Planning Frenzy Brain Dump

1.  That's my story.  The boys have been gone all week and I've been charting out our next school year, and

OH MY WORD

it's gonna be a doozy!  Especially for Wyatt.  That boy is going to work next year, like he's never worked before.

2.  Back when I was in school we called the tough classes solids.  Don't ask me why.  It's not like the other ones are liquids.  Or gases.  I don't remember what we called them  (I know, be still my heart, you're hanging on every word, aren't you?)  At any rate, Wyatt is going to have a load of solids.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that he's decided to double up on math next year, at the high school.  Yay, Wyatt.  I'm glad he's motivated.  And really, he hasn't had too much math homework this year, which bodes well for next year, because he's taking his second year of Algebra simultaneously with geometry.  (Better him than me.)  He'll also have English and second year Spanish at the high school.  Then he gets to come home and do Chemistry (and let me tell you, Apologia's Chemistry is no walk in the park), and a half-year split of economics and US Government.

Yah.  Pray for him.  If he makes it through all that, Running Start will be a breeze.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

3.  Tate and Gunnar... well, they'll be busy too, but it's just a little step up from this year.  Nothing to shock their systems.

4.  Homeschooling just keeps changing.  One look at my bookshelves and closets convinced me that IT'S TIME.  Time to participate as a seller at the annual homeschool recycle sale.  I'm cleaning out a lot of the little-kid stuff we're done with.  Though it's a little sad, you know?  Life was a lot simpler when studying history meant cutting out and assembling a cardboard model of a Viking longboat :D  Now we're doing a lot more reading.

And scheduling?  Well, when the boys were little(r) we could kind of fly by the seat of our pants a lot more, but as they've gotten older our days and weeks (and years!) have had more structure to them.  Oh, we still have the flexibility of taking a week off for Disneyland :D, but I'm mapping the course a lot more specifically than I used to.

The biggest chore has been planning Gunnar's science for next year.  By his choice, we've done three of the primary Apologia courses in a row (Biology - Flying Creatures, Swimming Creatures, and Land Animals) and he has loved it.  LOVED it.  But I - if not Gunnar - could use a change.  

He has his heart set on Chemistry.  And I have my heart set on not buying any new curriculum, so we're improvising.  Somebody asked me what I'm going to do for his year of Chemistry, which will take a while to explain, so I think I'll put it in a separate post.  Okay?  Great.

5.  The house is quiet.  Very quiet.  You know what happens when three active boys are gone all week?  Well, for one thing, I haven't done much laundry.  And Kerry and I have actually eaten out three times.  That's more than we usually eat out in a month.  We've watched some movies together, and - for extra fun! - mowed the lawn at the church, since the boys weren't here to do it.  

And thank you very much, genius boys, for leaving the new weed-whacker completely empty of string.  (Which we didn't notice until we were all the way out at the chapel.)  I guess you'll just have some extra weed-whacking to do next week.  Grrrrr.

6.  This quiet house is about to get a lot noisier.  Not only are the boys coming home this evening, we're also acquiring an extra for a few days.  My brother is bringing Naomi up to stay :D  Oh boy is Gunnar going to be surprised!  (And since she sleeps in the room with the computer, don't expect any updates for awhile.)

7.  So that's the news around the Grasshopper house :D  And what's new with you?