Discipline

I just got back from a trip to the west coast. An unexpected benefit was being able to work for a day at a client's office. I have been working for this company for over a decade, but had never met them in person. It reminded me that there are many reasons that I have loved the consulting work I've done for the past 16 years: Sometimes you run into wonderful people and can make a real difference in their business, and it's enormously satisfying. Plus, it's a lot easier to make money at consulting on site than almost anything else I've done recently. So, this trip has almost made me regret my decision to move out of the mailorder technology industry. Of course, I decided to move out of the industry 10 years ago, but it keeps sucking me back.

Anyway, my clients are a husband-and-wife team who are originally from Hong Kong. They're great. They have two kids, one of whom just started at Berkeley and the other who is a freshman in high school. They were very interested to discover that I home school, how we do it, and why. As parents, they push their kids very hard -- like lots of other immigrant families I know. They are big proponents of discipline, and bemoan how their kids and their friends lack it.

Over lunch, we had interesting conversations about discipline and the fact that it's necessary to teach kids to have it. But it occurred to me on the plane ride home that we never discussed *why* it's necessary. So I started thinking about it.

By "discipline," I mean the ability to buckle down and focus on stuff even when it may not strike one's fancy at that very moment. Kids, as a rule, aren't born with a sense of discipline. So in order for them to accomplish what they need to accomplish in life, we have to teach it to them.

But HOW do we frame the idea of discipline to kids?

Often the idea of teaching kids to be disciplined is presented simply as "Make them do it even though they don't want to" because it will teach them that sometimes there are things that they have to knuckle down and do things that they aren't inclined to do at that moment. Things that aren't fun.

This is true, but there is more to it. I have a different sense of why we should teach kids to be disciplined.

See, I think we all should be in the habit of questioning why we do... well... everything. There always SHOULD be an answer to the "why." And the answer should be something better than simply, "It's good for you." The answer should be, "Because it's in the service of this specific wider goal."

With every endeavor, no matter how small, we should always know WHY we're doing what we're doing. That's the only way to assess all of our available options and spend our time doing stuff that is necessary and valuable rather than a waste. But more important, having our "eyes on the prize" means that along the way, we don't let the fact of having to do some unpleasant, dirty work drag us down.

Life is full of little quagmires, and they pop up so much that it's sometimes easier or more convenient to pretend that they're not there or procrastinate working on them. But people who are disciplined just put their heads down and push, however unpleasant, knowing that at some point it will give way and you'll be much closer to your goal.

The problem with kids is that they have a short-term focus by their very nature. They can't project ahead to a fulfillment far down the road, so it's extremely difficult for them to do difficult things NOW that have no payoff for a long time.

Adults who haven't grasped long-term self-interest at a gut level are at a disadvantage, too. Sometimes, long-term interest and short-term interest seem to conflict, and it's much easier to head in the direction of short-term payoff. Diet and exercise are the obvious examples. I regard myself as extremely hard-working and quite disciplined, but I fail at these all the time. These issues can be subtle: I shouldn't exercise if I'm really tired and it would be better for me to go to sleep...or if I'm behind on an important project and that hour would really make a difference. But I can't be using that as an excuse *every* time.

There are two things that I use to get myself out of the house to exercise is to find ways for it to be a short-term pleasure (running with Madison in the morning is FAR superior to exercising alone), and to constantly imagine two futures, one in which I'm sickly and overweight and feel really old, and the other in which I'm healthy and strong and energetic.

So I think that the key is to help kids envision the future, constantly. I try to help my kids imagine themselves succeeding at something in the future, which helps teach them to OWN themselves at that future date. Gradually, they should be able to adopt the attitude on their own that if they want a certain outcome, then they need to push through all of the steps that need to be done in order to attain it.

