7-Quick Takes – sports, homeschool, and weddings!

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 This content uses referral links. Read our disclosure policy for more info. This means if you make a purchase, I get a little change to keep up my Diet Coke habit. It’s a win/win. 

1.

This was a long, hard week.

Most of the sports teams in my area have practiced this summer. The Ohio High School Athletic Association had put out phases for practice and Rosie’s cross country team certainly followed them. We made it out of phase 1 and into phase 2 where the coaches could actually start attending practices and coach the kids.

Then just like that, the school board shut down all practices and competition as of August 10. Never mind that some of the summer sports had already been competing! Everything had to stop with the idea that it could start up again on October 1. The board complained that they were getting no guidance from the governor or OHSAA.

Anyone who knows anything about athletics knows that it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get your body into prime condition and your game at a high level and then shut it down for two months and expect to be competitive then!

So some of the students took it upon themselves to arrange runs to keep their fitness up. No coaches, no direction. The runners were diligent and hopeful, but it just wasn’t the same thing.

Then, our governor announced that school sports could continue. The Health Department said it could go on with certain safety measures. Everyone was hopeful.

Then this week came a final blow. The school board divided the sports into close contact and no contact and voted on whether to allow either of them to continue. Both were denied and this time, with no chance of practice or play until November 11. For cross country, that meant no cross country season this year.

For all of the runners who lost track and field last spring, this would mean an entire school year without any competition at all. Rosie and her teammates were heartbroken.

Why do we continue to harm and dishearten our kids in the name of keeping them safe from a virus with a 99% survival rate and for the most part is so mild, you have to get tested to see if you have it?

2.

Then something interesting happened. Someone put out a petition that gained 2000 signatures. Someone else started a GoFundMe to start a legal case against the school board. Two football players from a city school left to play for a suburban school that was having a sports season. Suddenly, the school board’s decision wasn’t looking very wise.

Yesterday, there was a demonstration and Rosie and Mr. Pete went. About 100 other students appeared to protest. All with masks ( but not 6 feet apart). The president of the school board came to talk to them. Bottom line, there will be a special school board meeting on Monday to take another look at their decision. Fingers crossed that they change their minds.

I told Mr. Pete that just a year ago, if people saw a man of his age standing behind a group of kids with a mask over his face in front of the School Board Building, they would have arrested him!

3.

Rosie’s employer, (my sometime-soon-to-be daughter-in-law) was very gracious about giving Rosie the time she needed to be on the Varsity Cross Country Team. She basically wrote off the entire month of September and most of October so that Rosie could run.

Then, when I told her that Rosie wasn’t going to have a season, she very graciously put her back on the schedule. If the school board changes it’s decision one more time, I’m not going to ask her to change everything. We’ll work around it.

This can’t be the only kid in the city this is happening to. Other kids work, go to school and participate in sports. These decisions have consequences outside of the little microcosm the school board thinks it’s affecting. It really affects the entire community.

4.

Last year at co-op, I taught high school Logic and General Science.

This year, I’m going to the other end of the spectrum and teaching Miss C’s class with Five in a Row! Five in a Row is a literature-based curriculum for young elementary. A piece of literature is chosen and read for an entire week, or five days. At home or in regular school, the parent or teacher can choose an aspect of the book to focus on for the day. In the co-op we’ll pick a few things to work on with a heavy concentration on geography and culture.

For our first week, we are going to focus on Me on the Map.

I’m hoping to introduce them to the map and to directions.

We’re going to take a special rabbit trail to President McKinley and the Ohio state flower!

I’m looking forward to a more creative, and less cerebral co-op year as a teacher!

5.

Kids in my state are mandated (as if you can mandate anything of a 5-year-old) to wear masks while they attend school. And the order was written broadly enough that it will affect our homeschool co-op.

As luck would have it, I am teaching the little kids this year, so this will have a big affect on my and my students. With that in mind, I thought this was hilarious and probably more true than the governor and the powers that be would want to believe.

