A recent evening when I met with moms from my Classical HS group I admitted that we had had some failures in our homeschool. UGH, how could I admit or think that we had had several failures in my homeschool? After all it is MY HOMESCHOOL. But that’s just what I did, and just what I had thought at the time the failure had happened. When I confessed to the other moms our several recent failures, ahh, the relief on their faces,….it was precious. How often I had been in that spot too, thinking that others were succeeding with EVERYTHING in their homeschool and knowing full-well that I was NOT succeeding just made me feel, well, just awful. It caused me to think for a moment or two or three or four that the kids would be far better off in public school.

Failure. What does that mean? Failure; the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. But what happens when you decide to not stay in that condition? What if you decide to take action and move on to the next step? Can’t be a failure then, can it? OK, so we had a failure, but we decided to move on. Moving on, taking action is what’s needed though when you realize that your present condition or state doesn’t meet your desired objective. THAT is what can turn a failure into a success. Taking action.

This past fall when ScienceKid pulled out his Henle Latin he tried to begin where he had left off last spring. He was soon frustrated and ready to give up on Latin. He was sure he didn’t know ANY Latin and that he would NEVER, EVER learn Latin and that we should just take Latin off his 9th grade schedule. I soon realized that getting through the second-half of Henle Latin 1 would not be possible this year. We were going to fail to get through the Latin book this year. Fail to complete the book is what I saw, but then I stopped myself and suggested to SK that he just start at the beginning of Henle, move as slowly or as quickly as he wished but that he was going to learn Latin. Keep in mind that SK started Henle Latin two years ago so this was a huge step backwards in my mind, failure. Failure for the moment is what I saw, but this is my homeschool and my kids can study at their pace so that they learn the material, not to met some “School” criteria. I caught us, or me, and decided that the condition I wanted was for SK to learn Latin, not get through some book or meet some school criteria. Reluctantly he started at the beginning of the Henle book and we proceeded slowly. SK studied the various declensions, studied the vocabulary, chanted often, and worked through the exercises.

What I saw by letting SK start over is a transformation in SK’s attitude toward Latin and learning a foreign language. At this point SK quickly translates Latin to English, almost without thinking about the process! Earlier in the week I placed Fairy Tales in Latin on SK’s desk and he proceeded to read the stories! He is thrilled with his Latin ability and anxious to move quickly onwards in Henle. We are also close to the Henle Lesson SK was at last spring however his Latin knowledge is solid now and his confidence has skyrocketed. It has not been all smooth sailing though. SK has had a difficult time translating from English to Latin but I stumbled upon a solution. I took the Latin sentence from the answer books, typed them out for him to translate from Latin to English one day, and then the following day he translates them from English to Latin. It has helped him tremendously in translating from English to Latin.

Failures. We had one in SK’s math too. SK finished Singapore’s NEM 3 this past fall. He was anxious to move into the Pre-Calc book and I was too. He quickly read through the Dolciani Algebra 2 and Trig book and concluded that he KNEW the material so Mom should just let him go into Pre-Calc. While I agreed with him part of me wanted to make sure that all ‘the i’s were dotted and the T’s crossed’ or in other words, that he really did KNOW Algebra 2 before moving on. We agreed that he would take the Chapter tests in the Dolciani book and if he scored 90% or above he would skip that chapter. Sadly he scored less than 50% on Chapter 1, so he did every problem in Chapter 1. While he knew the material he was making sloppy mistakes; forgetting the negative signs, writing a 4 so that he thought it was a 9, …. His score on Chapter 2 was slightly better but SK had not yet truly learned to be careful and error free. Chapter 3 was a bit better, but Chapter 4 he was able to skip :-), and Chapter 5 was another success. Sometimes it is best to just say, OK so we failed. We missed the mark, our desired outcome just didn’t happen but instead of chucking the kids back into public school we’ve used these moments to make a few changes, and help the kids learn, really learn.

But all this has also led me to a dilema. How do I give grades to SK for his high school transcrip? What I’ve decided is that I won’t. In my homeschool I plan to only give PASS / Fail for courses taken during the high school years. And since we turn failures into successes you know what the transcript will have for grades.

