Yellow Aster Butte

When Tate chose a cel phone to buy,

he wanted it to have a good camera.

He chose well :D

My iPhone takes great close ups,

but doesn't do well with distance.

These photos of Tate's look like they were taken with an SLR!

Nope.

Tate, Wyatt, and their cousin Ben took a day-hike up to Yellow Aster Butte.

And boy did they pick the right day!

While it's not a long hike,

(seven or eight miles round trip?)

the significant elevation gain

 - about 3000' - 

provides amazing views of the surrounding peaks,

both in Washington and Canada!

Amazing.

That's Mt. Baker,

by the way.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains -

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip -

He who watches over you

will not slumber;

indeed,

He who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you -

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm -

He will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forever more.

Looking back down,

you can see the trail down to the right,

but they started waaaaay down in the valley.

Love those smiles up at the top!

Everybody Gets Something...

... just not all at once.

IOW, no family vacation this year.

Gunnar got fiddle camp,

Tate got Worldview Academy,

and Wyatt went backpacking with friends.

Of course, he didn't take a camera.

I pulled these photos from his friend's facebook page.

Wyatt planned this with three friends -

three great guys,

which made it so much easier to let him

head out into the wilderness for four days.

Things didn't go exactly as planned.

Do they ever???

And their plan was a bit... ambitious,

to use a kind mom-word.

When they got all that testosterone

around a kitchen table looking at a map,

nine miles, even thirteen miles a day

seemed really do-able.

But out in the wilderness...  

the trail was not as well-maintained as they'd hoped,

and somebody's knee started acting up,

and they wisely used their brains instead of adrenaline

and made a good decision to alter their route to something more manageable.

And had a great time,

and maybe learned a thing or two ;D

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I've been playing with my new iPhone camera.

Oh my word.

It does close ups.

Foxglove

Distance and zooming in, not quite so great,

but still...

Ya got yer Purple Mountain Majesty :D

Yes.

For real.

It looked that color.

I love summer :D

Year Nine - DONE!

As always, my annual disclaimer...

For most of you, this post will definitely fall into the category of over-sharing.  For me, this is record-keeping.  If you're interested in the nitty-gritty details of What We Do For Homeschool, here's your fix.  If not?  Nothing to see here - move along  ;D

Nine years.  Can hardly believe it.  Whew!

WYATT - college sophomore / high school senior:

has just finished his second year at Whatcom Community College.  We are enormously grateful for Washington state's Running Start program.  As a high-school student he has had two years of college tuition paid for, was able to borrow most of his text books (free!), and is oh-so-close to graduating with an AA degree.  He'll be returning for Fall Quarter and (if all goes well) graduating in December.

He gave up his grocery job to better focus on school, but is looking for summer odd jobs...

in case you need some grunt-work done!

Woo-hoo!

TATE - high school sophomore (Grade 10):

has just finished his second year of high school.  He's done wonderfully - all As (Geometry and second year Algebra) and a B+ (Spanish).   I know other moms of D/HoH kids who waiver their kids out of foreign language because it's just too hard with the hearing loss factored in, so B+?  AWESOME! 

He has finished three of his four homeschool subjects:

Civics

Economics

English / Preparation for Launch

Tate LOVES to write (he's working on a book) so I don't have to "make" him do much writing, but I did select  a bundle of books for him to read and discuss with me - one per month.  That was awesome.  I'll have Gunnar do this too!

His Apologia science (Chemistry) course recommends these first two,

so I was sure to include them:

Then I chose the rest.

We had a lot of good discussions.

We thought, and talked, and sifted and gleaned together.

We found these really helpful:

Thinking of marriage down the road?  Voddie Baucham wrote this with his daughters in mind,

but it was easy to turn it around mentally and look at it from the guys' point of view.

Will you turn the world upside down, or let it turn you upside down?

On oldie, but a goodie.

Talking naturally about spiritual things.

Yes, it's written for/to parents.

Great discussion starters!

So very, very practical.

I love his adage,

You can't take it with you,

but you can send it on ahead. 

Every high school and college graduate should read this.

Seriously. 

I want to just buy a huge box of them and give them to every Christian teen I know.

And, hands-down, our favorite... 

Whew!  That was a lot of reading and discussing!

Because Tate also added a five-credit class at the Tech College for spring quarter

(prerequisite for next year's program) I encouraged him to defer the last three or four chapters of Chemistry until he finished his other classes.

