School Planning, Cheese Tasting

The roses are past their first bloom, but the jasmine smells delicious.

It's been a good week.

Katie finished her CAT test on Monday, and Travis took his with a friend (so they can get used to a bit of distraction) on Tuesday and Wednesday.  As soon as the results come back, I can send in our required paperwork to the state and prove that, while we may be weirdos, we are at least law-abiding weirdos.

Thursday I went with a friend to the state homeschool convention in Winston-Salem.  We just did the book fair, not the lectures, but it was fun.  I got some used paperbacks, including a couple off our new book group list, and also a new penmanship book for Travis and some flashcards and maps for teaching countries and capitals (one of our projects for the coming year).  I looked at Apologia again, but still can't bring myself to overlook my issues with it, despite how nice it would be to be able to do science with our homeschool group.  Fortunately I have science for the coming year, this for Travis and this for Katie.  So I will worry about science again next summer.  I looked at The Lost Tools of Writing again, talked with the author, Andrew Kern, and this year I couldn't resist.  Not only was there the conference discount, but my friend Barbara, who has assigned me the job of teaching writing to the older children this coming school year, was so impressed with it that she bought it.  Not wanting to be behind on the learning curve, I had to have it.  So now my plan for teaching writing to the group involves using a combination of Tapestry of Grace writing assignments and IEW techniques for the first half of the year, and adding in some elements from the LTW in the second half.  Those poor kids!  I didn't find the Bible study program I was looking for, but then after I got home I found out that Peace Hill Press is coming out with a new one, so I may wind up waiting for theirs to come out anyway.  It was a good day.

And, my very good friend Barbara took me to Whole Foods afterwards.  Oh my!  We went because I had mentioned that I needed organic milk (for the kids), and their prices on that particular item are low, compared to Walmart's.  It was quite an experience!  I got Travis a package of lox, and some seaweed sushi wrappers and sushi rice for me, and three gallons of milk, but the real excitement was Cheese Sampling.  They had a Huge Section of fabulous cheeses, and a Cheese Lady eager to give us samples.  We tried cheddars and goudas and I can't remember what all, and they were wonderful.  Last, though, we tried Limburger.  I only knew of Limburger as a synonym for extreme stinkiness, and I would have demurred, but Barbara is fearless and thought we ought to Try New Things.  So we did.  And it turns out that Limburger smells Much worse than I ever could have imagined, and tastes nearly as bad.  We sucked on peppermints all the way home.  Still, it was a good day, and Barbara got to check something off her "bucket list" (I don't have a bucket list).