And They Fledge...

There are five people in this house, all of whom use computers. There are three men in this house, all of whom have important online meetings. There are four rooms in this house that have some sort of workable space for setting up a computer and using it to make calls. One of these is E's room, which really doesn't count, as her desk is too small to be of any value to D, and too girly—and small—to be of any value to her brothers. But with a couple of floor cushions in addition to her suitably sized desk and chair, E happily spends a lot of time in there. She makes a lot of "calls," too. Recently D overheard her pretending to be someone named Kaitlyn who apparently works as a receptionist at a vet's office. There were lots of polite phone conversations, as well as some in-person nudging of clients towards better managing their pets while in the waiting room, and a few off-the-record sighs from the quite harried Kaitlyn. This is the kind of stuff that most dads mi...

We have a plan. The plan, of course, is worthless, according to the old Army aphorism; but the planning itself is everything. How else will we know what to deviate from? (Sorry, Churchill, but ending a clause with a preposition is something up with which I will put. Although I must mention that the fabled connection between Churchill and the preposition issue is tenuous and confused .) So here's the plan: we have married L's high school requirements with the P1052C engineering pathway at Durham Tech and come up with an idea of what his junior and senior course load will look like. Note that when I say high school requirements, I am not talking about what is actually required in order for him to graduate. (As the principal of a legally recognized home school in NC, I have carte blanche to decide what is required in order to graduate him.) I am instead referring to the far more relevant question of what most colleges expect him to have taken, which is the following: H...

Today, top on the list was cleaning my house. Beautiful sunbeams have been streaming through the windows, illuminating about 10+ days' worth of dust, because my usual housecleaning schedule somehow didn't happen last week. (I have an excuse. My vacuum has been in the shop for a tune-up for two weeks now, because a) these people are clearly in a hurry to call me and tell me it's ready, and b) I'm clearly in a hurry to call them and bug them so I can get it back. 😏 But since most of my cleanup work is dusting and mopping, this excuse really does not muster.) So what have I done today? I cycled laundry, and made breakfast for my kids, and sat with my coffee and crocheted two short rows of my current project (which has a deadline, because I need to wear it to my BIL's wedding—this is not idle frittering, don't judge; besides, sitting STILL and QUIET with one's coffee is half the benefit). I placed a couple of necessary online orders, and had a conversation wi...

E is about to take the plunge into the world of online classes. I find it kind of interesting that E is only 4 grades behind P, though 4.5 years younger. This happened for the same reason that P is only 1 year behind L in math and science, though 2 grades younger. You have a little kid who is bright and capable and eager to learn and do, and they're coming along behind the older ones, so you just hand them a crayon and a math book and let them run, so to speak. If E were in public school, I'd have held her back, because it's not a good situation for many reasons to be the youngest girl in a classroom. I could very much see her taking a year off between graduation and college, like I did—which was one of the better decisions I ever made; thanks, Mom and Dad. But here she is, heading towards starting 5th grade the very month she turns 10, and she's doing well. I used to kind of despair over her standardized test scores, which were way behind her brothers' at her...

I mentioned in my last post that it's the time of year when one must get all one's academic ducks lined up for future pond-paddling. This includes everything from thinking through all the plans, to filling out the paperwork to implement them. Sort through your options. Pick your preferences. Research your resources and choose your druthers. Chart and spreadsheet and calculate. Make sure your kids are taking what they need to take to tick all the right boxes, which means make sure you know what boxes need to be ticked. I made a mistake with L, with that last part. I did not realize soon enough that a) all colleges pretty much expect you to have had biology in high school , and b) the life science course he took at TPS (which I would  swear was listed as appropriate for 9th grade; although when I went back to verify that some time later, I was either wrong—which is possible—or they had changed it—equally probable) is considered a middle school course and does not count. The ...

I think I may have solved all my academic problems with P. My dad wanted to know if this involves a unicorn. Well, kind of maybe yes. It's that time of year again. That time when it's not even officially spring, but you need to go ahead and get all your ducklings (the ones that haven't hatched yet) lined up in a row for the next academic year. You gotta go ahead and lay your plans, because it's already time to jump through whatever hoops are necessary for that particular student. For L, this means applying to Durham Tech's dual enrollment program. (Check. He's been accepted.) He will fulfill all his high school requirements for the remaining two years by taking college courses at DT, and he will end up with some academic credits he can take with him to his college of choice—the usefulness of which remains to be seen. Next step: we wait for them to send out info regarding Orientation Sessions, which start this month, after which he will meet with his adviso...

I used to blog. It helped to keep me sort of sane in the midst of the insanity of raising and homeschooling three little kids. They're not little anymore, and I haven't blogged in years... maybe because the pace of life increased and kept me from it... or maybe because we went through a phase where the various little "-isms" just didn't seem so noticeable, so transient and precious that I would want to freeze-frame them for later perusal. I think I need to blog again. I could use the extra sanity. What got me started on this idea was searching through my old Baby Bunia blog for the lyrics to our cats' character sketch songs . Naturally, I quickly disappeared into the swirling vortex of posted memories. When I resurfaced several chuckles later, I thought how very much my kids have grown. They're fledging. I've been fledging them. Did you know that verb can be used with an object? That's still my work right now, most of it. But the older the...