Just the other night my Classical HS’ers Moms group got together for an evening of fellowship.  We started the evening with a delicious dinner of roasted chicken, pineapple cheese casserole—can’t wait to get the recipe for this, candied carrots, rice pilaf, vege tray, bread, artichoke dip, and for desert we had no-bake-cookies and the chocolate cheesecake I brought.  We finally finished off the chocolate cheesecake this morning and it was by-far the best one I’ve made.  SO rich, but getting back to the meeting.

Our topic for the evening was How to Teach Latin, particularly when you don’t know it yourself, and to discuss Latin programs.  Prior to going I found a great little article by Cheryl Lowe that I took along.  The points I wanted to make about teaching Latin were in there, plus a few others.  In our home I’ve found we had more success with learning Latin when we do daily chants, when we changed to thinking of Latin as a basic core course rather than added in at the end of the day or when we have time, and when the kids review their vocabulary daily.  Having all of us know grammar has made learning Latin easier too but I can’t see how one would be successful without the other key elements. 

It was nice to be out with other moms, chatting away about school and what we do, and our kids successes and failures.  I shared a few failures that we’ve had in our homeschool, which are being turned into sucesses.  If things work right that will be my next post.

Haven’t been feeling like writing much lately, could claim it is due to the ice storm that locked us down for several days last week.  Could claim it is the bum knee that still hurts and keeps me from taking a walk, or from walking Brutus.  Could claim it is the pressure of homeschooling, and guiding a teenager through these critical high school years, and balancing the demands of Science Olympiad preparation with everything else in life, ……  But it really isn’t any of those things.    

We visited the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute last Friday.  All 100,000 of us, trying to see the artifacts.  DH summed up the experience nicely; didn’t know we were going to the zoo today.  Yep, way too many folks, way too many lines to look at the artifacts, which was after the long line for our timed-ticket to enter the exhibit which was supposed to limit the crowd IN the exhibit.  We hit the road out of there without visiting other exhibits in the institute.  I feel that we are all musuemed out for awhile.

On the home front the boys have been kicking around a name change for Brutus.  MilitaryKid has been reading Trojan War, so today he suggested that we change the pups name to A-Chill-ie, just like the hero in the Trojan War.  ScienceKid kindly suggested that he learn the correct way to pronounce the name; Achilles.   Ahhh, kids, thank goodness they are around to give me a laugh.

It is awful, awfully beautiful too.

Many of our trees are kissing the ground. Guess they know it is Valentine’s Day.

My poor Bald Cypress, and magnolia tree (the green blob between the two downed bald cypresses). The Leland Cypresses in the background row usually hide all the houses behind them, but not today.

And our downed Willow Tree:

You can see the downed tree limbs behind the front tree. SK visited this area with Brutus and said that there are many tree limbs on the ground. I hope it all melts soon.  We’re supposed to go to a Valentine Day Bowling Party at noon but unless the weather changes soon we won’t be going anywhere.  It is back to freezing rain AGAIN.  MK and Brutus are out walking around in this mess.  At least both boys realize that Mom cannot go walking on ice yet; I’m barely walking around in the house.

What to do? Yesterday for 8hrs I sat with my leg up, unable to put very much weight on it. I don’t know if when SK and I were out walking Brutus I pulled or strained or sprained or tore something in my right leg-knee area but I still can’t put weight on my right leg, or bend it to walk. The pain is continuous but far worst when I stand, and trying to walk is out-of-the-question. Of course this didn’t stop me from trying to take a shower this morning—during which time I thought I was either going to get sick to my stomach or pass out—and it didn’t stop me from coming downstairs and telling the boys that today we WILL have school. They figure that since Mom can’t move really well that they get today off.

Hey SK, how about breakfast on the sofa! “No Mom, you need to lose some weight so we aren’t going to feed you.” Now to find the phone and schedule a Dr appointment…..but how to drive ones-self when you can’t move your right leg?

