Fourth Quarter

 

We have officially entered the fourth quarter of our school year. The kids have already finished their Life of Fred books (Pre-Algebra with Physics for Oliver and Trigonometry for Nadia and Ian). Some subjects won't be wrapped up until May 7. I had planned on having Nadia and Ian read The Scarlet Letter and That Hideous Strength during the fourth quarter. Nadia read That Hideous Strength during the third quarter instead of Crime and Punishment. Ian is still going to read That Hideous Strength, but Nadia has opted to read Hamlet instead of Crime and Punishment. Both of them have selected Dracula instead of The Scarlet Letter. I still plan to have Ian read The Scarlet Letter sometime in 11th or 12th grade, but it seems unlikely Nadia will ever end up reading that book as she doesn't need to take any literature courses at Liberty. Oliver is currently reading Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan, and his other book for the fourth quarter will be The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. He read six books from The Chronicles of Narnia in addition to A Wrinkle in Time during the first three quarters of seventh grade. 

Technically our last day of school won't be until May 25 because of the "field trips" we'll be taking in Europe in May. For months they've been showing availability to take one (expensive) tour of Buckingham Palace through the end of March, and then they had far more options starting in July. Yesterday they finally had tickets available for the expensive tour in May. Paul really wanted to go to Buckingham Palace. He didn't want to see the changing of the guard (which is free). We didn't go there when we were in London in 2002, and since Paul and I will probably never be in England again, Paul was willing to splurge. Most of the places we are visiting in May will not be "repeats" for Paul and me. I think the Tower of London will be our only repeat in the United Kingdom, and we'll visit four places we've already been during our one day in Paris. 

I only have two months left of homeschooling a daughter. The time has flown by. She is very excited about her new upcoming adventure. She and Maddie went shopping for clothes recently, and they got matching peasant skirts that they are both planning to wear on the first day of the semester at Liberty in August. In terms of my years of having at least one child at home (who hasn't yet graduated from high school), almost eighteen of the twenty-three years have been completed. I'm in the "last quarter" of my years as the mom of a baby, toddler, preschooler, or homeschooler. Nadia is taking three courses through Liberty this semester. The only math she's doing right now is preparing to take the College Algebra CLEP test. The only subjects I'm giving her a grade in this semester are economics and English. I had intended for her to do physics this year with Ian, but she really doesn't like physics, already had enough science credits for high school, and if she doesn't want to go to graduate school, she doesn't need to take physics in her undergraduate program. 

I've started to put a little bit of thought into plans for the next school year. It will be strange only having two kids at home. Oliver and Ian are not accustomed to doing science together, but I'm planning on having them both do biology next year and do the dissections with the coop in the fall. I think next year will be the only year the two boys do science together because Ian wants to do forensic science during his senior year, and I think Oliver will do general science when he's in 9th grade. I did Fix it Grammar with Nadia and Ian and had been doing it with Oliver, but it wasn't working this year with him, so I switched to the Giggly Guide to Grammar, which was a good fit, but it's just one book. This week I chose another grammar book for Oliver to do next year. I never did a vocabulary textbook with Nadia or Ian, but I started having him use Wordly Wise this year, and I plan to continue that next year. For social studies, I decided to have the boys do a year of World Geography by Notgrass. I used a Notgrass book for the first time in the fall (government), and I liked it. I'm not as crazy about the Basic Economics books I chose for this semester. Previously the kids had done four volumes of Mystery of History and four volumes of The Story of the World. For math Ian will do calculus (Life of Fred), and Oliver will do Pre-Algebra through Teaching Textbooks. One school related thing that will be new next year is that it looks like I'll be starting a three-year term on the MCS school board.

We have had at least one guinea pig in our house since December 2016. Most of the years we had two guinea pigs. Our time with Lily came to an unexpected end on Sunday. We have been dog sitting Cooper for fifteen days (he'll be with us for ten more days). Unfortunately, while we were at church on Sunday he pushed open Nadia's bedroom door, dismantled the guinea pig cage, and killed Lily. It was so shocking and heartbreaking. We know he was just acting on instinct, but it was very sad. Cooper has been in our house many months over the last 2+ years, so it really caught us off guard. If Nadia wasn't about spend the summer at Camp Susque and then move to Virginia in August, we'd get a replacement guinea pig for her but given how little time she has left at home and the fact that she was the only one who interacted with the guinea pig, we are not replacing Lily. Milo is our only pet. There's an elderly couple that lives near our home who has a 16.5-year-old Bichon Frise. Hopefully Milo will also live a long life and not have an untimely death like Lily did. Other unexpected (but much happier) news would be that my dad has recently become engaged. He and Karen are planning to get married this summer. The other unexpected, happy news is that my sister is expecting her tenth child. I say "unexpected" because my sister is 51 years old. I think my dad's third wedding and my sister's tenth delivery might both take place in July. Life is full of so many twists and turns.