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1. One of my in-law’s children has come out as transgendered. It didn’t surprise me and it’s been coming for a long time. But I was surprised at how much it hurt to see the first name get changed. This particular child had been given the name of a beloved and dear member of the family who passed on about 16 years ago. Somehow, having another family member with that name was comforting – a living memorial and honor for the deceased. But with the change in gender, the first name had to be changed as well since there was no equivalent in the other gender -and it sort of stung a little.
2. The long-awaited funeral for my sister-in-law could be a wonderful gathering of siblings to love and comfort each other – or it could be highly uncomfortable and full of much angst. Some of the siblings are highly liberal, some are very conservative – and it seems to be much more divided among the younger cousins, although I’m not sure how many of them will attend. Hopefully we can just focus on good memories and family ties and keep away from certain hot button topics. I intend to wire my jaw shut, at least figuratively.
3. Noah, the young man who intends to pursue the priesthood, is going to two proms this spring. With the prom tickets themselves costing over $40 and then dinner and other costs, I decided to just buy him a suit instead of renting two temporary tuxedos. It turns out, the difference between a suit and a tux is the inclusion of satin on the lapels and on the pants. There’s something about the waist band too. But since a classic good suit is always in style we decided to go that route. We went to Men’s Warehouse, where they were having a two for one sale and he got a beautiful classic black suit, and a more casual gray suit – he should be all set for many years to come. We didn’t have the money to get Calvin a suit when he was graduating from high school, but I did get suits for Sam and Gabe. Sam has since lost the pants to one suit and Gabe out grew his. I am hoping that Noah will learn from his brother’s mistakes – or else it is just like throwing good money after bad. We’ll see.
4. Both proms are coming up fast. The first young lady asked him months ago and then he didn’t hear from her until she texted him about his height, so she could decide what shoes to buy. The other young lady is our neighbor and goddaughter. They are more like brother and sister (and fight like it too) so that should be an interesting evening. In between those two proms, is the homeschool dance with his sister. So those suits should get a good workout just in their first month of ownership!
5. I have still not figured out graduation. But since the client I work for his taking the entire month of May off, I am thinking I’ll just clean up the house, and have it here. Why not?
6. Izzy and Noah are done with Apologia chemistry. They both enjoyed the class and got good grades from the science teacher in the lab work. But Izzy never did well on the tests, although she did the daily work. Apologia suggests grading on just the labs and the tests, giving more weight to the tests than to the labs. But I don’t think that’s very fair to someone who has actually worked pretty regularly on the course but can’t seem to manage the testing, so I am giving 50% to the daily work (since most of the course is doing the work daily) 35% to the lab work which required preparing for the labs, doing the experiments, and then writing a lab report, and the rest to the tests. This will adequately and more fairly represent how both kids worked in the class.
7. That said, as I get ready for homeschooling just my two girls next year, I am struggling to find just “career oriented” curriculum for Izzy. I think this might be a sort of snobbishness in the homeschooling industry that seems to think that successful homeschooling of course must mean college prep courses and acceptance to college! But I know quite a few homeschoolers who have gone directly into work, or trade school, or even the military. So why don’t the curriculum choices reflect that?
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I just can't imagine the work and planning that goes into homeschooling!
Maybe you and Izzy need to write a "School to Work" curriculum. Maybe you could look at some of the business colleges' book lists and gleam a few ideas there. Then the two of you could work on a set of modules for sales/trade. You both are entrepreneurs. It would be a great base for starting to sell homeschool curriculum (a growing market).
The kids' high school did a class loosely based on Junior Achievement. More then half of the students went into trades or sales. BTW- the only millionaire I know? a auto mechanic who owns several shops. Never did college.
I hear you with the curriculum. It is time to pick a high school for my baby. The choices are 1) private high school (primarily Catholic) that is 100% oriented toward college prep and costs $9000/year or 2) public high school with a varied curriculum but a peer group I'd rather avoid. Michelle is smart enough but doesn't particularly like school and even now, with a sister who is having a great time in college, is asking whether she has to go to college. I hate the school system here–there is no reason this community shouldn't have good public schools that serve all kids, but the Catholic schools are so strong that they are the default choice of any who can afford them.