For example, Ella doesn't know all of the words to all of the Christmas songs they're singing in choir. She needs to know them. So today, her homeschooling list consists of just a few basics, plus learn her chorus music. She is having a really, really hard time pushing through. It's hard. There are at least five or six songs that need polishing. It feels overwhelming to her, even though I encouraged her to develop a plan of attack and she did. She keeps trying to come downstairs and argue with me about why she shouldn't have to do this today.

Well, she agreed early on that it would be a good idea to get the music done, and at the time she leaped at the opportunity not avoid all the "real work" and instead focus on chorus. But now that she's in the middle of it all, every 15 minutes she comes down and sobs at me all of the reasons why she can't be doing it now. (Her latest reason is "because I'm crying and I can't sing when I'm crying.") Sigh.

The thing that works best -- and it really does work -- is to take her on my lap and paint that picture for her of the future... of Mrs. Krogstad testing her and her passing the test without problems... singing in all of the different concerts they have lined up for December... looking out in the audience and seeing me so happy that not only is she up there creating something beautiful, but we both know that it's so much more satisfying because the work was hard.

So keeping Ella's eyes on the prize is MY job for now. That, and sympathizing with how hard it is but telling her I know she can succeed. She's only 9, and I think this will be my job for a long time... until at least mid-teens. I'm pretty confident that she'll gradually take the reins as time goes on.

French horn

Ella recently decided to take up the French horn. I am happy about this, despite the noise. She's working with Madison's new flute teacher.

Madison loves the flute, but her instructor last year, though an excellent teacher who started her off with brilliant tone and form, had an attitude that rubbed Madison the wrong way. That teacher was naturally suspicious of how much her students actually practice versus how much they *claim* to practice, and notified Madison that "I know every trick in the book." She required that parents date and sign every practice, and kept intimating that perhaps Madison would be inclined not to do the right amount if she could get away with it. This, of course, generated a sense of insult and anxiety in my baby who takes pride in never lying, and I decided to switch teachers.

I informed the first instructor very graciously, with compliments for the way she'd started Madison off, because she really is excellent; I told her that it was likely that Madison would return when she had matured a bit. (And that's true. Madison wants to be excellent. Her former teacher would make sure she's excellent.) The teacher understood, and in fact Madison saw her at a concert on Friday night at the Rochester Flute Association, and the meeting was good.

Anyway, this new teacher, Mrs. Borden, is sweet and gentle and loving and kind and provides good explanations, and has enabled Madison to let go of her anxiety over flute lessons and progress.

Ella noticed how nice Mrs. Borden is, and after hearing the teacher talk with me about two weeks ago about how she also teaches all of the brass and woodwind instruments, Ella told me that she would like to try the French horn, and take lessons from Mrs. Borden.

I love the French horn. Ella may have heard me saying this, but otherwise I don't know what drew her to the French horn. We don't know any French hornists.

David was skeptical, pointing out (to me) that Ella had been interested in guitar last year but expressly refused lessons. I could tell, though, that Ella knew what was involved and wanted to do it; this isn't some fly-by-night idea. And, she's older and more mature... what you aren't ready for at 8 you're often ready for at 9.

She started last week. We got her a French horn, which we have in a rent-to-own program at one of the local music stores. She is ecstatic. She practices every day for a half hour, without constantly running back to look at the clock and see how much longer she must go.

I posted to my Facebook page that Ella was going to start the French horn, and my friend Meredith, whose daughter plays, wishes me her speedy progress, because "Beginning French horn sounds like a dying elephant."

It doesn't really sound like a dying elephant, but it does possibly sound like a baby elephant. So when Ella is practicing, I call her my "baby Ella-phant." She loves it.

She loves the whole thing, really. Doesn't she look good?

Yesterday, David's cell phone mistakenly called mine while it was in his pocket. We were at home, and the girls got a big kick out of shouting into the phone to try to alert him that he had called us. It didn't work. Then Ella got out the French horn, and that was what finally did it. Very Horton-like. He heard this little tooting coming from his pocket and pulled it out... and there we were.

