Looking Back, Looking Forward

We had the best of intentions to do school for two and a half days the week of December 20. We did, in fact, do school on December 20. Around noon, I felt so sick and tired, and took a three hour nap (this should have been my first clue that something was off). EG finished up her schoolday, but the remainder of FB's work languished (just a bit of phonics, and memory work).

The next day, I woke up early, feeling awful, and listening to EG bark like a seal. We sat in a warm steamy bathroom with the shower running, and then we went back to bed. We were both exhausted. We called the doctor, took EG that afternoon, and left with a positive diagnosis of flu, type A.

And that, as they say, was that. Nothing happened besides sleeping, coughing, and general sickness for the next few days, even in the face of Christmas approaching. Spousal Unit & I were moderately recovered by Christmas, but still so tired; FB & PC didn't get cases as severe as the rest of us; poor EG didn't even remember some of her Christmas presents after a day or two, because she was still so very out of it on Christmas.

Needless to say, the remaining day and a half of school didn't happen as scheduled. Still, though – I have a thing about keep our number of days ending with a 5 or an 0. We needed those days. They finished out a unit of math for EG. They finished a chapter of history for FB. So, the Tuesday after Christmas, we did a small, piddling amount of work. Yesterday, we did another small, piddling amount of work. And today, EG is doing a little more math than usual, and FB is doing a little more history than usual, and I'll feel justified in saying we completed those days, because the work that was assigned to them will be done, in addition to the work assigned to today.

Whew.

So, here we are, ready to face the new calendar year, with 105 days under our collective belts. A few things are changing. FB is finally starting back with RightStart, beginning Level B. The next four weeks are an experiment to see how well it works doing both RightStart and Miquon. I'm hopeful that a RightStart lesson plus one page in Miquon daily won't be overwhelming. EG will start a new literature course through Duke TIP – Growing Up Heroic: Adventures in Greek Mythology. EG will also be finishing up her Life of Fred book in the next two weeks, and she'll do the Duke TIP course MathPack: Quest for a few weeks as an intermediary before (hopefully) starting a class through Art of Problem Solving in early March. PC is going to have a rude awakening as I start imposing a few activities on her day; it's so awful when your parents make you do things like color and play with play-doh.

I'm starting my annual re-reading of select homeschool books. Each January, I re-read The Well-Trained Mind as well as The Latin-Centered Curriculum. This January, I'm also going to add re-reading The Core, and completing the exercises in the first few chapters of 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, which I found at the used bookstore for just $4. I wouldn't pay full price for it, but my library doesn't have it (or didn't, last I checked), so this was a great way for me to read it.

We got up late this morning, except for EG. She has an alarm clock, but the rest of us depend on the alarm on my iPhone. So the first schoolday of 2011 is off to a late start, but I purposely planned the first two days this week to be a bit lighter as we ease back into things. That should help us get back on track.

My computer insists "schoolday" is not a word. Oh well, computer, I'm going to use it anyway; you also tell me Miquon isn't a word, and it obviously is.