School Notes

The check is in the mail. Really, it is. Alex's tuition check, that is. Ugh. Almost four times what we usually pay for homeschool books for all the kids for a whole school year. Plus, I had to buy his books, which have been trickling in from various sources. I went on a scavenger hunt for his books on the web. Overall, compared to publisher's prices, I saved about half by buying books (mostly used; some only available new, but I still got them cheaper than list price) from Amazon, half.com, and ecampus.com. Next comes the bill for $500 in "fees", whatever that means; then the uniform expenses. Luckily, Alex is small and we have some hand-me-downs from friends. He has plenty of shirts, but we'll have to buy pants, shoes, etc. We'll just have to start selling more eggs.

Once again, I flipped (or is that flopped; I feel like John Kerry) on the public school vs home school issue for the twins. With Alex going off to private school, and the baby hopefully not being SO needy (yeah, right) this coming school year, and Bekah's old enough to start doing some pre-pre-K stuff (maybe keep her a little busier with crayons, etc), I've decided to try it again with Tay and Ty. This time, I'm going to try to teach them completely separate from each other; one in the a.m., one in the p.m. And I'll try not to get so uptight when one surpasses the other in a particular subject and vice versa. I started ordering my homeschool books, and they've begun arriving as well. We're going to use a combination of curricula, mostly from Seton and A Beka with a smattering of Apologia, Sonlight, Alpha Omega, and Horizon. Seton stuff is on the way. A Beka stuff I'm going to order at a show next month to save on shipping costs. The rest, I have or will order as needed. I'm really going to see the credit card bills when they start coming in. We haven't paid interest on a credit card for a decade, now, and, God willing, we won't have to now.

Annual check-ups start today. All the kids get their physicals in the Summer, despite when their birthdays fall on the calendar. This avoids having to take well people to a sick office in the Winter. Today is Tay and Ty's turn. Next Thursday, Alex and Connor. The following Thursday, the girls. It gets a little hectic, but it's better than trying to schedule all this stuff during the school year.

I'll leave you with a baby picture from this morning. Keary just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Serves her right, for getting me up early this morning. Of course, this cat nap only lasted about ten minutes.