Update: I went to the Dr’s, had x-rays taken and was told to STAY OFF THE LEG, lie around the house, do nothing but rest it. I’m to call back on Thursday if it isn’t allot better, and they will call me if the x-ray finds anything. I don’t think it will. She was able to move my leg all over the place without too much pain.  Just don’t ask me to move it or put weight on it, which makes me think it is a muscle problem.  ugh, I can’t lay around for weeks, I have things to do, a puppy to train, boys to school, places to go,…..

Last night we went to a Pirate’s Party; nice time eating and visiting with folks, and extra special that the kids were included in the invitation. ScienceKid took Brutus to his room for the night but when I heard Brutus crying in the morning I started to get up. DH told me to lay back down, that SK could take care of Brutus.

Right. Sometimes I know I forget just how old and capable he is. I rolled back under the 10″ feather coverlet and decided to catch a few more Zzzz. Soon I heard SK urging Brutus back up the stairs and into our room. Doesn’t he know that Mom really just wants to sleep the morning away?

“Mom?, MOM”

“yes”

“What would you like for breakfast? Would you like bacon and eggs, or, no eggs would be to difficult. How about bacon and a bagel? Would you like that for breakfast?”

A short time later SK came walking in my bedroom with a plate of bacon, a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and a sliced kiwi, and served me breakfast in bed. Where did he learn this? Such a considerate act. :-)  Soon he brought me coffee too.  How thoughtful!  I haven’t had breakfast in bed for a dozen years, not that the kids haven’t tried or wanted to. As SK explained to me; the problem is that I always get up way too early for anyone to succeed at serving me breakfast in bed.

What a great way to start the day. So, if you need any further proof that teenagers are wonderful people, just re-read the above.

Now I just wish the rest of the day continued as well. SK and I took Brutus out for a walk. Things were going well, we even did a short run, and stopped to chat to a neighbor walking his yellow lab. I was smiling at how well we are doing at socializing Brutus daily as we started to walk away from the neighbor but then the pain hit me. Walking home was difficult to say the least and has continued for the past several hours. In fact, the pain streaming from the muscles below my right knee is making me feel my age today and at times turns my stomach. At least my DS knows how to serve me breakfast in bed in case I need someone to take care of me tomorrow morning.

Busy, busy week. Science Olympiad is in full swing which means ScienceKid’s partners come here on Saturday morning, early, to work on their Mission Possible box. The boys work on this project totally on their own, so all it means for me is that either DH or I need to be here, and food and drink need to be available to flow liberally into these teenage boys. It is enjoyable to have them here and I wouldn’t want it any other way but it fills our day. The boys work great together and so far have 10 of their 16 simple machines in the box.

Monday after school SK’s Science Olympiad partner for his Food Science event and Storm the Castle event came over for an afternoon practice. This week the boys built a new arm for the trebuchet before moving on to doing a few Food Science experiments. The trebuchet is used in Storm the Castle event to hurl the object far and into the ‘castle’. It is the critical part of the trebuchet. This was a busy afternoon for me working with the boys, setting up experiments similar to what they might encounter in their Food Science event, and then allowing them time to play a game of laser tag. Monday night SK, MK and I went off to watch the one dog training class—the one we will not join.

Tuesday SK went off for a day of skiing with his hs activity club. MilitaryKid and I spent the morning playing games before heading off to watch the movie ‘Happy Feet’. Our feet were quite HAPPY to leave the theater. SK had a grand time skiing and so wants to take MK skiing. He begged last week to take MK along however the activity club’s rules do not permit it. So nice to see such brotherly love.

Wednesday afternoon SK worked for hours on his SO Rocks & Minerals event studying and putting together his study notebook. This is the event SK is not excited about but he is still studying hard for it.

Thursday early in the afternoon I take SK over to the library where he spends several hours with his Rocks and Minerals partner inspecting rocks, and teaching each other this topic. After SO Co-Op, SK heads over to his rhetoric club meeting. SK had to be pushed to go to the first meeting way back in September but has looked forward to every club meeting since then. MK and I came in at the end of the meeting and caught the tail-end of SK giving a 1N speech. He throughly enjoys the meeting and even the part of getting up in front of the group to talk. Thursday night we checked out our last dog training session. We’ve visited five groups and finally have found one that we think will work for us.

