School Starts!

[Cecilie1200]

My 14-year-old son, who has always been homeschooled previously, had his very first day in school yesterday. I chose a self-paced charter school that combines core academics with a choice of arts or vocational studies, according to the students' preferences. He tells me he enjoyed his first day very much.

In addition, we have just received the shipment of "Your Baby Can Read" for the 18-month-old, and he has been happily watching the first DVD. So far, he is clapping when the kids on the show clap, reaching to touch his toes when they do, and earlier when they said "Cat", he smacked the tomcat off the couch.

 

[Big Black Dog]

My 14-year-old son, who has always been homeschooled previously, had his very first day in school yesterday. I chose a self-paced charter school that combines core academics with a choice of arts or vocational studies, according to the students' preferences. He tells me he enjoyed his first day very much.

In addition, we have just received the shipment of "Your Baby Can Read" for the 18-month-old, and he has been happily watching the first DVD. So far, he is clapping when the kids on the show clap, reaching to touch his toes when they do, and earlier when they said "Cat", he smacked the tomcat off the couch.

Be very much on guard here, Cecilie1200. It is a known fact that serial killers begin their life of crime by torturing small animals!

BTW, hope your son has a great school year.

 

[Luissa]

My son likes to lay on the cat, she doesn't move until someone sees them. She pretends to hate him, but sure has no problem with him when she doesn't think anyone is looking.

 

[uscitizen]

I had to kill my 3 legged cat yesterday.
He had a brain tumor according to the vet and got really bizarre and was peeing on everything.
And getting violent.
He would not live long outside with only 3 legs...

Sad day. A little cat funeral and all yesterday evening.
I will miss my tripod cat.

 

[AllieBaba]

My 14-year-old son, who has always been homeschooled previously, had his very first day in school yesterday. I chose a self-paced charter school that combines core academics with a choice of arts or vocational studies, according to the students' preferences. He tells me he enjoyed his first day very much.

In addition, we have just received the shipment of "Your Baby Can Read" for the 18-month-old, and he has been happily watching the first DVD. So far, he is clapping when the kids on the show clap, reaching to touch his toes when they do, and earlier when they said "Cat", he smacked the tomcat off the couch.

My kids start school next week, also at a charter school, which is the only local school in our tiny town.

They love it, as do I. So far I'm very, very pleased with their education, despite the fact that as a charter school the focus is on "natural resources" or some such fuzzy thing as that. But I have absolutely no complaints about the education they've provided the kids so far. They are in a combined 1-3 grade class, each with just a few other kids in their individual classes. They get individual attention, but they also get to benefit from the lessons the older kids are learning. My daughter's reading and math skills are far above the norm for her grade level, and because of the class structure, she is able to participate at the higher learning levels when appropriate, so she doesnt' get bored.

It's great, I love it. Good luck with your heretofore homeschooled boy! Here's to a good school year....

 

[Cecilie1200]

I'll tell you what I want to know, though, and it's the age-old complaint of housewives and homemakers everywhere: how do I get my menfolk to understand that just because I don't have a paying job doesn't mean I don't WORK?!

Here's my day yesterday, the first day of school:

Up at 5:30 a.m. to make my husband breakfast (grits and orange juice, don't ask me why he likes them), and to make sure he has everything he needs to get out the door.

Drive my husband to work at 6:15 a.m. (Other car is in the shop right now.)

Arrive back home just in time to take our roommate, Sean, to work at 7. Naturally, his job is a half-hour drive from the house. Stop for a quick bagel and soda in the area.

Arrive back home AGAIN just in time for Quinn to wake up and want breakfast. Change the baby, make the baby fruit and oatmeal, spoon the fruit and oatmeal more-or-less into the baby's mouth. Then wash the baby and dress the baby, because he's going to have to run all my other errands with me.

Time to wake Nicholas, whose school day mercifully begins at 12:10 (they have morning and afternoon classes, with an evening lab available if you need extra help). Nag him unmercifully to get him to eat, shower (with extra emphasis on washing his hair, since he never seems to), get dressed, gather his things, etc. Extra time out to re-sew hole he manages to rip in crotch of jeans.

Drive Nicholas to school and get him sorted out with the registrar. Unbelievably, Nicky's new school had a FIRE last week, which gutted half the buildings, including the main admin offices. So I find out that while Nicky's in the computer, all his paper hard copies, including his medical release and shot records, were lost in the fire. Gotta redo all of that.

Arrive home and prepare lunch for Quinn and myself. Stuff the baby, gobble a few bites myself, change the baby, clean the baby, repeat as needed.

Pick Joe up at 2:45 p.m. and drive him to blood donation center, where he has an appointment.

