We started homeschool in mid-August so we could take a couple of weeks off to go to a wedding in Mexico in October. Kelly’s three goals for the first half of the year (by late January or early February) are to perform well on the U.S. History II and Spanish CLEP tests, finish three-quarters of Teaching Textbooks Geometry, and concentrate heavily on Apologia Biology. Christian’s three goals for the first half of the year are to perform well on the Freshman English Composition and the Western Civilization CLEP tests, finish two-thirds of Teaching Text Books Algebra II, and concentrate heavily on Apologia Physical Science. We made good progress on all those goals although we are certainly not ahead of the schedule. Of course, we continue with the excellent Sonlight literature, our read alouds, Rosetta Stone Spanish II, music, exercise, current events, writing, bible reading and memorization, etc, but those are subjects that are part of the daily homeschool routine now that we have done for over four years.
We have still not decided what material we will take to Mexico. This is vacation time, but most of the Mexican cousins will be in school during the day, so I want the kids to make some progress on their goals, as much to keep them from saying “I’m bored” as anything. Still, we are operating right on the edge with the math progress so I will probably have them take their math materials with them to do three lessons per week. That does not sound too onerous to me, but then I am their goal driven ogre of a teacher. I will discuss this with both the kids and the vice principal (Lorena).
Christian got a replacement guitar back from the music shop where we bought it. We are not sure how good it is, but we are having my work buddy, John S. check it out for us. The music shop wanted to replace the Takamine Jasmine ES45C which had a manufacturing defect with a Mitchell MD-100SCE. If anyone has any opinions on that, please let us know.
July 30, 2004 – Losing more weight
August 2, 2004 – Grandpa Milo’s birthday