I have always loved the start of the school year and have written about it a number of times on this blog. It is good to know that others have the same trials and tribulations as us. Audrey and Ruthie wrote some great comments about how hard it is to get back on schedule after having spent the summer sleeping in, swimming, and playing. We had exactly the same problem at the start of the school year as the Gabharts. We had a hard and fast rule that none of the boxes of homeschool books and materials could be opened, nor could they be read–not even the back cover, nor could they even be touched until the school year started. Why did we have a rule about touching and/or read the books or their covers if the boxes were to remain sealed? Christian was very literally about everything and always looking for loopholes. Kelly just loved to read so much that she would use anything as an excuse to get her hands on the books. We worked hard on getting them to understand how the spirit of the law is just as important (if not more so) as the letter of the law. Still, better safe than sorry.

The corollary to the “no looking at the homeschool books until the school year starts” rule was the “you can only read as much as is in the lesson plan for those books that are part of the program” rule. If we did not have that rule, there would have been nothing to do the second month of the year but math, science, Spanish, and grammar.

There were also some comments on how to prepare for a CLEP test. I really did not have a great answer for that. Kelly has taken Freshman English Composition and the first of two U.S. History tests. We have a method she uses that she will explain in a blog post here. It works for her, but any ideas others might have will be appreciated. I think CLEP preparation is not a one size fits all kind of thing. I can see that preparation for the first two tests Kelly took required different approaches. I am not even sure that Kelly’s study methods will work well for Christian. It turned out that the history test was must more difficult than the composition test, but that might have been because Kelly had a better foundation in composition than history. On the other hand, because the history test required the rote memorization of a lot of facts, it might have just required more time. I will try to post my thoughts on how to prepare for the different tests they take as we go along. Again, any comments from anyone else who is going through the same process will be appreciated.

Special note: Lorena has started a Flickr account to which I have linked in the list on the left side of the blog. If you would like to be added to the list, send us an email, and we will invite you so you can view her photos.
Special note 2: Betty Blonde switches from color to black and white today. Kelly does not have time to do all her schoolwork if she draws Betty Blonde in color. She will do an occasional color comic when time permits.

May 14, 2008 – More yard and robot work
May 17, 2008 – An opportunity for Rigo