Church tonight

Boy, am I looking forward to church tonight!

I'm grateful to God for bringing us to a church home that feels like home, and where the people feel like family.

First day!

Well, we survived the first day of school. Becky's done with all her work (with only a small amount of grumbling) and Tim's almost finished with physics (phynished with fisics?)

His class at CVCC seemed to go well. I'm so impressed with that program I'm about to bust!

Somewhat challenging schedule today

Dropped Tim off at around 8:35 a.m. Becky is planning on getting started with her schedule at 10 a.m. We let her choose her start time this year. I usually do a lot of the first day stuff with them to introduce new books and methods.

BUT, I need to leave hear by 10:15 at the latest to get gas and pick Tim up at 10:45. Believe me, I'd get grief if I'm late!

So through the late morning and early afternoon hours, I need to take my walk, work with the kids on school, iron Tim's CAP uniform, and hopefully get some of my actual normal work for the day done.

Then from 3:20 until almost 5 p.m. I'll be with Becky at horseback riding lessons. Once I get home, I'll need to find something for everyone to eat. (It's probably good that Doug isn't home this evening until later so I don't have to have a formal dinner ready!)

Take Tim to CAP around 6 p.m., and then try to be on time to church at 7 p.m.

A lot to answer for...

Ted Kennedy's passing is a very sobering and sad thing. Not because I will lament his absence, but because of the lack of any sense that he trusted in Christ for salvation. He has a lot to answer for!

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Becky's school this year

Becky's in 10th grade. This year, we are trying HOPE for the first time. She's taking two full credit courses there, and five half credit courses.

The full credit courses are Chemistry, using the Apologia text, and Geometry, using Teaching Textbooks. Both of these are the same courses, using the same materials, she would have taken at home. The half credit courses are music, current events, church history, logic, and speech.

Since only speech would count as a language arts credit, I'll do a half credit at home, too... some composition and an introduction to Shakespeare. I've decided that we'll watch movies of two Shakespeare books I read to the kids a couple of years ago (Julius Caesar and Macbeth.) I'll also read aloud with her one tragedy and one comedy (Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream) and I'll have her read Romeo and Juliet. I'll shoot for her writing two essays, reading several of his sonnets, and hopefully writing one as well.

She'll also take Spanish at home, using Switched on Schoolhouse. For P.E., she'll take horseriding, and read a good portion of Total Health, a Christian high school level health text.

The courses she'll do at home will start tomorrow. The courses we'll do in the co-op don't start until September 11. She's very happy about that!

Tim's school this year

Tim's in 11th grade.

Half of his credits (3.5) are being taken in something as close to a public school as I ever expected my kids to get before college. The Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (a much improved version of the old Vocational/Technical classes of my day) offers a two year course called the Computer Networking Academy. Tim will attend there from 7:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Monday through Friday. In addition to computer networking, they learn a lot about computer hardware and systems, which at this point is his real interest.

In addition to that, he'll be taking Physics with Dad, the rocket scientist, as his primary teacher, using the Apologia text. He's also taking Precalculus using the videos from Chalkdust. I watched one of them and didn't like it as well as Videotext. I hope Tim will like it and be able to learn from it. If there are any problems understanding it, Doug will have to be the go-to person.

All I'm really teaching Tim this year is a course in 19th Century British Literature, as well as directing some reading in a health text for part of P.E. He'll be continuing in Karate for the rest of it.

I hope he can learn a lot from the CNA course without it being too much work, since Physics and Precalculus sound to me like a pretty tough row to hoe!

Better late than never...

I mostly finished yesterday and over the weekend, but the very last details for school are finally complete. I don't think I've ever procrastinated this badly before. (About school, I mean. Unfortunately, I procrastinate pretty badly about a lot of things.)

School starts tomorrow.

Christmas

I'd really like us to spend Christmas with my family this year, but four airfares to Albuquerque isn't something to take too lightly. I found great fares if the kids and I could spend almost three weeks there, but Tim would have to miss four days of his class. THAT'S THE BENEFIT OF HOMESCHOOLING, which we've given up as the kids take more outside classes.

