First Week of School

We survived the first week of school! And it was really pretty good. Liz is doing a light school load and working at the Cafe more hours this year. She's getting senior pictures taken as we speak and applying to colleges and all that jazz. Jonathan is a freshman in high school, and his school load is heavier than ever but do-able. Phoebe is in 7th grade and is taking a harder class at the homeschool co-op and is nervous about it, but I think she'll be just fine. Harrison is in 4th grade, which is amped up quite a bit from the former years and he's a little frustrated that he's not getting done as quickly as he used too. He'll get used to the new time table soon enough. 

What am I most excited about school this year? I think maybe Shakespeare. We did Plutarch's Lives last year; this year we will read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. We read a children's version last week. This week we'll watch a movie version of it. Then we'll start reading it together. All of us taking different parts and just reading through it, doing some narrating and discussion as we go. We might do a comic strip of favorite scenes toward the end. We're also using a scene for Recitation. ("Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.") I just read it every week for twelve weeks, and we'll have it mostly committed to memory by the end of the term. Liz and Jon will memorize another section later in the year ("Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"). 

Speaking of Shakespeare, the homeschool mom group that I meet with put together a Shakespeare event where all the kids memorize parts and act out the scenes. It's low-key (dress-up or not). Phoebe and Harrison both did parts from Two Gentlemen of Verona and they really had a superb time. They had to see how it went before they were at all excited about it, but when it was over they were planning out what they wanted to do next time. I think we're going to try to do it again around Christmas. 

Anyway, the picture above is most of the group locked out of the church building that hosted us. It was so hot! 

The actors waiting in the wings.

Phoebe is Valentine ~ her jacket is her "robe."

Liz is an audience member; she is knitting. 

Surprise, surprise. :-) 

Take a bow!

And Phillip took me to a new coffee shop: Press Coffee. In talking with the barista we found out this had been Tommy Lee Jone's office for a number of years! He's a favorite actor of mine. I guess he lives in town somewhere. 

And so we begin a new week of school; the co-op starts this Tuesday. Cheers!