We left after the picnic Sunday evening and the bonfire. Caleb drove us home so he could get in some night time driving hours, and he did a great job. Usually we leave Monday after lunch, but we weren't all the way prepared for the start of Rivendell/TNT, and the house was a disaster area. It was nice to have Monday to clean and finish preparing.
Tuesday was the TNT kick-off--Drew's first day! This has been eagerly awaited for, well, as long as he has been conscious that Micah was going somewhere he wasn't, lol. And it's definitely been awaited for since probably July, when he got his backpack out and filled up his pencil box. He asked almost every night, "Is tomorrow TNT day?" He is so happy to be going! I totally should have taken a picture of everyone, but alas, taking first day pictures never became a tradition for me, and I'm not about to start now. Maybe I'll think to take one this Tuesday--"second day of co-op"!
Usually I'll be doing chemistry lab Tuesday mornings, but the first day we had a moms' meeting, and then a picnic. Since it was Drew's first day, it was nice that I could be there all morning, and I just worked the schedule so that we only had chem on Thursday afternoon, which is when we normally will have our chem class.
The 2 boys had some online classes on Wednesday, but Thursday was another busy day. Last year Anna had German on Thursday morning, and I had signed her up again. There was a conflict in that she and Jonathan both had to be different places at 9:00 (Jonathan at his math class), but I was able to work out a carpool to get Jonathan there. My morning was still going to involve a lot of running around, though, with dropping him off at 8:30, then Anna off at 9:00, then running home to try to accomplish something, then leaving at 9:45 to pick her up, coming home for another brief bit before runnign out to pick up Jonathan and his classmate, leaving at 11:45, and then coming home to teach chemistry from 1:30-3:00 followed by physical science from 3:00-4:30. I was not looking forward to Thursdays at all.
But then we realized that Anna could take German with another friend who was going to be doing German with Joel Tuesday afternoons AT MY HOUSE! Yay! So that took care of some of the running around, and I have a bigger chunk of time to work with the girls on math and grammar especially Thursday morning!
Friday is AP chemistry lab in the morning. The 2 kids who are taking this class are super self-motivated, exceptional kids, so they can pretty much run their own labs with just minimal input from me. We're taking some time Friday mornings to go over questions they might have, but honestly, they know as much as I do. My chemistry knowledge level is not longer AP level, so we are all working through this class together--I'm doing the chapter questions and everything too! The upside is that will make teaching the regular chemistry class a total breeze. I assigned the first 3 chapters of the AP book (Zumdahl, 9th Ed) for summer work--that covers the first 9 chapters of the high school book, lol (which is BJU, so pretty rigorous for high school!). Side note: I also assigned Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager as summer reading, and I can absolutely recommend that book because it was so fascinating. It detailed the development of the Haber Bosch apparatus that fixes the nitrogen in air into ammonia, which can then be turned into fertilizer--and also bad things, like poison gas. I just tonight finished reading another book by the same man called Demon Under the Microscope, about the long road to developing sulfa drugs, the first antibiotics. It too was absolutely fascinating! I've decided I really like this author!
Saturday was the first cross country meet of the season for Anna and Grace, the only 2 kids of ours who are running this year. It was down in Richmond, so the girls had a cheering section of Aunt Ann, Bob's sister! Caleb went down with them and Bob so he could get in even more hours of driving (would that he were so diligent about the online portion, lol). The girls ran in the middle school race, which was a 4k. They did fine, although both of them felt like they did terribly. But Anna ran a 20.30.5 4k, and Grace a 22:48, which is good for a 6th grader and a 5th grader in the first meet of the season! There were only a handful of other 6th graders there, and no other 5th graders. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise, for a cross-country meet!
Incidentally, the girls are running for the same team, different name. The school they ran for last year folded, so the coach started her own private online homeschool academy so they could continue racing in meets against other schools and get into more competitive meets like this one. She is a great coach, definitely going above and beyond for the team!
Now we're looking at the start of another week. For the next 2 Tuesdays I'll be teaching chemistry at TNT. (I am definitely all in for chemistry this year!) I don't know that we'll totally get into a good weekly routine until that is over. Tomorrow a few other classes start up that didn't happen last week with the Monday holiday. Grace and Faith are taking a German class with Anna's teacher from last year, followed by an art class also with her. Hopefully those will be fun! The boys have some online classes tomorrow too. This year is definitely the most complicated year yet, as far as schedules, outside classes, etc. I'm trying to not stress about it. One day at a time, right?? I'll be glad when the year is over and it's time for camping again, though!
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