Tiring Day

Today was the first day of a 3-day parent practicum for Classical Conversations, a co-op we're going to be a part of next year. I am excited about the co-op, but I was not looking forward to this practicum--it goes from 9-4 for 3 days and is almost an hour away. That's rough on little pumpkins! And indeed the kids are all totally exhausted. So am I! I'm not used to just sitting in a chair for hours on end anymore. It's like being back in college or something!

The morning session is just a general overview of the classical model for education. Now we homeschool classically, so I am very familiar with this model. The majority of people there had been to a CC practicum before, so it certainly wasn't new to them either, and I can imagine they were all bored! The speaker was nice and engaging, abeit a bit flighty. She sort jumped off on rabbit trails and kept shuffling through her notes for some obscure example. Still, it is always inspirational to remember why I chose to homeschool classically.

After our lunch break, I went to "tutor training", since I'm going to be a tutor next year. I'll be tutoring basically the 8-9 year olds, although I'm putting Luke in there too, since I would other wise not have anyone of mine in there, and that helped balance the numbers. Since we have not participated in CC before, and our campus is a brand new branch this year, I was really looking forward to figuring out exactly what I will be doing. I was so frustrated when the leader started out with the same stuff as the morning: "When I say 'grammar stage', what are some words you think of?" Argh! Thankfully we moved past that by the first hour, and on to more pertinent and practical things. I definitely am learning a lot and am feeling more comfortable with everything that I'll be doing. I'll have to post more on that later. I'm too tired to synthesize it all now!

The best part of the day was running into people. I saw 2 ladies from our co-op up here, and I saw a friend, Joelyn, who we were stationed with way back in Colorado! We still exchange Christmas letters and are Facebook friends, and I knew they were living down in the Woodbridge area, so it wasn't as totally shocking as it could have been. But we haven't actually seen each other since we left Colorado back in January 01! It was fun to catch up with her and see her kids, who have all grown a lot or been born since then, LOL.

Tonight we're all going to bed early so we can make the long trek again tomorrow.

In assignment news, the guy called right after Bob got home, and it looks like Suffolk is out, which is actually disappointing to me, as it turns out. I was getting used to the idea of moving down there! I believe they will be offering us Toronto, which is just not as attractive. Bob will need a level 2 French certification, which he doesn't have right now, so he would have to go to language school for a few months as well. We're still talking it through however. I find it interesting that the first time Bob got info about our possible assignment was also at the end of a day where I felt totally worn out and unable to even think about anything--the day my wallet got stolen at the zoo. Coincidence? Must not be!