Spring vs. Homeschool

*1*

We spent part of the week sans computer as it took a vacation at the computer doc's. The initial problem has been solved but it's now more temperamental and glitchy than ever. And the printer has decided that is has no wish to serve our happy home and has called off our mutually beneficial relationship by consuming vast quantities of expensive cartridges with no delivery of printed page. To the dump with you! (which in computer speak is the equivalent of, "Off with your head!"). I say this cavalierly, with no actual true emotion behind it. One dead printer helps me nada.

*2*

Home School

The Triumvirate of Math: Saxon, Perplexors and Quarter Mile. Perplexors are getting a bit too perplexing for me and twice we've had to call in Feeche or Dr. Dh to help deduce the solution. We've also taken a short break from Saxon Alg 1/2 to delve into Math Made Easy 3 and get a really good grip on decimals, percentages and fractions. Lone Star continues to show up weekly.
The kids also added more keyboarding (for some reason the program they went through last summer didn't keep- thankfully, Schoolhouse Teacher just added a course!) and a Computer Programming course. 3 cheers!
Memoria Press Geography and Famous Men of Rome is almost done and I'll mourn it when it's over. More, MP, more! I love their ordered, sequential, comprehensive, classical everything.

Tons of science- Apologia General, Tiner, pre-physics at TC and GC Physics and Your Life -even Flower loves listening in! (with more to come - Supercharged Science- woohoo!)

Horatius at the Bridge is still being memorized. Making inch by inch progress rather than great strides but both of them asked to do it this week rather than my pushing and tugging.

Our list of on-line work grows- 4-5 programs per kid, which  necessitates some creative juggling, even with more than one computer available. Yes, we teach diplomacy and negotiation in our humble homeschool. No guarantees of its stickyness upon emancipation.

*3*

 Read Loose Diamonds by Amy Ephron this week- Amy is just as a brilliant a writer as her sister Nora was. I'll be doing a longer review of the book as I have several thoughts about the series of essays that take place on both coasts. (Hey, I've lived on both coasts, too!) The fact that her parents were writers and all 4 of their daughters were successful writers intrigues me- family systems and all of that, you know.

*4*

Speaking of which, I have the test book ordered (no small charge, that!) and will commence studying for the National exam. A job would help, given the regs of the state I live in, but I'm starting studying nevertheless. Back to bleary-eyed living.

*5*

Feeche and I are taking turns reading The Phantom Tollbooth outloud. Oddly, I've never read it before. It's nonsensical and silly, which is not a genre I normally enjoy, but it's such a brilliant study in trope, word play and double entendre that I'm hooked.

*6*

We watched Florence Nightingale, staring Jaclyn Smith this week. A lovely, challenging rendition of a woman who believed that a calling was more important than a life-style. Great message about a women's worth and over-coming prejudice. All the same, Flower was rooting for first one man, than another. She and Cub really wanted her to get married in the end.

 

*7*

There are changes in the air and while it's  vague and undefined we are all a bit eager for it to take form and substance. I'm in spring mode and ready to pack up stuff, give it away and clean house. The air is fresh and humid, signalling spring, as it's about the only time the word "humid" can be applied to the prairie. And soon the lilacs will bloom. Woot!

This week's reviews: Artistic Pursuits
And don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Share It Saturday!