6.

Once in a while we have a visiting priest come to do weddings at our parish. We are fortunate to have a pastor and a parochial vicar who do weddings all of the time. But sometimes the families have a family friend or a favorite priest that they want to officiate and so they book our church but have the priest travel in for the ceremony. One wedding I did years ago had a total of five priests come in to concelebrate the wedding mass! That was quite something.

As a wedding coordinator at our parish, I take on the role of hostess/servant to these visiting priests. I let them into the sacristy, turn on the lights and do other things that they might not be familiar with. I’m there to lighten the load. I take over as much of the rehearsal as they feel comfortable with and honestly, most of them are very happy to have me there and we get along great.

And then once in a while, it doesn’t go so well. Since I am no longer a sweet young inexperienced girl, but an honest-to-God matriarch in my own right, I’ve got some thoughts on that.

Dear visiting priest, Don’t. Be. Rude.

That means, don’t order me around. Don’t tell me to sit down and shut up. Don’t act as if my time would be better spent out in my car in the parking lot. The couple paid me, just as they paid you, and the parish expects me to represent the church and show you some hospitality as well as to take care of our facility.

I want to help you and want you to feel welcome. But you are a guest. You’re not the boss of me and I might just know a thing or two that you would find useful or helpful. It works best if we are a partnership, or at least friendly. For the sake of the couple, I’ll suck up your condescension and misogyny. But I will never work with you again, and I’m letting the other coordinator know about you as well.

7.

I know a lot of moms are getting ready to homeschool for the first time in the next couple of weeks. It seems like a daunting task! I remember having these thoughts:

“I’m not cut out for this…”

“I can’t do this…”

“How am I supposed to teach my kids, and do everything else I need to do?”

“Where do I even start?”

“AHHHHHHHH”

Have you said any of these things (or something like it) since COVID-19 radically changed education as we know it?

If so, you are going to LOVE what is coming soon!

From August 31 to September 4th, my friend Ana Willis is hosting a 5 day “I CAN Homeschool” Challenge that is designed specifically for parents who are jumping into homeschooling for the first time this fall.

For just $10 you will learn…

Day 1 – HOW TO SET YOURSELF UP FOR HOMESCHOOL SUCCESS

• What You Really Need To Homeschool
• The Proven Benefits of Homeschooling
• Develop Your Own Vision for Homeschooling & Set Clear Goals

Day 2 – HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST CURRICULUM FOR YOUR CHILD

• Understand Different Homeschool Approaches and Which One Is Right For You
• Discover What Type of Learner is Your Child
• The Magic FAMILY Formula to Choose The Right Curriculum

Day 3 – HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT HOMESCHOOL ROUTINE FOR YOUR FAMILY

• How Long Does It Really Take to Homeschool Every Day?
• The Importance of Routine & How to Set One
• How to Teach Multiple Children While Saving Money, Time, and Sanity
• How to Teach Your Child to Be an Independent Learner

Day 4 – HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME EVEN IF YOU ARE A WORKING PARENT

• The One Thing Most Parents Ignore That Changes Everything For Better
• How to Simplify Your Life & Avoid Overwhelm
• How to Create Your Ideal Week Schedule & Add Plenty of White Margins in Your Week

Day 5 – HOW TO AVOID THE TOP KILLER MISTAKES 99% OF NEW HOMESCHOOL PARENTS MAKE

• 3 BIG Mistakes Every New Homeschool Parent Make
• 4 Reasons You Will Never Regret Homeschooling
• The Proven Formula for Homeschooling Successfully
• PLUS BONUS WEBINAR: THE 7 Cs OF SUCCESSFUL HOMESCHOOLING

If you are trying to figure out where to start, what to do first, and how you’re going to be able to teach your children, then this Challenge is for you!

Learn more and join the Challenge here

I Can Homeschool!