Drive from blood donation center to Sean's work and pick him up, arriving about 3:40 p.m.

Drive from Sean's work to Nicholas's school and pick him up at 4:30 p.m.

Drop Nicholas and Quinn off at home and take Sean along to pick Joe up at the blood donation center.

Stop at Holiday Inn near donation center to pick up event planning packet, because I'm the chairperson of the committee to plan a party my social club is having next March.

Stop at supermarket on the way home to pick up milk, a package of ham, and a bell pepper so that I can make jambalaya and cornbread for dinner.

Arrive home and begin chopping vegetables for jambalaya while the menfolk flop down in front of the computers and the television "to rest", citing their hard days at work.

Cook jambalaya, bake cornbread, and chop fruit for fruit salad (I asked Sean to do it a couple of days ago, and it never happened).

Serve the adult and semi-adult men their food, and begin feeding Quinlan his dinner.

To top it all off, my husband hands me a basket full of his clothes and says, "Could you make sure these get washed so I have something to wear tomorrow? I'd do it myself, but I'm so tired from working. I've got to get some sleep." Sean says, "So I guess you didn't get a chance to do the dishes, huh?" And Nicholas complains at me today that I "didn't bother" to fill out the new enrollment forms for him yet.

Well, what can I say? I had a rigorous schedule of bon bon-eating and soap opera-watching to get done, and didn't have time!

 

[Modbert]

Well, what can I say? I had a rigorous schedule of bon bon-eating and soap opera-watching to get done, and didn't have time!

Don't forget Oprah.

 

[xotoxi]

My 14-year-old son, who has always been homeschooled previously, had his very first day in school yesterday. I chose a self-paced charter school that combines core academics with a choice of arts or vocational studies, according to the students' preferences. He tells me he enjoyed his first day very much.

In addition, we have just received the shipment of "Your Baby Can Read" for the 18-month-old, and he has been happily watching the first DVD. So far, he is clapping when the kids on the show clap, reaching to touch his toes when they do, and earlier when they said "Cat", he smacked the tomcat off the couch.

Did he enjoy seeing other kids for the first time in his life?

 

[Samson]

14 yo and 18 mo yo is quite a spread.

My rule was new mom stayed at home for the first two years.

3 kids, and 10 years, Delilah returned to work, and then only because I began visiting lawyers.

 

[Ringel05]

School Starts!

Cool!

 

[del]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcYbo7pjto]YouTube - Back to School Funny Staples Commercial[/ame]

 

[Ravi]

Isn't it a little dangerous to leave a baby alone in a house except for a sleeping fourteen year old?

 

[Cecilie1200]

My 14-year-old son, who has always been homeschooled previously, had his very first day in school yesterday. I chose a self-paced charter school that combines core academics with a choice of arts or vocational studies, according to the students' preferences. He tells me he enjoyed his first day very much.

In addition, we have just received the shipment of "Your Baby Can Read" for the 18-month-old, and he has been happily watching the first DVD. So far, he is clapping when the kids on the show clap, reaching to touch his toes when they do, and earlier when they said "Cat", he smacked the tomcat off the couch.

Did he enjoy seeing other kids for the first time in his life?

I think he was just happy to have the manacles off. He always complained that they chafed his wrists and ankles.

 

[Cecilie1200]

14 yo and 18 mo yo is quite a spread.

My rule was new mom stayed at home for the first two years.

3 kids, and 10 years, Delilah returned to work, and then only because I began visiting lawyers.

It was sorta funny. My daughter, who is going to be 21 this year, had a baby. I'm thinking, "Okay, we're into Grandma mode now." Then the doctor tells me I'M pregnant . . . at 39. But I've always said that if one MUST have a baby at the age of 40, Quinn is the baby to have.

My husband and I have always believed that raising the kids and making a home for the family is a job in itself, and not a part-time one - his occasional forgetfulness on that subject notwithstanding - and have always tried to have one or the other of us available to do it. For all that the money is sometimes tight, I think it's the right choice, because it's provided us with a much happier, less-stressed home and family vibe.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Isn't it a little dangerous to leave a baby alone in a house except for a sleeping fourteen year old?

No more dangerous than having a baby in the house while I'M asleep. I don't allow the baby to run loose through the house while people are sleeping, after all. He has a crib and a playpen that he stays in when someone's eyes aren't trained directly on him.

 

[Samson]

You could be a GREAT Grandma before you're 60....

 

[Cecilie1200]

You could be a GREAT Grandma before you're 60....

I oughta neg rep you for that one.

 

[Samson]

You could be a GREAT Grandma before you're 60....

I oughta neg rep you for that one.