Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Second Day of School

Somehow I got distracted by the excitement of meeting a friend for coffee on the first day of school and so never photographed Jake on his first day of high school. And being the morning person that I am, I was asleep when he left for his second day of school. So I guess that means I will be accosting him when he gets home today so I can document this ever so special second day of 10th grade. Thus you will all have to be a happy with a picture of my precious son on his first day working at the Renaissance Festival this year.



Jake has a busy and full year ahead of him. He is taking AP European History and advanced Language Arts. We decided he was probably not going to have a career in the sciences so he is taking regular Chemistry and FST(Function,Statistics, Trigonometry). He also decided one language wasn't enough so he added Chinese to his Spanish language class. Now this would fill a normal persons schedule but his school offers a zero hour class so you can go in early and take yet another class in case that is too easy for you. Both John and I agree we would never have even considered this option yet Jake never considered not taking a zero hour class. This gave him the ability to add Creative Food to his class schedule. I guess it is good to have one fun class. Next semester will be weight lifting.

Now you might think he would be rushing home to get started on all that homework but no. He tried out for the fall musical. Unfortunately he didn't get in (he is a great actor but still learning to sing), so he is going to be on the tech crew which I learned yesterday means he won't be home until 5pm each night. THEN, straight to homework followed by x-box.

The beauty of high school, I discovered last year, is that I am no longer involved in the day to day of his education, I simply remind him to do homework, try to get him to bed at a somewhat decent hour and occasionally check his grade online to make sure he is making it happen. Oh all those years of hard work are finally starting to pay off. Loving it!

Isabelle is not in school. She will start Kindergarten next year and at this point I am confident she will be going somewhere (I am crossing my fingers for french immersion) and I will not be homeschooling her. However, I have no desire to send her to a structured pre-school. Actually I have mixed feelings about pre-school in general. What is wrong with just playing and having fun until you are in 1st grade? Why put so much pressure on kids and parents to learn at such a young age? And don't get my started on the word "socialized". That said, Isabelle is interested in learning and I do believe in learning activities so I guess we are sort of combining them this year in a very loose, casual, unstructured way. The only way I like to do things.

Isabelle couldn't wait to do "school" this morning after I proposed it to her. As with everything it ended up being a mixture of things I thought of while laying in bed this morning and things I came up with while we were sitting there. I remembered as we were walking into the office that I still had the school calendar I used when homeschooling Jake. I felt like a rock star knowing exactly where I have been storing it for the past 7 years and pulling it right out. Isabelle enjoyed looking at it and putting one of the weather cards for today in the slot. We also practiced writing the number 1 and the letter A, made apple muffins (for "A"), tried a little addition (not ready), visited the library and painted. She loved every moment and wants to do more but it is time for mommy to get a break. We have all year to do this stuff.

I did sign her up for a drop off class at the nature center on Tuesday afternoons. We are signed up for the next 3 Tuesday afternoons and if we like it can sign up for the rest of the year. At only $7/week and 3 miles from our home it seemed like a no brainer. This is similar to the program Jake went to when he was in pre-school and I needed a couple hours a sanity in my homeschooling days. He loved it and I am sure she will too.



1 comment:

  1. Mel! But if you homeschool her she can do ALL her school in her tutu! Just think of it! :) So happy things are starting off right with both children. Jake. Highschool. why does that feel so bittersweet?

    ReplyDelete