What we are using

25 July 2008

Summer Report Week 10?

First, we will NOT start school July 28.  It is just too early.  I can't do it.  It will be September 1st unless the ragweed is really bad, then we will start a week before that.

BB has been in Florida for two weeks.  I miss him, but in a terribly guilty way I am a little relieved to not have to worry about him for two weeks.    In the back of my mind there is a fear that since most of his friends are off to college in August and he is not going until January, that he will decide to not go.  His college-bound friends are all busy right now and he is hanging out with other friends who are working and staying in town and getting apartments.  I have the worry that he will lose sight of where he was going.

My brother and his family were here for 10 days.  It was great to be with them.  I wish he lived closer.  I love having family.  We are going to visit them in Florida next month and I am very happy about that.

My list of things that need to be done is still the same.  I didn't do any of them this week.  Next week, I WILL work on knocking them out.

Summer is nice when you can swing, bike, play and enjoy each other.  Somehow, everything seems better when you can spend a few hours outside a couple of times a day.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I saw one of your posts on the WTM board and was wondering if you could tell me more about the cottage school, in particular the Mandarin Chinese class. How did that come about and who teaches it? We live in a big city and my husband works at a university, but so far I haven't had any luck finding a Mandarin Chinese teacher. It sounds like you do a lot of great things with your homeschool and have to fight the same temptation I do, which is to do too much! Thanks!

Karen said...

Amy - At least two of the elementary schools in my district teach Mandarin as part of the IB (International Baccalaureate ) program. The cottage school we are enrolled in is offered as a homeschool enrichment by one of those elementary schools. They have a maximum of 60 kids for the cottage school and it is once a week and is for a mixed-age group of k-5th grade. We will be using the same material that the elementary school uses and we will have access to some online Mandarin program for elementary students. We start in September, so once I find out what books and such they use, I will post about it.

In the cottage school, the kids will also get to use the hands-on science kits like FOSS, GEMS and some others, they will do hands-on math kits, have a robotics club, and do art, drama, and literature unit studies. They will also be taking field trips to the local space exploration center, science museums, and a kid town where they will have jobs and shop and stuff like that.

The school funding laws in CO make it very attractive financially for schools to take homeschool kids for programs like this.