Princess Leia: “Han!”
Han Solo: “Yes, Your Highnessness?”
Princess Leia: “I thought you decided to stay.”
Han Solo: “Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.”
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
With apologies to the people who have already seen this on Facebook…
I did it. I signed Padawan Learner up for classes at a local high school last week.
Despite the fact that he had – for years – said that he never wanted to set foot inside a school again, PL decided that classes on environmental sustainability and Italian sounded too good not to attend. Despite the fact that he’s a confirmed night owl, he chose to take a class that starts at 7:55 am. Choice makes all the difference in the end, doesn’t it?
On days that he has school, his day will end at 2:15 pm - those will be every other school day – with a 2 hr study/lunch period in between the two classes. He also wanted to take an intro art class, but it had a waiting list of 40 students so he couldn’t add it this time – maybe next year. So I guess we’re about to join the ranks of tied-to-the-school-year families now. (We’ve even bought a few school supplies to get him through his first few days: a 1″ binder for each class, an insulated lunch box, a water bottle, and mechanical pencils. We already have a ton of paper and pens.)
About two hours after I signed him up, I had to point out the inconsistency of taking a class in environmental sustainability and leaving the deck slider door open when it is about a billion degrees outside and the AC is running.
Wow. Are you OK? It’s been my experience that this sort of change affects the Mom a lot more than the kid. Here are some smooches for you. XOXOXOXOXO
So….explain to me how this works. He still does his homeschool work that y’all have agreed upon, and has added these classes at a local high school?
Jen: Yes, that’s the plan. Having an every other day schedule should make a nice separation in his head between school and homeschool tasks.
Ah ok. Well, my homeschooling year is going to be — interesting –. My alien-slayer is thinking about doing a year in the public high school, and after much back-and-forthing with public school peoples, the best year for her to do that is 9th grade. We have so much structured writing to learn this year and next, before she actually attends the public school, that I am rather overwhelmed right now.
That, and the basic fundamentals of math which my daughter seems to have just glossed over and cannot remember on a day-to-day basis right now. How much of this is just pre-teen attitude and how much of this is real is difficult for me to say just yet. I’m giving it a couple more weeks before I make a definite judgement.
Everything else is not a problem — our copious reading through fiction and non-fiction has given her a huge and very sturdy base for history and science and geography.
That’s awesome that he has the option of just taking a couple of classes, without having to attend the high school full time! My eldest will be entering the public high school full time this year, she’s excited, me not so much. My youngest is clamoring to return to the school system, so this year we’ll be visiting the private schools to see if there is a good fit for him entering middle school. Personally, I’m ambivalent about the transition. Fun times ahead!