Nearly There

The countdown is on! Only 35 days remain in our 2017-2018 school year. When we reach that point, I will have successfully (?) completed the schooling of one child. I can hardly believe it is possible. I am generally not a nostalgic person but as I have been going back through photos of our homeschooling years preparing to put together a program for JT's graduation party I have found myself dreading the end of this journey.

Speaking of pictures, I made an appointment to have JT's senior pictures taken. I have the most adorable grandson and my daughter entered him in a contest to be a child model for a local photographer. Of course he was chosen since he's the cutest toddler on the planet. She will get a free photo shoot and package. When I asked her for the name of the photographer to get prices for JT, I found out the photographer is someone I know. She was JT's scout leader for a couple years! We haven't seen her in about 10 years and she was thrilled to hear from me. We will be going to a local state park in April to take pics of JT on the trail with his pack. Hiking pics seemed essential to the whole process. I wish there was a way to get a piano to the woods to add his other primary activity. Of course, it would probably be more appropriate to take a computer and have him playing video games. One more thing off the checklist for graduation!

This week I also sat down with JT and reviewed the things he needs to complete by April in order to meet his graduation requirements with PHAA. It amounts to two more writing assignments and a bit of grammar. Of course he also needs to complete his last community college class. I also sat down with EM and made a game plan for his final three years of homeschooling. We talked about what he will do for math, sciences, and social studies. There will be some use of Thinkwell, Coursera, and the community college. We will also purchase Rosetta Stone Spanish to add a little foreign language to the mix. The program he's looking into at the community college will not require a foreign language, but I want to cover all the bases in case he changes plans later.

After we finished our planning, I went to the bookcases and started pulling books I would not need for our remaining homeschooling years. I listed some for sale and made a little money that I will probably put towards camping gear. I still have a stack of books to get out of the house. I'll probably try listing some again, but some will also go to the library for their April book sale. Once I finish the cleaning, I'm hoping to be down to one bookcase of homeschooling material. I still have my library full of many, many, many books, but textbooks and workbooks will be greatly reduced.