The 2nd First Day of School

    Well, we just got through the teacher intensive part of today’s school, I put the cards in our to do slot and hoped for the best.  We didn’t get very far when I slipped the more ambitious cards into the holder pocket to try tomorrow.  But we did get through spelling dictation, and around here, that is the hardest part.  I saved "History of the World" for the last, and read it on the back porch as my youngest son played in the dirt pile in the shady part of the yard.
    Vikings invade Europe through Leif the Lucky and a story about Thor.  Today is also Thursday, so that was fun.
    Tomorrow I cover the "Cool Chemistry Concotions" Class in co-op, I feel a little unprepared for it, which is weird because I majored in chemistry in college, but I never did much with polymers, and we are making goop to squish, also chewing on gum while we mix up goop to squish.  The class is 2nd through 4th graders, so as long as something either explodes or looks disgusting, they are happy, and as long as they learn some vocabulary words, concepts and experience something hands on, their parents are happy.
    My own Jr High class is "Patty paper geometry" tomorrow we play with incenters, orthocenters, centroids and some other connecting point whose name escapes me, it’s the first day they need a compass.  Once again, the point is, learn vocabulary, and do some hands on stuff so that when they do geometry formally  (proofs and all) they have some preparation in their fingers and brains.  So far I’ve noticed that if the boys stay on target, they have no problem with the topic.  About third of the girls intuit the answers, but don’t speak up because they are convinced that they  are wrong, one third plugs away workmanlike, about as comfortable as the boys, and one third are in dreamland.  I wonder how to reach into dreamland?  They are a little too old for the Sir Cumference books?
    Its the time of year when I start filling gaps in the next semester’s schedule.  Last year we tried planning both semesters at the same time.  Too many people slipped out of membership in the mean time, so I have 3 classes to fill, meanwhile, two members (including myself) are pregnant, and won’t be able to teach midway into the semester, so we need long term subs for their classes.  I think next year, we will stick to  planning about 6 weeks before the semester, that way we still have time to order books, shop and make lesson plans (those that actually plan more than one week in advance ;-) but it’s  immediate enough to flow with the flexible families.  (Sometimes if feels like fickle families, but even if my heart never get it, my head knows that other people need space to change their minds, or forgot their calendars before the meeting or whatever…and I don’t honor God if I get grumpy about it.)