We know that summer is over when we watch the South Vienna Corn Festival parade go by our house. The handsome man carrying the American flag is indeed my husband in his US Air Force Honor Guard uniform.
Which brings us month into the school year. Alanna and Neal have both declared their independence from scheduling by asking to do their school on their own, mostly. Alanna, in particular, has an ulterior motive: she wants a hamster. To get permission, she has to do her lessons regularly and without fail.
So far, she's adapting well. She often will do the whole week's health reading in one day, then math on another day, etc., but that seems to work well. She finished her history book entirely in a few long sittings. She does do Spanish every day, though, since it's important for achieving any real fluency.
Every week I leave messages for the kids on what needs to be accomplished. Every day we meet for a while to talk, look over assignments, talk some more, check Neal's Khan Academy math progress, talk a while, play a game, etc. This seems to work well.
So school right now has a structured period of 'checking in', an obvious set of expectations, and a fair amount of freedom.
, which is a great intro to what can be a dry subject.
, and done some work with her cell biology CD-ROM.
. Some fun I am!
.
and reviewing with 
8.
series and more of the 
. Allie and Neal both spent time writing and reading. Neal has been 
, video editing, 
, etc. We also got bags full of cool stuff. We had to miss the parade on Saturday, but it was well worth it!
(the one with David Attenborough), learned a bit about grammar and math, gone to the library in Columbus, played soccer, walked the Darn and Clark Lake, cuddled the kitties, read about a few composers....
s 
1776- present 
DVDs
DVDs
