October Goals

Fall has arrived. I love Fall. We are in a significant drought here in Western North Carolina, and the officials are expecting a rather "ugly" change of colors this season. The leaf peepers may be disappointed in our area's foliage this season, but I am sure there will be plenty of beauty. 

Our October Goals are as follows ~ 

Social ~ 

• Celebrate Anne's 16th birthday. This will be an all month event since she wants to do, taste, experience 16 things she has not yet experienced. 
• Celebrate Dear Husband's birthday. He is right after Anne's birthday and never has any wishes for his own birthday so it is always a challenge to make sure his day is super special.
• Keep expanding Dean's social circles. He isolated and devoted himself completely to his now ex-girlfriend over the last two years. We are busy helping him renew old friendships that he had mostly let go and grow a few new ones. This means having teens over for hangouts almost every weekend and trying a few out-of-the-home opportunities this month.

Academic ~

Dean is doing well with the workbook style of learning. It is quick, efficient and only tells him what he needs to know. We are using a host of critical thinking (The Critical Thinking Co.), high interest (Remedia Publications), and Memoria Press workbooks. He is using workbooks to cover English, Math, Visual Arts and History.

He is also reading a book of his choice each day. Currently, he is reading The Art of Magic: The Gathering. 

We are also starting a study in developing/enhancing emotional intelligence. This will be added to Dean's Health class.

Dean will continue with Live Action Role Play with the Wandering Swordsman two times a week. We are also working on turning the back "house" (glorified shed) into a workout area since the guys are interested in lifting weights. This involves emptying the junk, repairing the sub floor, putting down some kind of floor and padding and general cleaning. This will count for Industrial Arts.

Anne is working steadily along with her studies. Online driver's ed is proving to take all the time they said it would and a bit more some days. This course has really taken a front seat to all of her other studies. I am glad it will be over by mid October. Driver's ed counts for her Health credit. She is keeping up with her Geometry (Khan Academy) and World History (The Critical Thinking Co.). We are squeezing in Earth Science where we can and English was a bit scattered in September. We are switching back to Life of Fred Language Arts for October since she really doesn't have time to write as much as the other course demands. She has two more books to complete in the Life of Fred series that she can easily wrap up in October. Sign Language class and work at the consignment shop are going well.

Her out-of-home classes are going well. Dance is taking about 17 hours a week. She really loves the adult classes, and being an apprentice to the adult company is giving her experience with rich and complicated choreography (as seen in the picture below). She still loves her junior company classes with her teen friends, too, and completed auditioning for various roles in The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Who has been chosen for which roles will be announced on Monday. 

Together ~ We are doing some light family read-aloud books each day. We are currently reading Under The Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. Next we will be reading Why God Is Like a Wet Bar of Soap by Chuck Fager. Chuck was my First Day school teacher (Sunday School to non- Quakers) and left a profound impact on me. He is in the hospital right now with congestive heart failure, and he is on my mind a lot right now. He is a prolific writer and has had a fascinating life that includes working for Martin Luther King, Jr. and walking with him in Selma, tons of social justice work and inspiring dozens of young teens like myself to read the Bible and love doing it. I have meant to share some of his books with my kids for awhile and I think this is the right time.

We hope to get in a few more lessons in our Physical Science course this month than we did last month. We only did three in September.

Field Trips ~ As Anne would say, "It is spooky season," and there is so much to do. We hope to go to a corn maze, pick some apples and pumpkins from an orchard, attend the local high school's haunted house, go on a few leaf peeping hikes, work on Anne's Sweet 16 list and have apple cider donuts. Here's to a fantastic fall!

Anne is busy decorating the house. This is what she has created so far. 

Yes, she even decorated the cat!

Blessings, Dawn