Weekly Wrap-Up

The most popular question lately is: "Are you back in the swing of things yet?" I'm not really sure how to answer that question. I really liked the swing of the first two weeks, when none of our other activities had kicked in. But this week all but one of our activities kicked in, and next week the final one—our weekly enrichment class day—begins, so we'll really be in full swing. I really like all our activities, but I miss those two weeks of quiet, totally at home.

This week was weird from the beginning since we started with Labor Day. We were hoping to go hiking, but Dr. H. and I were both feeling somewhat sick, so we celebrated the holiday by not laboring at all.

On Tuesday, Duncan went to homeschoolers' day at Montessori all day. Jesse had a class at the community college, and Laurel had afternoon dance and drama classes. I drive a lot on Tuesdays. We had my mom and dad over for supper Tuesday night, which was wonderful. I even had two side dishes.

On Wednesday we watched the Caddie Woodlawn movie, after having finished reading the book last week. We also spent some more time studying Leonardo da Vinci as part of our Wednesday art focus. My kids have been taking art from a wonderful teacher for many years so I haven't done much with art at home, but this year Laurel isn't taking so we wanted to add a regular art focus back into our week. I'll have to do a separate post later of some of the great books we've found so far.
I spend a lot of time driving around on Wednesdays, too. Jesse has piano lessons at one branch of the community college and then biology lab at a different branch. I am so happy that he is taking his driver's test next week! Hopefully he'll be driving himself to all these classes very soon.

Thursday the kids went to hang out with my Mom while I helped me Dad with some errands. I also had to get Laurel to flute and Jesse to a class at the college, and then one of our really big activities kicked in: Scouting Thursdays!

Duncan began his third year in Cub Scouts. This year he is a Bear Cub. I wish I had a picture of him with his Daddy, the Cubmaster, but he goes directly from work to the meetings.

Laurel and I began our seventh year of American Heritage Girls. I can hardly believe our troop is seven years old! My little girl was just a first grader when we started–

and now she is a seventh grader, which makes her a Pioneer. She was excited to get to shed her vest for a sash this year.

We typically leave our house by 2 p.m. on scouting Thursdays so that we can set up and get organized before everyone arrives at 3:30. We have about 75 girls in our troop, and there are about 35 boys in the Cub Scout pack, which meets at the same time as AHG. A little peace before the meetings begin is essential! Meetings last until 5 p.m., and we are usually home by 6 p.m. We have a quick supper before Dr. H. ( who sheds his Cub Scout blue epaulets for the red Boy Scouts ones and becomes an Assistant Scoutmaster!) and Jesse head back out for Boy Scouts at 7 p.m. This particular week I had to go, too, as there was a committee meeting (and somehow I am on the Boy Scout committee). The second and fourth Thursdays are exhausting, needless to say. But gratifying.

Friday we got a lot of history, Bible, math, and language arts done in the morning. In the afternoon I teach a World Literature and Geography class for a group of ten high-schoolers. I love teaching this class, and I love the kids. We have started with the Middle East and Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas' memoir of growing up as an Iranian in America. The kids love it, and we've had some great discussions so far.

This evening we had our support group's annual kick-off picnic. We had a great crowd and the kids were having a great time playing with friends, when tragedy struck: Duncan's shorts ripped down the front. He was inconsolable, so we ended up leaving after only an hour or so.

Tomorrow morning Jesse takes the ACT bright and early, so I'm heading to bed much earlier than usual in order to get him there on time. Is it pathetic that I have to go to bed early in order to get my son somewhere at 7:45 a.m.? I'm sure I'm not really a proper mother/woman in some social circles.

Coming up next week: our enrichment classes start back on Monday! I'm thinking my head will be spinning by 2 p.m. when we head home. But I'm looking forward to it anyway!

How was your week? Check out other Weekly Wrap-Ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.