Back to School Already?

Anne decided to start back to school this week. She decided on a very gentle start -- just two credits. She is working on English III and Earth Science. She started Earth Science with five weeks worth of field trips and experiments already completed from last year. It is wonderful to get away and travel, but there is also great comfort in routine and familiarity. We are striving to make Anne's school year as smooth as possible so that she has time for work, dance and real world life without experiencing burnout or compromising her education. One way we are attempting to achieve this goal is by starting school now with just two credits. She may add a third credit in two weeks. She is pleased with the arrangement so far. It only takes her about an hour to do her current workload each day.

Life of Fred Australia  and The Great Literature Copywork cursive book are her language arts portion of her English III credit. If she enjoys the Life of Fred high school language arts series, she will do all four Life of Fred books this year. There will be lots of literature and writing added into her schedule next month. Earth Science is mostly a review. She did so much of it in elementary school and early middle school that I decided to craft a course filled with workbook review, more field trips and a short course on environmental science. The gray notebook is just workbook review from workbooks, the Internet and magazine articles.

The brain injury program that Tim attends celebrated their 10th year anniversary this week. We are very grateful for this program. It has added so much to Tim's life. He has volunteering opportunities; chances to cook, learn and review life skills; work on memory techniques; go on lots of field trips; exercise and play games. Most of the clients in this program are high functioning. He gets along with almost everyone in the progam, and he has made several close friends through the years. He started this program in the spring of 2013, and it has been a good fit ever since.

Dean had his second week this summer of free time and unlimited computer time. He slept and ate a ton and played lots of video games. He also sewed patches on some of his foam and cloth weapons, went to the dentist and to therapy, went to the mall with his girlfriend and generally relaxed.

I am embracing minimalism. My father's death this year reinforced how short life can be and how much I don't like clutter or cleaning. So I am spending my summer sorting and drastically reducing our belongings. I love living in an organized and clean house, but the rush of the school year and dance season usually dashes my dreams of cleared off surfaces, caught up laundry and freshly mopped floors. I hope I can reduce our belongings enough that I can stay on top of the cleaning part once the school year is in full swing.

Blessings, Dawn