Friday afternoon SK spent the afternoon studying for his Heredity event, finished building the new arm for his trebuchet, and headed off for the evening to our church’s youth group game night. When he gets home at 10pm he’s scheduled to give a fellow hs’er a sky tour.

And at 8am tomorrow morning the week starts over again with the Science Olympiad kids coming over to work on their Mission Possible.

Last evening SK, MK and I checked out another canine kennel club’s beginners obedience class—-we will NOT be going back to that center with any puppy or dog.  We had heard about this place, #2, from one of the other canine clubs. #1, we visited 2 weeks ago.  Trainer #1 had complained to me about #2’s methods but I wanted to check the place out for myself; his descriptions were not off at all.  We walked in after the class began and quickly but quietly took seats.  This was a beginners class with both dogs and puppies. 

I was shocked though to see that every dog and puppy had on a prong collar including the 4 month old Béarnaise Mt Dog, and the two 8m old golden retrievers.  I once used a prong collar for a short time on my male German shepherd when he went through a rebellious period around 14m, so I’m not totally against them but I also know they are not needed for the vast majority of dogs, and definitely not for a 4 month old puppy.  There was also NO praise given when the pups and dogs were doing what they should be doing or at the end of an exercise.  No praise; I couldn’t believe it.  It was sad, but at least center #2 is an easy one to cross off the list.  Center #1 is the other extreme but I can live with that; no chokers, lots of food and praise, and never say no.  I do think there is a place for saying no, and a place for a choker but I can’t disagree with center #1’s approach totally to using food and giving lots of praise, so they are still very much on the list.  We visit another place on Thursday.

We came home to be happily greeted by our Brutus  Being a typical 11wk puppy he’s trying his teeth on everything, and everything is far game in his mind to be picked up and chewed.  He is also learning that hands and pant legs are not for biting or chewing on.  As I was putting our groceries away Brutus came over and very gently put his mouth on my pants legs, tugged, trying to get whatever attention he could get from me and looking up at me in a –look what I’m doing, pay attention to me, here I am, tug-tug, look at me….  I did a few sits and downs, and sit-stays with him, and played a little before returning to putting away groceries.  I can watch Brutus from the kitchen and he saw me looking at him.  He went over to the sofa and grabbed a wool hat one of the boys left there. Rather than dropping to the floor to chew the hat, he pranced around the family room, looking at me to see if I would chase him and take the item away.  Soon I had my hand on his collar, said “drop it”, which he did while wagging his tail.  He knew he had something he shouldn’t but he was certainly showing us his intelligence that he would get our attention, and play with him.  The evening still has me smiling at his antics.

Ahh another Friday night, another week of school completed. Brutus is now close to 30 pounds! His coarse overcoat is starting to come in. Over the next few months his coat color will change but he should keep his black face mask.

He loves rolling in his blanket:

We’ve found that if we keep a leash on him while in the house he then cries at the door when he needs to go out. Can you see his overcoat? It is fun to guess what coloration he will actually have; will he be Blonde with a black saddle? or will he turn golden? Time will tell but the guessing game is on.

This afternoon the boys went roller skating with our homeschool support group. Massive group; lots of kids the boys enjoy being with. One rule this group has is that you must be a member to attend their activities. Fine, I don’t have a problem with that although it isn’t like they are forking money over from our dues to pay for the skating. But I digress. So we walk in and I fork over the money, and tell the nice HS mom my last name. She checks the list and states, “No, you aren’t on the list.”

I looked at the list and point to my name. “There it is —-and I state my last name—.”

“Oh no, YOU said ‘XAxxxx’ so that means it should HAVE AN E. Since it HAS AN ‘A’ it should be said —-” and she states a different version.

Now this was a first. Well, not a first for having someone mispronounce my last name as she pronounced it, but truly a first that someone had the nerve to tell me that we are mispronouncing our last name. Transplant us out to the Midwest and no one ever mispronounces our name, unless of course they are not from the Midwest. But to tell me that I am mispronouncing it. How rude!