Sweet Sixteen

Norah turned sixteen earlier this month. 

(And of course, since she was born the day before my twenty-fifth birthday, that means I turned forty-one the next day.)  

This photo was taken after her birthday dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, her choice.  

 

Essentials- Year Three for Avril

 It's Avril third year of Essentials. 

That makes it my sixth year, because her older sister, Norah, went through three years of Essentials, too.

This year, Avril's handwriting her own keyword outlines and rough drafts on notebook paper. In previous years, I scaled her work by helping her with all or some of the handwriting and typing. Back then, she dictated everything. 

Now after she handwrites it, I edit the rough draft. 

Then she adds dress ups, etc. using the checklists and vocabulary cards. 

Then she types her paper and prints. 

I edit it one last time, and then she retypes and prints her final.  

She's doing every analytical task of every sentence now. We scaled this work in previous years, too.  She only did a few tasks of a few sentences the first year. Last year, she did more sentences, but still not every task.  

She's diligently practicing charts and I can tell she's likely to remember every detail of every chart by the end of this year.  In previous years, we practiced and reviewed the charts only a few times a week and mostly aloud. But now that her handwriting is improved, she can copy and practice on her own and more often.  

She's practicing her math facts diligently and gaining more speed and accuracy with multiplication facts, too.  Her little sister is old enough to hold the flash cards up for her now, so they usually practice together ten minutes a day.  

God is so faithful.  

I can testify that earlier in this journey, I never imagined Avril and I would be ready for what we're doing at this point or how easy it would be to do it all, but that was only because we didn't need to be ready back then and it was new, so it couldn't be easy yet.  

We just had to do what we could at the time we could do it and remain consistent.   

Lord willing, she begins Challenge A next year. 

Norah will be in Challenge 4. 

And Adele will begin her first year of Essentials next year.  

She'll be ready.  

We'll all be ready for what is next, I'm sure. 

We just have to remain consistent. 

Graduate School

It's week six of graduate school. I transferred my articles and notes from a very, very full one inch binder to a new three inch binder today to make room for what's still to come. 

I finished my essays early this week, so in the last day, I've read a novel, one that wassn't assigned, and I even found some moments to blog.  

Perhaps this post will serve to remind me of this very, very busy season someday. 

I have little to no margin right now with everything I'm doing. I homeschool three daughters, one of which submitting some of her work for college credits and therefore, needs more support. I direct Challenge 3. I am in my third year of the Circe Apprenticeship, and I'm taking an EDUC and an ENGL class. 

This pace is certainly not sustainable. I'm doing my best to sleep enough and eat right, but there is no time for exercise or for any healthy leisure. 

I'm planning to take only one class at a time from now on. I realized I am in no hurry to finish my masters. The plan is to be ready for what opportunities may come when the girls are grown and out of my homeschool. Lord willing, that will take at least ten more years. 

But by God's grace, I'll make it through this semester, then I'll slow down. 

I am learning a lot, love what I'm learning, and I find myself thankful often, even if I'm often overwhelmed.   

Spiderweb

A spider made its web right across the outside of this window almost as if it were framed there. I tried to get a photo of the web, but the camera couldn't capture it.  I thought the girls looked beautiful, too, looking up at the web, so I captured their beauty instead.