I think I'll talk to Tim's teacher and to Doug about it. The three of us could travel for only $776. Doug would cost more, since he'd probably only come for a week.

Mt. Union College

Info from their website

Close by, though I'm not familiar with the area
Located in Alliance, a town of about 25,000.
Seems to have decent computer and biology departments
Has a nice looking nature center
Has Saturday morning visits
Expensive... just under 30K per year room and board
The website says they have 'religion life organizations' but not info on them

Hiram

Thoughts on Hiram College

Plusses:
Close -- only about 45 minutes to an hour away.
Rural -- I really like the area.
Small school -- only 1200 undergraduates
Has a Christian club
Has a good biology program with the field station
They have Saturday morning visits from Sept - May that seem short and informal.


Minuses:
Expensive -- tuition and room/board exceed 30K a year
Not sure if they have a good program for Tim's (current) interest

Notes to me

Tim is a junior... Becky's a sophomore. One of the scariest parts of homeschooling high school is being the 'guidance counselor.' I've discovered that college visits usually start in 11th grade, but I don't exactly have kids who are chomping at the bit to go visit this school or that school because it's a good school for this or that major.

Becky: I don't want to go to college. I hate school.

Tim: Ho, hum. whatever.

So, I've decided to do some college visits to local places. It (hopefully) can't hurt, and will at least give them some exposure and a base of experience with which to compare other schools. (Though for all I know, they'll just end up at home and going to community college for the first two years. It's certainly the most cost-efficient option.)

These are the ones I'm thinking of so far: Hiram, Mt. Union, Malone, Kent and/or Akron. If we decide to go further afield, Grove City and Cedarville. I need to check into what majors they have, though. Tim is definitely leaning toward something like computer systems administration, but this year hopefully go a long way toward confirming or changing that. Becky has leant toward something in the biological sciences for a long time, but I don't think that's certain any longer.

School next year

Tim will be taking a neat program next year. It's called the Computer Networking Academy and will be three hours every day (M-F) at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center. It will count for 3.5 credits, so we still need to figure out English, Math, and Science.

Becky is still up in the air, although I'd really like her to take at least 3-4 courses via the homeschool co-op.

I'm glad we only have a few more years of this left, to be brutally honest!

Why?

Why was the stone rolled away from the tomb?

Jesus showed up in the upper room where his followers were hiding, though the doors were shut and locked. The stone could have stayed in place and he would certainly not have been trapped behind it.

The stone was rolled away for the sake of his disciples, then and now, so that they could see and we could know that his body wasn't there.

The Lord is risen indeed!

Submitted!

Once again, I have finished the 'last rewrite' of Free Indeed. Hopefully this time is is the last! I've gone a little further with it than last time, anyway; I've actually submitted to a couple of agents. Here's the query letter text:

Obsessed with freedom and desperate to get away from his master’s new religion, Onesimus plots his escape from Colosse to Rome, seat of the empire. After years of living a charade, he meets the apostle Paul, a friend of his former master and emissary of the faith he once despised. A close spectator to Paul’s life and teaching during his Roman imprisonment, Onesimus’ heart is so changed that he realizes true freedom is only found in Christ, and chooses to give up his liberty and return to slavery. How will Philemon respond to a runaway slave who betrayed and stole from him, yet returns with a letter from the Apostle Paul pleading for mercy?

FREE INDEED is a completed Biblical fiction manuscript of 98,580 words. My target audience is readers of Christian fiction, especially those who enjoy works like LaHaye and Jenkins’ MARK’S STORY, Bunn and Oke’s THE CENTURION’S WIFE, and a number of recent similar novels. I am submitting to you because I appreciate your blog and would enjoy working with you, however, this is not an exclusive submission.

This is my first novel, and though I do not have any publishing credits, I submitted the early chapters to the Christian Writers Guild critique service. In their response, they stated, “You have a great story well worth developing and a strong skill that will surely lead you to publication, if you aren’t there already.”

I would be a hard worker and a tireless marketer if given the opportunity to publish. As a long-time homeschooling mom, I would reach out to contacts within that community, as well as within a number of churches to generate interest in the book.

