What happened to Summer!

It doesn't even seem like we had a summer here in the Bay Area. The sun was out every day, but there were very few days where it got above 90 degrees. It was actually kinda pleasant. However, it never really felt like we had a summer and Halloween is tomorrow. The summer actually reminded me of the summer I was pregnant with Jordan (now 10 yoa). I was blessed with a very mild summer, especially since I was 8-9 months pregnant.

Where are we now?

School is in full swing again. We have kids at 3 different school again. The drop off and pick up schedule can be a little tricky on certain days.

Jake is homeschooled right now. He was given the option to go to regular high school or to be homeschooled and he chose staying home. It was been a great experience for us. I do not have to do too much and he is responsible for his work and assignments. He currently has a B average and loves the fact that if he doesn't feel like working on anything until the evening he doesn't have to. There are, however, some draw backs. He can't play sports. Our school district doesn't allow him to play any sports or attend any of the activities at school. He will probably go back to the regular high school next year as he wants to play football again. He finished out the season at Waterworld and is just waiting out the last month and a half so he can get his drivers license and get a job.

Jared is a Freshman at the high school and was playing football but had to drop to concentrate more on his academics. As his favorite coaches likes to say "notice your called a student-athlete, there is a reason the student comes first in the title!" He is looking forward to working next summer. Jared will probably join his brother in homeschooling in January and is definately counting down the days until he can get his driver's permit in May.

Jordan is a 5th grader this year and is spending his last year at the elementary school. He will be a big 6th grader next year. He seems to small to be going to such a big school next year :( I know he isn't but it seems that way. He spend his first week away from home when he went to Outdoor Education at the beginning of October. He said he loved every minute of it but was a little homesick at first. I would have thought he would have enjoyed being away from his older brothers trying to beat up on him all the time.

Jessica is driving me crazy with the new stuff she learns each day. She won't start school until September of next year and she already asks me to do math, writing and reading with her. She went through all of the IXL math for pre-school on her own. I guess I should start her on the Kindergarten stuff but I don't want her to be bored next year. She is learning about letters and writing. We just started reading so I am sure she will pick that up pretty quickly as well. She told me the other day while playing tickle monster that I was not a monster I was a human. When I asked her what a human was she said "you have bones and blood mom". It made me laugh a little bit.

Everyday I count down the time until they start leaving the house as adults. Not because I want them to be gone but because I want to cherish the moments I do have with them. It will be gone sooner then later.

Gymnastics

Today is the day. Jessica has her first gymnastics class. She is so excited. I got home from Boy Scouts last night and she was already asleep, wearing her leotard. We will see how well she likes it.

Tonight is also 3rd game of the season for Jake. He got hurt in practice yesterday and is having a hard time holding the pole. He thought his wrist was broken, but it looks more like it could be just a blood clot under the musle that is causing the pain and the pump. We will see how things go this afternoon. I think he is gonna have the trainer wrap it up before the game.

Jared is still struggling with making a decision on school, what classes he wants to take. I thought this was gonna be easy for him, but College Park doesn't have very many electives anymore. So as of now he has a pretty easy freshman year. He has math, english, pe, freshman orientation, art, foods, and advanced art (glass/sand). Hopefully, he gets everything he has listed on his course card. Jake also struggled with picking classes this year. But it looks like he has: Algebra II, English, Weights, US History, I think he has a science class chemistry or something, and I am not sure if he took video production or some art class. He wanted to take French, but I told him no. But only because he doesn't need the credits to graduate, and if he is gonna take it he can take it the community college and get his college credits instead. So we will see how well he wants to take French. Personally, I would love for him to take it cause then I could plan a trip to Paris and drag him a long to translate.