Graduation Plans

We are in the final countdown to our first homeschooling graduation. 43 days to our last day of schooling at home, one more week until JT's last community college class ends, evaluations on May 8th, graduation party planned for June 9th. How is this possible?! Isn't he still just a baby?

There is still quite a bit to do before we can cross the finish line. A month or so ago, I was at a planning meeting of the youth group committee at our church and realized I needed to pick a date for JT's graduation party to avoid scheduling conflicts. I decided June 9th seemed like a good day because it was early enough in the summer and would hopefully avoid vacations for our friends and family. Once I picked the date, I started to wonder if we'd have the diploma from PHAA in time. I am planning to have a short diploma ceremony at the party and it wouldn't be quite the same if we didn't have the physical diploma yet. Guess I should have thought of that before picking the date. I'll keep that in mind for EM's senior year.

I sent an email to our evaluator to ask about time frames for diplomas. She said we'd need to give them two weeks to a month from the date of the evaluation. Our last day of schooling will be April 27th, but JT won't have his final in his sociology class until May 2nd. Not long after that we will be leaving for a week at the beach. Before I picked the random date for the party, I was planning to schedule our evaluation toward the end of May. Now I needed to move that meeting much sooner. With vacation in the way, and the time crunch for diploma delivery, our evaluator suggested coming in May 8th. I told her we wouldn't have JT's final grade for his college class by then, but she said she can submit the diploma request without the grade, adding that to his transcript later. But now I will have a serious time crunch for portfolio prep during the last week of April and first week of May. Yes, I know I can get most of it ready in advance, it's just not the way I'm used to doing it. Oh, and I'll also need to be packing for a trip at the same time. Shouldn't be much potential for stress...

At least I'll be able to sit on the beach and do nothing for a week in the middle of the insanity.

Something else that occurred to me in the last month was the fact that it might be a good idea to get some senior pictures taken. It slipped my mind up until now, possibly because the last time JT had school pictures taken was in 2nd grade. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to make the attempt myself, or pay someone else to do it. One of my friends did her daughter's senior pictures herself and they turned out very nice. In fact, when she tried to get them printed at Walmart, the clerk was asking for proof that she had permission to print them, assuming they were professional pictures. Unfortunately this friend lives four hours away or I'd be asking her to take them for me. As soon as we have some nice weather, I'll take JT out and try a photo shoot. If things don't go well, I have a few local photographers I can try instead. I'd really like to get a picture or two in the woods since our time together has been focused on hiking so much lately.

There will also be the need to make graduation announcements, find a graduation gift, and plan the actual party. I'm thinking the next few months are going to be on the busy side.

Things to Come

Our September Hike Route

Recently, JT and I were talking about blood types and compatibility for transfusions. This topic came up because he is currently reading Dracula. I have never managed to read the whole book; I found it incredibly dry. He is really enjoying it and keeps telling me how every vampire idea came from this book. Yes, JT, that's because it IS the classic vampire story. The original. The Internet did not invent vampires.

So, back to the blood types... during our discussion I told him he should know this stuff. We covered it in biology. Three years ago. He told me he didn't remember any of it. Then he said he "should have taken biology from the college, not because I need it for school, just because it would be good stuff to study."
Wow.
I know he's a kid who likes learning, but I always thought he was just tolerating the college classes, not enjoying them. It's good to know he sees value in these classes we have funded. We talked about the fact that if he wants to, he could take a biology class before he starts full time at the main campus in the fall of 2019. Of course, that would all depend on the rest of his schedule.

He is working on finding a part time job to make some cash to put towards living expenses when he goes to school next year. So far, no luck on the job front. He's being a bit picky about where he applies - no fast food, which kind of limits things for someone his age. Unfortunately as a 17 year old, he's not able to apply for many jobs in our area. We have put his driver's test on hold until he finds a job. In Pennsylvania, we don't pay any extra on our car insurance for a driver with a permit, but when he gets his license, they'll make up for it by slamming us with a huge bill. Since we are requiring he pay half of that bill the first year he drives, he will need some income before he can do that. Since he really does not need the license until he has a job, it seems sensible to wait.

We are continuing to make our plans for summer hiking. JT and I have been slowing buying our gear that we will use for our 100 mile hike in Shenandoah National Park planned for September. This week we booked the house that EM and my husband will stay in while we hike. It's getting real! Starting in April, we plan to do some two day hikes, learning to use our new gear, getting an idea of our pace when carrying a full load in our packs. Sometime in June we will be doing a section hike of the entire Maryland portion of the Appalachian trail - about 40 miles. I'm just hoping my old feet can hold up for our adventures. I'm pretty good at pushing myself through pain, but I would prefer the no-pain option if possible.

So many exciting things coming soon. The beginning of the school year, I felt overwhelmed and uninspired. Now I'm enjoying every day and every new challenge. Hoping the rest of the year is just as fun!

Apples From the Trees

just a touch of shadow on the moon

You may have seen the news about the super blue blood moon on January 31. Living where we do, I knew we wouldn't have a view during the totality because the moon was going to set before it was time. I thought I'd probably get up to take a look, but figured the boys wouldn't be that interested. At bedtime on Tuesday night, I mentioned it. JT said he should probably get up to see it. I was kind of surprised since he's not a morning person and previous attempts to drag him out of bed for eclipses and meteor showers weren't always received with thankfulness.

When I asked him about it he said, "I guess I should get up to see something that hasn't happened since 1866." Can I just say how happy I am that he is making decisions that show he thinks like me? I'm confident that if he has children someday he'll drag them out of bed at all hours to stare at the sky.

Thinking about this now brings to mind a conversation I had this week. We go to Bible study at our church on Wednesday nights. The boys are both in the teen class. This week they had a visitor in their class who has met our family, but hasn't spent a lot of time with us yet.

After class she said to me, "Listening to both of your boys, I can really see which parent each of them takes after."

She told me she thought EM was more like me because of how much he was talking in class. This may be true today, but when JT was younger, he could talk the ear off of any person he met. As he grew older, he became quieter, spending more of his time in public observing others. EM is definitely more of an extrovert. I'm one of those rare introverts who really likes being with people, but needs time alone after to recover from too much people-time. My husband is more of a true introvert; he'll almost always choose alone time over time with others. In those ways, EM is like me, and JT is like him.

However, when it comes to interests, I would say that JT and I have more in common. We are the hikers, the readers, the documentary watchers, Malcolm Gladwell podcast fans. EM and his dad are the mathy, interested in how things work, public speaking, computer guys. We cross over in a few places. JT and his dad are the musicians. EM and I are the noticing what other people need, list maker, control freaks. Their sister, my oldest, has many of my character traits, and many people say they knew she had to be my daughter when they met her, even though they had not been told.

As a parent it's so interesting watching them turn into mashed up versions of us, with some of their own qualities thrown in to make something totally different. It's like an extended science experiment we get to observe. What will the final product look like? Only time will tell.