Friday nights

I like our Friday night family tradition. It isn't particularly earth-shattering or even original (pizza and movie) but I like it anyway. Last night, the pizza was from Papa John's (Becky's favorite) and the movie was the first three shows from Season One of The Andy Griffith Show -- thanks, Netflix! Afterward, we finally burned all the sticks from the yard that have been piling up around the fire ring, then sat by the fire and read an Agatha Christie short story aloud.

As a mom, I definitely prefer that to sending my kids off to a Friday night high school football game, but I worry sometimes that they're missing out on things. Certainly, neither of them is interested in those things at this point. I just hope none of us ever look back on these years and truly regret the decision to homeschool.

Finally finished!

Definitely running a bit late on getting ready for school this year! I finally ordered the last needed curriculum today -- though that wasn't entirely my fault. It's brand new (can you say 'beta checkers!) and wasn't available for order yet.

I also wrote my notification letters over the weekend, but I still need to photocopy the standardized tests and deliver them to the school. Bittersweet - Tim's last notification ever, after doing so faithfully for the last 12 years.

I've got the orientation and first class sessions planned for my writing class, and the next half dozen or so partially planned. So that's still a lot of work to be done. I won't bother planning way in advance, though. It always ends up getting tweaked so much that it's just not worth it.

Advanced Creative Writing

I guess that's the title of the class I will be teaching to some homeschooled high schoolers this year. I had thought of calling it Fiction Writing, because usually creative writing includes poetry, and unfortunately, I can neither write nor teach poetry.

I started working on the lesson plans last night, and I am really looking forward to teaching the class. I love the idea of being able to encourage and help young writers, and frankly, I'm sure my own writing will benefit from revisiting some of the material, as well.

I will have to be extremely organized and disciplined this year, though, or I'll fall behind. This will be every week, and I think the teen Bible Study lessons will be every other week. Fortunately, for me at least, most of the heavy lifting of homeschooling will be Doug's work this year. That was the case last year, too. It's the math and science courses that take so much time. Their other classes are either elsewhere or not too difficult.