Diary of a Homeschool Dad: Week 17

Thanksgiving is over and December is upon us. I hope everyone is overdosing on Bing Crosby, Amy Grant, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, or Wham! Whatever gets you into the spirit of things, do that.

Sunday - It was a pretty significant day at church, as our hymnals finally returned. The songbooks had been removed from our sanctuary when the campus closed months ago, but it was great to see them back in the pew racks this week. After lunch at Fuddrucker's, which may be our last as the company seems destined to liquidate soon, we headed home to relax. Once the sun went down we turned on Christmas Chronicles, which we hadn't seen before, and began decorating our new tree so the inside could look as festive as our front yard (which is currently sporting our new nativity and a few lights we'd picked up at the Christmas store a few weeks ago). It's a tall, skinny thing but it fits nicely in its little niche and should serve its purpose quite well.

Monday - Back to school for the older girls, but Mrs. Geographist was home for the day and she took care of working with Whirly on her schoolwork. Kiddo may be OK with dad teaching her on most days but she always likes it when a sub shows up! The afternoon and evening were somewhat subdued, as Girly didn't have a cello lesson this week. This year was Curly's turn to put the topper on the tree, which is something we hadn't done at the end of yesterday's decoration, so she got to test out her balance on my ladder.

Tuesday - For the first time in a while, the house was back to the two of us! The day took a while to really get started, however, as the "drowsiness" side effect of her new medicine kicked in. After grabbing an hour of extra shuteye in the morning, she had barely notched 90 minutes of school before it was time to head to martial arts. We did find out that she was qualified to graduate to her yellow belt this month, which seems to have given our little martial artist a little extra drive during her lessons. After the big girls got home it was time for Curly to have her clarinet lesson, and then Girly and I headed north for our first orchestra rehearsal in two weeks. It was nice to be back!

Wednesday - One of the nice things about being homeschooled is that there's a lot of flexibility in the schedule. Early in the year that meant we could adjust because of bad weather. Now it turns out we need the wiggle room to be able to fit in a few extra lessons to make up for those missed days. English and Math are the two big subjects that have more than enough material to fill up every single day of the school year, and since Whirly will be heading back to school next year it's important for me to make sure all of the necessary concepts get covered. Both subjects, therefore, had one day each of doubling up on lessons this week. Good news, kiddo handled it like a charm. After I picked up all the girls and brought them home to change out of their school uniforms, we headed off to America's favorite fast food "Mexican" restaurant to meet up with Mrs. Geo. She took the girls to church for midweek activities while voted in our city runoff election, picked up the new car's license plates, and swung by the credit union to move some money around. All in a day's work.

Thursday - Whirly got to sign her name to a document for the first time ever, as her graduation application for her yellow belt required both a student and a parent signature. Given the fact that her big struggle has been handwriting, she did a great job! Girly had to stay at school late today, as the school's varsity football team advanced in the playoffs and both the band and color guard needed to brush up on their routines before Friday's game. I hadn't quite wrapped up my work by the time Curly had to head off to her piano lesson, so Mrs. Geographist took her while I bounced back and forth from my laptop to the grill to handle both the needs of my office and the needs of my family's hungry tummies.

Friday - The end of the week arrived, and while Girly stayed on campus with the band kids, the rest of us went out for a bite to eat (and, as an interesting bookend to the start of the week, we hit up another burger joint). Mrs. Geo's parents met us at the football stadium for the game, and this marked the first time all season we were all able to take in a game together. The air was very chilly but the sky was clear and beautiful. Unfortunately, our team just couldn't muster any offense and their season ended with a loss. At least the kids got to do their routine on the field for halftime one last time!

Saturday - My lovely bride decided she wanted to wrap up her part of the Christmas shopping, so that's exactly where we headed. We tried to get a set of pajamas for everyone, as that used to be a bit of a tradition for our crew each year, but after visiting several stores I was the only one left without a festive sleeping option. Will I be stuck wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt when we all tear into gift wrapping on Christmas morning? Stay tuned. Mrs. Geo did also find a nice dress that may double as her outfit for when our family lights the advent candle at church in a few weeks as well as an anniversary date dress out in the hill country later in the month. To wrap up the day we headed south to Galveston for some Tex-Mex and the Moody Gardens Festival of Lights. Lots of terrific lighting, an abbreviated 4D version of the classic Rudolph movie, and a trip down the Arctic Slide made for a fun trip all around.