I have pasted the first 10 pages below my signature line for your perusal. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

The two letters weren't exactly the same... For example, only one of the agents requests that pages of the novel be pasted into the query email. And, of course, the reason I picked each agent was different. Now, I wait.

I have decided...

After struggling for several days with unanswered prayers, worries for my kids, and feelings of failure, I heard Doug playing his saxophone. He was playing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, one of my favorite hymns. It was a good reminder. The decision about how to respond to difficult circumstances has already been made. I have decided to follow Jesus, and to follow him means to do what he did. When he was faced with circumstances and a future from which he shrank in utter detestation and unwillingness to suffer, he said, "Nevertheless." That one word makes all the difference. "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."

So, when I find my mind whirling with fear and frustration, unwilling to tolerate any realities behind my imagined forthcoming disasters, I too must say, "Nevertheless."

Nevertheless, I will trust your promises and choose your will. Not my will, but thine be done.

Writers' Retreat

Our Writers' Circle at the Twinsburg Library had their annual Writers' Retreat today. Cari Dubiel, who runs the group, did a great job of setting everything up.

It's good for motivation... now I just need to get cracking!

Emergency Preparedness

I don't like to think of myself as a paranoiac, but with the currently shaky economy combined with the 'just in time' nature of retail systems, I've decided to stock up on some basics. It's the sort of thing I hope I never need, but given a choice between having it and not needing it, or needing it and not having it... well, 'nuff said!'

I did some shopping today, and got most of what I think I should have on hand. I'll go again in a few days and try and finish it off. It will be a good feeling if for no other reason than I can finally throw away the pages I printed about it several years ago when I first started thinking about it, and which have been living at the bottom of my 'to do' pile ever since.

Is progress always good, always bad, or somewhere in between?

I ask this because I'm reading a grammar text which states the following:

"This flood of language has had its effect on writing and thinking styles within the culture at large. Ideas today no longer need be expressed in full sentences. Rather, the ideas of today seem to come out in a continuous flow of ongoing language. Sooner or later the idea seems to be “out there,” and then the word-stream stops. But this style, based on flow and quantity, is not
the language style of yesterday. In the past, the carefully structured sentence was the medium for encapsulating and precision-stating our thoughts. Today, precision and structure seem to be less important than the ability to “wax eloquent” at the drop of a hat." [Quote by Robert Einnarsson, found in http://www.classiclanguagearts.net/resources/TESS.pdf]

A few paragraphs later he states that he wants his textbook "to stand against the current culture of language as quantity and flow..." My initial reaction to this introduction of the book was very positive, but then I found myself wondering if this is akin to publishing a guide to excellence in classical carriage manufacturing in the early 1900s.

As a homeschooler, do I want my students to be more facile with last century's methods of communication than with the next century's methods? In terms of writing, I suppose I'd like the best of both worlds. I want my students to be able to write an elegant essay, deliver thoughtful, well-reasoned oratory, and understand their peers' texty lingo.

Unfortunately, taking a hard look at things, I'm not sure I've succeeded in any of those goals.

Sundays

I love the idea of taking Sunday as a Sabbath, spending extra time in Bible study and prayer, and just hanging out with the family. Unfortunately, I usually spend Sunday trying to get ready for the week ahead.

I know that if I were completely honest with myself, it's because I "sabbath" when I'm not supposed to! If I were more efficient and especially more disciplined the rest of the week, I would have enough time to get it all done.

This has been an issue for me for a long time, but just recently I'm starting to get serious about changing things. I just don't really know how.

CVCC

So now I'm starting to work on next year's school, and I've come across a two year program at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center that might be really neat for Tim. It's called the Computer Networking Academy, and consists of spending half days at something like a Vo-Tech program. Fortunately, unlike the Vo-Tech programs of yesteryear, it's not a replacement for college, but can lead into it, as well as give a head start on certain classes. It could lead to direct employment after high school, which may be a bonus in paying for college, too!

Tim built his first computer just after his 13th birthday, and just recently rebuilt it with components he got from us for Christmas. He seems to enjoy the hardware side of computing much more than the software side, so I would expect him to enjoy the program. It may also be a good indication of whether or not this is indeed the field he would like to pursue in college.