New Beginnings

We attended our daughter's high school orientation last night. She is no longer my little home-schooled girl. She's entering 9th grade at Appling Christian Academy. It is a very small Christian school...she has about 15 kids in her grade. She is on the cheer squad this fall. School starts Monday, August 9th.

This is her schedule:

1st period - PE
2nd period - Bible
3rd period - English
4th period - Biology
5th period - Algebra 1
6th period - Geography (first semester)
                   Speech (second semester)
7th period - Fine Arts/Study Hall/Sports Practice
Chapel is weekly on Friday mornings

She is excited, and nervous. Me? Well...my oldest son has moved about a 1 1/2 hour drive away, my daughter is starting 9th grade (at school, not at home)... I'm a basket case. Just kidding! Seriously... I'm full of different emotions right now. Of course I'm saddened at the change, but at the same time I'm excited for them.

My son feels like he is "really at college" now that he's at a big university. Whatever that means, lol. I'm just grateful that God gave us a year at a smaller college close to home to prepare us for this.

This is his schedule for Fall Semester:

Elementary German I
US History II
Intro to Information Technology
American Government I
Creative Writing III

He'll have 15 credit hours, and Lord willing, a job to round out his days.

My daughter is nervous about starting school. That sounds funny, doesn't it? Like we've never "started school." She met all her teachers last night and had lots of questions about how they "do" school -- at school. This will be a transition for her.

But on the other hand, she is excited. As I've mentioned before, God has given her a love for all things athletic, and He has gifted her in that area as well. She is quite a talented athlete. As we have no avenue for her to continue in sports if we continue to homeschool, this transition will open new doors for her. She loves all the sports and she will participate in all of them, cheerleading in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring. She really loves basketball and softball and her dream is to play one of those sports at the college level one day!

And my youngest... this will definitely be a change for us! Only the two of us home all day. I am excited! I have more plans than I can ever complete with him, but I am looking forward to it. We'll be using Heart of Dakota for our main curriculum (lots of reading). I will mostly just use their history outline - we'll be taking a chronological journey from the 1500s to the 1970s through American history. We'll use their Bible study program and we'll learn the stories behind some of the greatest hymns using Hymns For a Kid's Heart - Vol. 1. We'll also continue in the Awana program (which focuses on scripture memorization) at church. 

For the language arts we'll use Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Spelling Power and Handwriting Without Tears. For math we'll use Teaching Textbooks 6. For science we'll use Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day. I love how they present science from a creationist viewpoint. I love how they focus on learning through an immersion approach. I can't tell you how impressed I was when my (then) 3rd grader could tell people much more than they wanted to know about birds when we finished Zoology 1, and about marine life when we finished Zoology 2. I can't believe how much my children have learned (and retained) using this method! I'm very excited that Jeannie Fulbright has written journals that we can use with this book! (Ok, that's my plug for Apologia Science!)

Well, I sure do get excited when talking about what we'll be doing for school. I'm pumped and ready for Monday!

But, in the meantime... I've got to get off this computer and start going through what's left in my son's room, sorting, cleaning out, getting ready to paint. My husband is ready to convert it to his work-out/exercise room. I would like to leave it as it is for a little longer, I guess for sentimental momma feelings lol. But dh likes to get on with things. And he keeps reminding me that God gives them to us for a season, and now it's time to let go. And he's right. And I know that my heart will catch on and believe that soon :)