Back in session

Michelle asked me today if I would write some stuff about what we're doing in school, so here goes!

MONDAY -- Yesterday was our first day back after a long, lovely Christmas break. It was just too cruel, getting up at 6:30 (me) and 7:10 (the girls) after wallowing in bed until 6:30 (me) and 10:00 (the girls).

Yesterday was our ARCHES meeting. Meelyn and Aisling participated in the spelling bee, listened to a talk by a special speaker on the origins of language and received their packets outlining the annual ARCHES essay contest. As you might have noted, the theme of yesterday's event was the beauty of the written word. Both of them, they told me, did badly in the spelling bee.

I taught my World Literature class and felt that it went very well. We had a brief moment while discussing Virgil and The Aeneid, the students and I, of bemusement as one of the four boys said, "It is just....SO WEIRD....that they went to those bath houses and stood around talking and doing business deals."

Yes, very weird, we agreed. Different cultures, whether ancient or modern, are very interesting. They're interesting even while you're feeling quite, quite glad that you weren't a part of it. Because I mentioned to the boys that a lot of gossip and business dealing also went on in the communal toilet as well (my students chorused a simultaneous "Eeeeeewwwww!!!") and when I mentioned the sea sponge tied to a stick that was submerged in a disinfecting jar of vinegar, which the Romans used for....well, they used it for....I thought the boys were all going to fall prostrate to the floor.

"Guuuuuhhhhhh-rohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ssssssssssss!!!" one of them breathed, his eyes like dinner plates.

"Yes," I said. "But remember, if they could see us, in our culture, with our modesty in our lonely, friendless bathrooms, they would think that we were just as strange as we think they were. If you follow that line of thought."

Anyway, we moved on to the gloomy Stoic Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine and the Didache and all went well.

After lunch, Meelyn, Aisling and I joined up again to go to our TeenARCHES Teens for Life meeting, the reading club (finishing up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; voted on Carry On, Mr. Bowditch for the next book) and then had our Apologetics Guild meeting.

The girls and I came home, exhausted, but agreed that it was a very nice way to begin our second semester.

TUESDAY -- Back to the ol' grind. Up early again, math and vocabulary to be done before heading out to Meelyn's orthodontist appointment and our monthly Book-It pizza lunch. We spent three hours at Pizza Hut socializing, which was extremely nice after not seeing our friends for two weeks during the holidays. Imagine, there are some people out there who still have the idea that homeschoolers lurk behind drawn curtains in their houses, flinching when the mailman comes to the door and eating noodles with our hands.

My friends present were: the Ka(y)t(ie)s, Debbie, Michelle, Jerri, Gloria and our new homeschooling friend, Kim. Margaret popped in for about half an hour and I was sorry to have only a short time to visit with her, because she is so real and so funny.

Tomorrow, I will add more. Michelle asked for an hour-by-hour type of schedule of events, so I think I'll keep notes. These notes, I think, could either make me or break me. I will stand revealed as either a homeschooling mother of outstanding creativity and competence, or be shamed as a lazy slacker. We shall see.