He'll be wrapping this up in the next couple of weeks.

He has also continued to be involved with Civil Air Patrol,

earning his Billy Mitchell Award,

and continues to work his tail off at the grocery store.

Well done, Tate!

Gunnar - Grade 8:

has also been a very busy beaver.

While he doesn't love writing the way Tate does,

Gunnar does a good job with the mechanics of writing

("GPS" - grammar, punctuation, and spelling).

We also read poetry together again this year :D

Some hits and some misses...

Let it be known that I have now finished Algebra for the FOURTH time,

and will not be repeating it again!

Gunnar can tell you how long it will take the cheetah to catch the rabbit

if the rabbit got a 30 second head start, yada yada yada.

We love our Apologia science :D

Gunnar really enjoyed reading through American History with Sonlight's collection of books.

Not sure they're all in the photos... it was a lot!

About a book a week, in addition to the text/series.

And now everything changes again.

Wyatt, of course, is already in college.

Tate will be f/t at the Tech College next fall.

And Gunnar will be half-time at the high school,

and only half-time at home.

And he should be working mostly independently.

WHEW!

This is year nine.  NINE!

I won't pretend that I enjoyed every single minute of it

(because who does, right?)

But I loved it.

Really.  Truly.

I'm so glad I've had this time with my boys.

(Why should the school get the best part of their day?)

I'm glad we had the freedom to homeschool the way we wanted.

To structure our days and months the way we wanted.

To take time off for vacations and holidays and surgeries when we wanted.

To learn the way we wanted.

Freedom!

And now, summer!

A different kind of freedom ;D

Promotions and Honors

I'm combining two months of Civil Air Patrol promotions and honors,

but you don't mind, right?

It's because of Tate,

because his promotion spread over two months.

When you make a big promotion,

sometimes it takes awhile for things to come down from National.

(More on that, shortly.)

Last month Tate was recognized, i.e. given his new insignia)

for the rank of

2nd Lieutenant

So instead of wearing insignia (pins) on his collar,

he wears shoulder boards,

which his commander and I are putting on.

CAP will invite parents to participate in their kid's advancement,

sort of recognizing the parents' part in the cadet's success :D

As soon as Tate was promoted,

since he was the highest ranking cadet present,

he helped make the rest of the awards of the evening.

And the first one went to his older brother,

who now has to 

salute him

because Tate (younger) outranks Wyatt (older).

Which is cause for no end of (mostly good-natured) teasing.

Wyatt was recognized for getting a perfect score on his recent Aerospace test - well done!

Aaaaaand, another salute ;D

Fast forward to this month...

Gunnar reached a "Milestone Achievement",

meaning this is a more significant promotion,

as he is transitioning from what CAP calls "The Learning Phase"

into "The Leadership Phase".

He's promoting to the rank of Cadet Staff Sergeant,

and receiving his new insignia.

To earn this Wright Brothers Award,

he passed a comprehensive Leadership Test, a drill test,

a PT test (finally!), (no aerospace test this time), and

went before a review board.

Whew!

He's also wearing a special shoulder cord for good grades.

Although Tate was officially promoted last month,

his official certificate came through from National

and was presented by a Wing representative last night.

This Award

The Billy Mitchell Award

is a Big Deal in CAP.

This is Tate's ninth promotion, and required

* comprehensive Leadership exam

* comprehensive Aerospace exam

* PT test

* completion of Basic Encampment

and

* going before the Review Board.

He's officially moved from "The Leadership Phase"

to "The Command Phase".

Woo-hoo!

We're proud of all of them :D

And now Wyatt has a little more motivation to get in gear

and get himself promoting.

He's really close to Chief Master Sergeant,

and could earn his Billy Mitchell by January if he hustles.

Go, Wyatt!

Aunty Tami (along with Naomi) was with us last month,

and Grandma and Grandpa joined us this month.

We're so thankful to have close family to cheer the boys along :D

Can you believe how grown up they're looking?

So handsome!

Well, yes, I may be a bit biased ;D

And of course we celebrated in the usual fashion...

with a post-CAP trip to Dairy Queen.

And just for fun... last month's sunset (from the CAP parking lot)

colored by smoke from all the fires in Washington and BC...

... hoping that's all behind us.

Three cheers for the boys