The stress of the season

The stress that I feel isn't because of the holidays which are literally around the corner. It is my new routine that has me feeling angst. The littles school day starts almost 45 minutes earlier than their old school. That means my day starts 45 minutes earlier. I used to have 8 full hours to devote to homeschooling, dinner preparation, errands and whatever else crept into my day. Now I have about 2 hours! This is mainly due to the fact that I must still run my oldest daughter to our old neighborhood to finish out two courses. Two hours drive round trip! It is temporary so perhaps my stress will be temporary as well. I decided to outsource high school Chemistry and high school Algebra II this year so save me the headache. I already know I can not teach math to Princess. Apparently, neither can her high school teacher. The kicker is Princess has one of the highest averages in her math class because everyone is having a tough time. Now I remember why it is a gamble not knowing from year to year if your kid will get a good teacher or a horrible teacher in public school - I guess any school for that matter. One thing I can say about this kid is she did go to office hours to get one on one tutoring which she said was helpful. Now that we are so far away it is a little difficult to go to office hours often. Did I mention that I was stressed? So once again this mom has to search for resources to help this kid master this math. So much for saving me a headache. We will get through Math! On another note, Princess applied to community college just yesterday. This will be yet another new experience for this high school junior. One more step to the academic independence that is right around the corner. It won't be an academic class to start out. She will tackle an Art Foundation course which has been a missing piece in her year. I know she misses her Art outlet. We just had no room in the schedule for it this semester. We will attend a homeschool open house at the college on next week so that is really exciting. I look forward to seeing what this new experience will bring.