First Day

We started school today. Easing into things, I had the girls make these peanut butter and chocolate bars as an exercise in following directions and working as a team. All I did was sit and read the directions. They did quite well, and the cookies were marvelous. After that, we set up our notebooks, reviewed such materials as we have (the items I ordered from Rainbow Resources and Noeo Science back on August 21 have not arrived yet… Disappointing!), and did lessons in math and history.

This year for 7th grade I’m planning to use:

• Rod and Staff English for grammar
• Writing with Skill for composition
• Spelling Workout
• Noeo Science chemistry
• Story of the World 4 with tests, audio and activity guide; Kingfisher and World Book as reference sources; various supplements for additional reading
• Around New York in 80 Days for state history
• Our local homeschool co-op for art, music and gym. This will be a real blessing for us.

For my 4th grader:

• First Language Lessons 4 for grammar
• Writing with Ease for composition
• Spelling Workout
• Noeo Science chemistry
• Story of the World 4 with accompaniments
• Co-op for art, music and gym

In addition there will be 4-H horse club activities and some riding lessons. 4-H was a great new discovery for Older Daughter last year; she participated in hippology and robotocs along with the horse club, and we free-leased a miniature horse. She learned enough to make it all the way to the state fair, which is remarkable for a rookie. This year both girls will be involved… Younger Daughter started out last year in the rabbit club, but as it involved goats and chickens as well we didn’t last very long. We were only interested in taking Whisper the Incredibly Pampered Rabbit to meet other rabbit fans — not making products out of goat milk or learning about poultry.

Somehow, I feel that summer has passed me by. I’ve been busy and preoccupied, and though I have some good things to show for it (several upgrades to our home, a visit to the Adirondacks, time with family, plenty of horse time prepping for various shows for my oldest, and many quarts of frozen beans and tablefuls of garden bounty), I feel tired.

Janet the Unready. It’s not good when the teacher isn’t pumped about the start of school! Then again, sometimes less planning and control turns out to be a good thing.

I’ve had various thoughts I’ve wanted to sit down and develop in writing, but by the time I get a chance I’m too tired. We’ll see whether the Muse favors Across the Page a bit more in the coming weeks.