Those important car conversations

Yesterday I ran errands with my 16 year old.  She started telling me about a movie she watched the night before.  It was a movie I've seen before about a group of married couples who go on a retreat together.  I heard her laughing hysterically from another room in the house so I asked her about which parts she felt was funny.  It led to an interesting conversation about expectations in marriage.  She jokingly shared with me how she would hypothetically handle some of the scenarios the characters in the movie dealt with.  She reminds me so much of myself as I listened to what she thinks she would do.   We laughed about it but it was a great opportunity to talk about how to avoid those situations by properly preparing for marriage before a potential partner ever enters your life. 

I am starting to feel the time getting away from us.  We really only have one good year with her before we let her go to explore life on her own away from the protection of her family.

A few years back my husband & I attended a marriage weekend, Weekend to Remember by Family Life Ministries.  During that weekend they gave us a free audiobook entitled "Interviewing Your Daughter's Date."  Coincidentally I ran across that audiobook yesterday.  Coincidental? I think not.  The audiobook is really for dads but I listened to it today.  I believe it is good material to discuss with my husband as we prepare to launch a daughter who I'm sure will encounter many situations where a guy may ask her out. It is also an opportunity to get a head start on my other two daughters who are behind her.

Snowed In

Monday was a holiday so the public school was closed.  My kids got no such break.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday school was canceled because of snow.

It's been hard to have a "normal" school day with all the kids home.  We've managed to get Algebra done, a vocabulary test done, and almost at the end of our science module. I'm also breathing a sigh of relief for getting out Princess' application for a pre-college program she wants to attend this summer. 

Here is a round-up of our week:

• Princess & I finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird.  Who knew this was such a good book?  Read in 2 days!

• She is working her way through Notgrass' America the Beautiful. 

• Princess is a few days away from finishing her Algebra 2 class in public school.  I'm so proud of her finishing up with a B average.  She will have to finish Chemistry at home using Bridget Ardoin's curriculum.  

• NuNu is working her way through the Childrens' Homer and making steady progress in Horizons 6.  I've decided to eliminate many of the lessons as a lot of the material is repetitive.  In this way, she will be ready for Algebra I in the fall.

• Pumpkin is steadily working through her MFW AHL curriculum and making strides in Videotext Algebra.  I love this curriculum.  

 I wish we could work more extra curricular activities into our routine.  We are managing to attend the bi-weekly events of the Kingdom Queens (KQ) group but we missed the last event.  The next event is a bowling outing.  Just not sure how to do pick up duty from school & preschool on the KQ event days.

The thing with foreign language . . .

No matter what you do or what curriculum you use you have to be immersed in the language to truly get a grip on using it.  This is what I believe.

I took Spanish all 4 years of high school and one semester in college.  I had planned to minor in Spanish but didn't see the point because I knew I wasn't going abroad.  So I dropped it.  I wish someone had encouraged me to go abroad to learn the language.  Little did I know that I would marry into a family from a Central American country.  My in-laws' first language is Spanish so my kids have a real interest in learning it.

I purchased Rosetta Stone our first year homeschooling.  Princess completed (well nearly completed) the entire first level.  She knows a few words but that is it.  We participated in two foreign language programs with the TOS Crew with marginal success.  I liked this one the most.

Now our church is doing a 12 week Spanish class centered around Christian witnessing to those in the Spanish community.  What the heck, it's free so we are participating.  Yesterday was our first class and just like every other Spanish language program it starts with the greetings - Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes, Buenas Noches, etc.  I think we got that part down!  One great thing about the class is the teacher made everyone introduce themselves in Spanish giving everyone an opportunity to practice some of what she went over in class.  Conversational practice, that's exactly what we need.

Did I mention that I also purchased a year subscription to BJU's Spanish program?  So here we go again attempting to earn Spanish I credit for my two high schoolers.  By the end of the year we should be ready to move on to BJU Spanish 2.

My prayer is that we will all be able to visit my husband's country of birth, Panama, and put these Spanish language skills to use.

2014

One week into the new year and it's been non stop over here.  The holidays took us up and down the highways visiting family.  I finally got an opportunity to see my nephew play on his varsity basketball team in his senior year of high school.  That was so much fun.   It reminded me of my own high school days cheering from the stands.  My nephew had his own fan section full of family members.

This past weekend my girls attended their cousins' Sweet 16 birthday party.  Wow did they have a good time.  It took me 3 hours to get them to their destination then a day later back again to pick them up.  The things a homeschool mom has to do to make sure her homeschool kids are "socialized!"  I thought it was worth the sacrifice as they don't get out and have this much fun that often.

 Now it's time to buckle down and full speed ahead to finish the school year.