Day 83

Rachel's working on the Apologia Advanced Biology book this year. She only needs 1/2 credit for science, so she was planning on doing half the book, but we decided it would still be worth 1/2 credit if she just reads it and goes all the way through it. I'm not going to have her take tests; she's just going to talk to me about it once in a while. Don't you love homeschooling?

Then Sarah was working in her science book, and she hadn't studied it for a few days. She was finished with the study guide and it was time for a test, but she couldn't remember anything about it. I guess the chapter had been confusing too. So I told her that she didn't have to take the test, but she felt like she had to. I told her I didn't care about her ever taking the tests, and she was flabbergasted. She said she thought she had to. Like we weren't allowed to decide not to. I told her I only have her do it because I think it's good practice and the tests are right there--easy for me. She was kind of unhappy; so I told her she could either study and take the test, start reading the new chapter and ignore test, or take the test open book. Then I left the room.

Later she told me she just decided to go on to the next chapter, but she says she's never ever doing that again. Wilson used to be that way too. He was convinced it was cheating to take an open-book test no matter how much I insisted that's what I wanted him to do. Now, Sam and Rachel don't mind a bit. Although Sam would rather not look up the answers because he can never find them. He'd rather just know them.

I spent a lot of the day trying to decide on a writing sample to send with my application to be a Brave Writer instructor. I'm so picky. Today I decided to send a page from my journal. I was thinking of sending something more academic, but Jeff said it was boring and didn't sound like me. He was much more excited about the piece I sent. It was about when Wilson was born.

Then it was fun tonight, because Wilson's actually applying for the job too and we were going over our applications together. He would be totally perfect for the high school classes. He sent in a very brainy academic sample. That's all he's been writing for the last 5 years in college, so what else would he send? After we got done going over the application on the phone, I told him it made me feel like his mommy again. He and I have been writing partners for a long time. It's in his blood, but he didn't always know it. He hated putting pen to paper when he was young, just like Sam. I used to make him write a certain number of words per sentence. I don't do that to anyone any more. But he and I agreed that even though we love writing, it's like having teeth pulled, but editing is like eating cookies.

Jeff and my dad went to the old house to fix a leak in the tub. They're having an inspection Monday, and I really hope it goes well. The only thing that was actually wrong was the tub leak, so it should be fine. But I was amazed how bad the last inspector made things sound. The floor and stairs came out great. Tomorrow, we're going over to put down toe mold or shoe mold, I forget what it's called. I call it quarter round, but my dad says it's not technically that. We have to put it down because we couldn't get close enough to the wall with the sander to get all the paint up. That should be the last thing we have to do. They're wanting to close by the first week in January. Cross your fingers.

See you next week!