It is that time again. I’m finding it a little difficult to settle down and get myself ready. With one son living in CA and another going to school in FL, I find myself more distracted than I did when they were all little and under one roof. This year I will have 4 students. My youngest is 6 so he will be considered a full-fledged home schooler. I will also be teaching son #3 for his last year at home. The other two are 13 and 8.
This year we will participate in a Charlotte Mason co-op. This is our 4th year to participate. It has been a blessing in many ways. We study Latin, Shakespeare, Art, Nature and Great Literature. The younger 2 boys have not been old enough to participate until this year. We are adding classes for the little brothers/sisters of the older kids as well as grandkids of some of the moms already involved. The little kids will be studying Latin, Shakespeare, Drawing, Art/Crafts, Nature, Violin and Art Appreciation. All of this will be done in short segments (Charlotte Mason style) so the little kids will be done in about 2.5 hours. The older kids will be in class for 4.5 hours.
I will be teaching a String Orchestra again this year. This is our 4th year for this as well. Last year, there were about 30 students involved. I’m not sure of the final count yet this year. There will be 3 groups meeting at 12:00 (1st year), 1:30 (2nd year) and 3:00 (3rd year and above). I do know that there will be 3 bass players in the 1st year group. That’s a lot of big deep instruments. So far, there is 1 cello and 3 violins. The other two groups should remain pretty much the same.
Other things we’re going to be doing this year? Andrew and Timothy will continue their instrument making (Luthier) lessons. Andrew finished his mandolin and Timothy finished his violin. Andrew has already started work on a 5 string viola. Timothy has been learning how to rehair bows (we’ve had several around here for him to practice on). He hopes to make a cello but will probably work on another violin.
Benjamin and Jonathan are working on learning the piano and will be learning violin in the co-op. Benjamin still needs work on his reading skills. Jonathan wants to learn about inventors. We’ll probably start off the year with a study of Benjamin Franklin. Then, if the interest is still high, we’ll study Thomas Edison.
Timothy needs to officially start his high school career this year. He’s done a few high school level classes but this year, it’s for real. He’ll be doing Alg 1, Biology, English (Gray book from LLATL), History/Geography of the Bible and the stuff from co-op. He will be learning the bass (one of the 3) in the 1st year orchestra, playing viola in the 2nd year orchestra and cello in the 3rd year orchestra.
Andrew is the one finishing his high school career this year. He is going to finish the Writing Strands series, Apologia’s Physics, Notgrass Government, work on clepping out of some college classes, take his SAT and do the stuff from co-op. He will also be in the orchestra. He’s going to learn violin with the 1st year group, bass with the 2nd year group and viola with the 3rd year.
So, what am I going to do this year? Other than facilitate all of this activity, I will be teaching Bible class twice a week (early elementary), I have a "how to teach Bible class" session planned in a nearby town in September, teach private violin lessons, and attempt to keep my house in some sort of order.
Now that I’ve written it all down, maybe I’ll have the strength and courage to get it going. Our official start date for co-op is Sept 1, for orchestra is Sept 14 and for school is probably going to be Aug 31. Where did the summer go?
