I want to be.

This week I had to take a personal day, which gave me a little extra time to do laundry and such, and I spent the rest of the week preparing for said conferences. LOST was a highlight of the week--what does THAT tell you?

Everyone else is doing all right.

BACK AGAIN!

Oh dear, here I am, the World's Worst Blogger. One of them, anyway. I have been posting very frequently on the Well-Trained Mind message boards (as Chris in VA, fwiw), and have totally neglected this blog.

Part of the reason is because I originally started this blog to be a record of our lives as homeschoolers. This year, Nature Girl went to 3rd grade at our local brick and mortar, and Film Buff finished his high school years in December. I went back to work (reluctantly) as a preschool teacher, because our expenses were high, and I wanted to contribute some $ to Film Buff's college fund. So, the blog "weekly updates" on our homeschooling progress really were nonexistent, and it's hard for me to just plunge in with a topic if I don't have a framework like that (witness my post about Survivor, of all things! lol --btw, it's on again, and yes, I'm watching...).

So here's a little update, and then I guess I will try to find another framework to make this blog workable (and readable) again!

Sky has gone back to treatment, and is finally doing very well. We expect him to start home visits around the end of March or so, with the hope that he may be home in June. He got straight A's, has been working on deeper issues, and seems genuinely on the path to recovery. I've never seen him work so hard or do so well. It is a pleasure to see him every Sunday, and I think things will be ok. Hard to have total hope, of course--"fool me once..." and all, but I think he's in a good place.

Film Buff got his GED (YEA!!) because his college of choice wouldn't accept a homeschool diploma, so he is officially out of high school. He did very well in English and pretty well in the other areas--math continues to be his bane, but that's ok, as his proposed major doesn't require a heck of a lot of math. He sent off his app to the college and got back an invite for an interview, which he did in February--we'll hear in March if he made it in. We are all hopeful, but it's a tight race for one of 20 slots in the cinema program.

Besides the interview, something else wonderful happened to Film Buff--he got his first car! A dear friend at church sold him a 1993 Jeep for $1, and he got it yesterday--fun Valentine's for him! He has to learn to drive a stick, but he's watched some youtube video on that, lol, and has his dad to help him. They both spent about 2 hours outside tinkering yesterday--big boys, big toys. It really is neat, and we are all so happy for him and grateful to Mr. W.

Nature Girl got a nearly perfect report card from 3rd grade, with one G and all the rest O's. She is not covering a lot of new material in the core subjects, but the way things are asked and the assignments are different, so I'm ok with it. She doesn't particularly like school because of the waste of time she sees, the boys talking too much, and the projects (though she does well, but doesn't like the pressure), and also because she feels she misses things at home. Next year, we are considering homeschooling again. I have to work somehow, so I just don't know. I can't really see her going next year, but I have to figure out what to do. Other than school, she's happy and pretty healthy, enjoying outside as much as ever, and awaiting Spring like the rest of us.

My hard working preacher man is fine--really taking his health seriously, working out 3 times a week. He finally found a wonderful assistant at work, after a lengthy search. We have high hopes for our church.

I'm still on the fence as far as whether or not to remain Episcopalian. Enough said for now.

That's the update--pictures and more interesting stuff to follow.