Well, we started school a few weeks back. We didn’t really have a choice, as Cooper’s Classical Conversations (CC) Challenge A class began on August 24th. I was definitely NOT ready to start school with the whole crew on August 24th though. Why does summer always seem to fly by so quickly? When I was a kid it seemed endless, and for some reason I still believe (hope) it will be that way.
We took Cooper to his CC Challenge class that first week, and I planned to start with the others about two weeks later, but then the email came. It was an email from a friend in Connecticut, the mom of one of my Challenge I students, asking me what I was doing for Kory school-wise this year – his 10th grade year.
A few weeks prior, I had renewed my director’s license to be a Challenge II tutor for CC. This was mostly so that I could continue on with their suggested curriculum, which I think is outstanding. I didn’t really advertise the class, as I wasn’t really willing to teach ALL of the subjects it requires. Actually, I was unwilling to teach only two of those classes: Latin II (Yikes! Latin 1 about killed me last year.) and Algebra II or Advanced Mathematics. (My heart pounds at the thought.) I could “hang” with the Algebra 1 last year, but I cried my way through Algebra II in high school, and didn’t want to subject any high-schoolers to my own math fears and anxieties. (My Algebra II teacher made me go and talk to my Algebra I teacher for “math anxiety counsel.” It’s true.)
I wrote to my friend and told her, quite reluctantly, what I was planning to do. (Flashbacks of all of the pressure and preparation to teach Challenge I were coming to mind.) The phone rang a very short while later, and I knew what was coming. My friend asked if I would consider taking her daughter in class again, and offered to drive from Connecticut each Tuesday, as I had done to teach on their campus last year. “I’m not planning to teach math,” I said. “Fine,” she said. “And I simply cannot teach Latin II. Kory will be doing a separate Spanish course,” I explained. “No problem. Megan will also be taking Spanish.”
We prayed. I consulted with Robert, and the deal was done!
(And I’m really thankful to be seeing my Connecticut friend on a weekly basis again this year ~ she is a sweet, full-of-grace and godliness friend ~ such a blessing to me. Pray for her. She is driving here from 2 hours south every Tuesday and then turning around and directing her own CC campus in CT on Thursdays!)
So, for the second year in a row, my best laid plans to NOT teach my kids’ CC classes has failed! Obviously, I am resisting the Lord somewhere along the way. Or maybe this is just the sneaky way He gets me to the places He knows I will thrive.
Well, then I felt I should call the one mom who had been interested in the Challenge I class I had planned to teach again this year, but here on a campus closer to home. I explained that I would still not be offering Challenge I, as no one else had signed up, but that I would be tutoring Challenge II, and her daughter was welcome to join us on the same conditions of no math and no Latin.
I am now up to three students, and it is a wonderful group. Not what I planned, but a better plan indeed.
I’ve also taken on a few extra students at home: M, M, and M. 🙂 These three siblings, and dear friends of ours, attend CC with us on Tuesdays, and then spend Wednesdays and Thursdays doing school at our house. Here, Kayla and M show off their favorite place to do math – the comfy green couch.
The boys, M and M, are in Cooper’s Challenge A class, which makes it easy to work with all three at the same time making sure they are accomplishing their assigned work for the week. Their “seminars” are Algebra 1/2, Latin, geography, science, apologetics, and writing.
This is their class and tutor Mr. H. There are actually more students than shown here, but some leave for the math portion of the day, because they are at a different level than what is being taught.
I am thankful that a Challenge II class has materialized for Kory to be a part of. Our seminars are:
British Literature – Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Paradise Lost, Pilgrim’s Progress, Gulliver’s Travels, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Animal Farm, A Passage to India, Something Beautiful for God, Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, Father Brown, a Brother Cadfael mystery, Out of the Silent Planet, The Hobbit, and The Screwtape Letters.
Biology: Exploring Creation with Biology by Apologia/Jay Wile (Hence the microscope-twisted mouths, and the gathering of pond samples to cultivate.)
Western Cultural History: How Then Should We Live (book and DVD’s) by Francis Schaeffer, State of the Arts by Gene Veith, The Annotated Mona Lisa, and Classical Music For Dummies, and The Gift of Music. The students read and discuss books, watch DVD’s
Logic: Traditional Logic – and we are also reading The Fallacy Detective since Kory has already completed Traditional Logic. We also read through Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, and I added Eats, Shoots and Leaves to the class reading. (Now I want to join the Apostrophe Protection Society.)
We are also doing a grammar curriculum together, and Kory does Saxon Advanced Mathematics via Saxon’s teaching CD-Roms, and Spanish I via Switched-On Schoolhouse.
And P.E. ? Well, with a schoolhouse this full it happens fairly naturally! On Thursday we found ourselves with 6 homeschool boys in the backyard. They played a fierce and fun game of football when all of the schoolwork was done. (They each play sports on “real” teams, too!)
A couple of weeks ago, our CC director here emailed me. She wrote, “Remember when we prayed at the beginning of the summer for a Challenge II tutor for Kory? Well, now he has one!”
I’m not sure how I felt about being the answer to my own prayer request, but here I am.
And here is what I read in Hebrews this morning:
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13: 20-21
More confirmation, I think.
Trusting Him to equip me (give me time to read, prepare and understand material) and work in me what is pleasing in His sight (obedience, surrender, training and teaching my children) ~ for His glory.
"I'm not sure how I felt about being the answer to my own prayer request, but here I am."
I love that! It made me smile, and your post was an encouragement to me as well. We are going through "The Gift of Music" too. In fact I just blogged about it. It is such a wonderful book. Thanks for sharing about your plans. Blessings on your school year!