One of those moments

This is one of those moments that you just want to stop time so that you can remember what it was like before your first born becomes a teenager. Tomorrow at 10:05 p.m. my sweet first born boy will officially become a gulp, teen!

I just can't believe that 13 years have flow by so quickly. I still remember bringing him home from the hospital, stopping at Target on the way to buy diapers that actually fit his chubby little body. The newborns just didn't work.

It is a little bitter sweet. I don't like the thought of what is to come, but I am enjoying him so much right now I have to say it might be pretty cool. We have a blast together and he has yet to act like a total pain in the butt I remember being at that age, but then I am a girl. And I must admit my sweet Poogie has enough drama for us all!

I know it won't all be roses, but that is fine with me. At least I get to be there and take these steps with him and he doesn't seem to mind. Now if I can only get through tomorrow without crying I will be doing good.

Then again , I can think about next weekend when my house will be taken over by a bunch of hungry, awkward and smelly teenage boys to sleep over to celebrate this blessed event. Nope, still feeling a little weepy.

First USS Swim Meet

TT had his first USS swim meet this weekend and man was it awesome. He was so nervous, but he ended up swimming great. It was his first time swimming in front of his new coaches and he wanted so badly to do his best.

Saturday he swam both the 50 free and 50 backstroke. He wasn't expecting to place in the top 10 but low and behold he placed 9th in the free and 8th in the backstroke. He swam his best backstroke to date.

Today he swam the 100IM and 50 fly. He started out really good in the IM but the breaststroke was the killer. He ended up getting DQ because his kick motion was not just right. They are very picky and his breaststroke needs a lot of work. In his favorite event the 50 fly he ended up turning in a good time and placed 4th.

What made today even harder was one of the best butterfly swimmers on the planet was watching TT swim. To say it made him nervous was an understatement. Gil Stovall of the US Olympic swim team (he swam the 200fly) was at the meet to help coach the Memphis Tiger Swim Team that was also competing. TT got him to sign his swim cap Saturday and today got him to pose for a quick pic. He was gracious and supportive of all the young swimmers. As I watched him though out the day interacting with the young MTS swimmers I was so overjoyed to see a gifted athlete like him work so well with these up and coming swimmers. So here is the pic of TT and Gil Stovall. What an awesome experience.

Accomplishments

Today was a day of one great accomplishment. TT finally took his test for his Apologia General Science Module #1. I was wondering if this day would ever come. For those of you who know about his curriculum and this first chapter in particular you know it is a tough one to get through. But, low and behold we did it. He took the test this morning and made a 100%!! I felt like to doing the happy dance, still do! Most of it was due to those wonderful study cards I printed off from the yahoo group. What a wonderful resource that has been.

I was just lazy

That's right. I was lazy today. I spent most of the day curled up on the couch with my little dog Buffy watching some great movies on the syfy channel about werewolves. I was in heaven. Two of the movies were ones I had never seen. It is not like me to spend any day much less a Saturday on the couch, but I thought what the heck. My hubby and kids were outside doing what they like to to do, so I took some much needed me time.

It also helped that I know our schedule for the next two weeks is going to be just plain crazy. TT has swim meets the next two weekends and every week day we have something on the calendar. So I chilled, and then my hubby even got Mexican takeout for dinner. It really didn't fit into our budget, but man was it worth every penny.

Learning as we go

Beginning the school year with new curriculum is always a learning experience. After 2 and a half years of homeschooling I am still amazed at how long it takes me to learn all the ins and outs of a new curriculum.

Take for example TT's new science curriculum. Apologia General Science. I never thought I was an Apologia person. I had looked at it several times, but since I'm not a fan most Christian science curriculums I always passed on it. Well that was until this year. I finally gave up hope of finding a: 1) inexpensive and decent secular curriculum and 2) a good Christian curriculum that I could afford and liked. I have to say I am so glad we gave Apologia a try.

The first Module has been tough to say the least. Poor TT has been very understanding through all my trial and error. "Write out the summary." "No, write out the study guide." He just smiled and took it. I ended up joining a Yahoo group for Apologia users and it has been so wonderful. First, I found a fill in the blank for the summary. Now, I know it says in the book that the student should write out the summary to help with studying and memory. But to my son it was horrible. The fill in the blank worked wonderful for us. Then I found some great flash cards that followed the study guide. He answers the questions on the cards and then can use them to study. Those were just what we needed. He is flying through the cards. I have to admit the first mod is overwhelming, but he seems to be taking it in stride. Today while discussing some of the answers on the study guide I was amazed at how much he could recall from memory. Now just to get through the test and then we can move on, finally!

We are doing Workboxes!!!

Yes, I have jumped on the workbox bandwagon! I started using the system with Poogie last week and since it went so well I'm starting TT this week. First I bought Sue Patrick's Workbox book. I am a owners manual type girl, so that was a must. You can purchase it on Sue's website here, or from Amazon. I got mine from Amazon because I needed to order a few other books too.


I had first heard about the workbox system on some blogs I browsed through over the summer. Then, my dear friend, MK, told me she was using them and they were working really well. That sealed the deal. I wanted to try them but was afraid that it would be a waste of time and money, but oh how wrong I was.


The hardest part was buying all the stuff, printing out the cards and such, laminating (I am so thankful I have a little Scotch laminater. It is now my best friend.) With all this off I went to set up my workbox system. I found the shoe rack at Target for under $15. Great buy. And my shoe boxes were $1.02 each at Target. I liked the Target ones over Wally Worlds because they were wider. I needed that extra width for some of our books. Here are our workboxes ready to go for tomorrow. On Tues./ Thurs. we only do 6 or 7 since we have the YMCA in the afternoon. On the other days we do all 12, including some fun activities along with basic subjects.




I found the cutest tags on a great blog, Spell Out Loud, by Maureen. She actually got them from another blogger, Cassie. I loved them. So I printed these instead of Sue's. They are so cute.
Here are our schedule strips. I enjoyed making them to match each child.

I don't know if we will do this forever. It may be a passing fad, but so far we really like it. The system offers a way to organize the day, along with allowing the kids to see their work disappear as they work through the boxes. Have a great week!