A new semester- the final semester

I am spending this morning getting my son's laundry done  so we can take him back to college. ( I know he should do it himself, but these kids will let a wet load sit in the machine for hours).  It has been an interesting break.  He is clearly more mature (and bossy) than he was when he left home.  His opinions are strong.  His patience is also short. ... and I can't tell when he's serious or joking anymore. I look back at the period of my life when I left home and remember how necessary the distance was.  I was getting to the point when I was becoming my mother, and I was still a teenager. Every glance, every opinion, every argument I had, and someone would comment how much like my mother I was.  Now, my mother was a perfectly lovely person and I wish I had half her sense of humor, but I was not her, and in order to become uniquely me, I needed time and space- off by myself to deal with the world.  This is my son's time.  I may not like or understand all the changes, but he is still the same at his core- uber moral, and deep thinking.  My work may indeed be done.

I am also trying to get my daughter to wash her hair so I can set it in some new-fangled rollers I

Homeschool Classes and Homeschool Schools

I realize the title is a bit redundant, or perhaps more of an oxymoron, but homeschool classes and programs have been very valuable to us.

I feel  classes outside the home was the thing that we needed to give my daughter (especially) the extra boost to get into even her most far-reach college choice.  She was able to show that not only had she met the recommended academic guidelines to make her college ready, but that she had far exceeded it by taking as many elective classes as she did core classes.

Now classes outside the home are not for everyone.  There are certainly many pros and many cons.  I will list some of them for you.

Pros of outside classes:

Reference letters:  We had to find people to call on for academic and other references for college admissions and for internships and such.  The outside classes provided plenty of people to call on to help with these letters.

Mom is not the font of all knowledge.  In fact, I actually despised some of the subjects, and was glad

Looking forward to the New Year(s)

I am excited about the new year.  I am always genuinely enthusiastic about  New Year's when the preceding year has been especially dreadful.  Ok, it wasn't all that bad, just financially tight and a bit depressing on a personal and national basis. Between the Election, and mass shootings, I feel affected and drained.

So anyway, whenever I have felt this way before, and greeted the new year with open arms, the next year has been fabulous and so I am claiming a fabulous New Year.

Here's my problem though.

I can't envision a whole year ahead of me.

I can only see the next six months because my life will be changing so much halfway through the year. Because my girl is graduating and I have no more children at home, I feel like halfway though the year I will be making a brand new start.  So year 2013.1 I will be working hard to make sure my girl finishes her high school program, successfully and happily.  Then year 2013.2, I will work to make sure she transitions into college well, and that I transition well into empty nester status.  Wooo-hooo.

Sorry, I can't say empty nester without squealing.  It's not that I want them to go... and my husband certainly does not want them to go, but life is about change and growth, and I have been in this holding pattern for a while.  I am ready to change and grow.

Happy New Year.

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ahermitt.com

Merry Imperfect Christmas

This Christmas tree is in my foyer.  It's about 15 feet tall and is pre-lit.  A couple days after we put it up we realized that there is a section (upper center) that did not light or is no longer lit. Oh well.  It is our imperfect christmas tree.  There was no way we were going to take everything off and play with each light until it lit up.  We will worry about that next year.  

Sometimes everything does not go as planned.  This Christmas, especially, the nation is depressed as a whole, for many reasons.  We are emotionally spent.  

I am going to call my tree a poetic representation of that. 

But........

We are together.  

Everyone can't say that we have our families in our homes right now.

All our children

Our siblings

 and if we are lucky, our parents.  

So my foyer tree, the first thing people see when they enter our homes are imperfect. 

But our family tree, and our family room is warm, cozy, and pretty darn nice, just like our family. 

And so with that, I say to you

Merry Imperfect Christmas.

FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Mid year update

It's December and in spite of my best efforts to keep the school year going through winter break, by daughter had gone on strike and so we are done for the first half of the year.  I can thank my son who is home for winter break helped her make that decision.

So this is where we are as of right now:

College boy.  I've taken to calling him great-big Neanderthal Man.  He has changed.  He seems to be creating distance between himself and his dad.  This makes his dad sad.  I think it's his way of expressing his manhood, but it is still hard for his dad. His relationship with me is fine.  I think he's nicer to me actually.  I can question him about school and such, but when dad chimes in, he shuts down.   Anyway, he did good enough to keep his scholarships.  I am glad with that for first semester.  His dad wants more...  Maybe that's the problem. ... Or maybe his dad should stop "touching him

My ideas for keeping schools safe

I can't seem to get off this subject... of the Connecticut school shootings.  So since my heart is stuck there, I thought I would engage you all to think, think, think.. about ways that schools might be made safer.

Mine is in this video.



(Looking at the video is hard... there is so much pain in my face... but still, it does not compare.)

What is your idea?  What do you think we need to do to make schools safer?


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

I homeschooled because I am impatient

I can give you a laundry list of reasons that I homeschooled.

• My daughter was being labeled as unteachable, and hyperactive. 
• My daughter began having night terrors and accidents. 
• My son had become sullen and withdrawn and while previous schools called him gifted, the one he was in did not. 
• My son was being bullied. 
• There were oodles and oodles of issues over just a few short years that were clearly affecting my children. 
• They were in the first and third grade.  
• No one so young should be having a hard time in school. 

With all of these things going on, I was counseled by other mothers