Feels like a turning point

Is it a turning point when your 11-year-old doesn't want you in the bathroom while she's throwing up?

It feels like one.

I'm glad she decided to let me in, and then fell asleep on me in her bed. But still.

She may have a migraine... this would be the fourth such episode in a year. That, or a stomach virus.

I don't know which to hope for.

And... it hit her on Halloween at 5:30pm, just before trick-or-treating. But so far she's too ill to care about Halloween.

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I'll do better at blogging. Life has been much too busy.

Madison's 11th birthday

What happens on the 11th birthday? For witches and wizards, an owl from Hogwarts should deliver an invitation. Madison got hers, though unfortunately she was too wired to appreciate it until later that day.

The party. Madison's first slumber party was on Thursday night, a "Because We Can" party on a school night with all home-schooled girls. It was a big success, though by Friday morning Madison was far too cranky and wired to realize it. I'd thought they'd go to bed around midnight and so might still be sleeping when I got home from the radio station Friday morning. Ha! I hadn't reckoned on preteen girls (it's only been 30 years since I was one, but you'd think I'd remember this) and the fact that they were sleeping in an east-facing room without curtains. So they were up and bouncy at 6:30 in the morning, watching Full House on Nickelodeon. All seemed to get along great and have a good time overall.

Madison got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, which is less than half what she needs. That girl NEEDS sleep. She is sick, and awful, and snotty, and way over-reactive without it. She mostly kept it together for the sake of the other girls there, mostly. It's a good thing we didn't have to go on a car trip the next day, or she'd have thrown up for sure. As it was, a good 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon brought her back to human. Ella manages much better on low sleep.

Ella had done a bunch of extra work for me around the house to be able to buy Madison this small dollhouse kit -- one that you put together yourself. It was the first time Ella had bought Madison something with her own money, $30. She still needs to work off some of it, but it was definitely Madison's favorite gift from the family. David got her a model of the Starship Enterprise, and four more Xanth novels. We got her a gift certificate to Dan's Crafts and Things so she can get stuff for her new dollhouse, and also a gift card to Barnes & Noble. I got her a lovely red-flower-painted ceramic mug, with a top so the tea stays hot and doesn't spill. Also, I got her a craft model of a water-and-trees diorama to put together and paint; she had pointed it out to me in Michael's.

And, I got her a magnet. Now, I never get magnets or cards with "sayings" because I prefer putting things in my own words and usually getting such things seems hokey to me. One exception is this beautiful heavy rock paperweight that I love, which my friend Patrick gave me many years ago, into which is carved the word "Create." This is probably what led me to give Madison a magnet that caught my eye the other day, which says simply, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." I want her to set out with this attitude, and, let's face it, she probably would anyway, she's my kid. But it can't hurt to have a little reminder on one's 11th birthday.

Madison was really most excited about that wooden dollhouse kit. Unfortunately, it's still complicated enough that an 11-year-old can't manage it on her own, not exactly. Well, she could, but not if she wanted it to look beautiful. She might have been able to follow the directions and punch out the wooden things and match prong to slot and get it looking okay, but because Madison cares equally about end results as about doing something "herself," I decided that she'd ultimately be happier if I managed the project. She was totally on board with this... plus she loves having me do crafts with them, especially dollhouse things, which I do all-too-rarely these days because I can't really justify the time away from work.

I know, because Madison's my kid and a normal human, that she would want to Just Do It Now. Sometimes that's fine. Who doesn't want a little instant gratification? But even a bright girl like Madison lacks the kind of experience and foresight to know the difference between doing something quick and half-assed and taking your time and doing it right; in some ways, I still have to fight against this impulse. On the one hand, that's a lesson she can learn herself, and there is certainly value in kids starting and completing a project like this on their own, even if it doesn't look great at the end. But I've done these kinds of projects before, and I knew that it was likely that the whole thing would collapse in a pile of unattractive rubble that she'd never want to use, if it wasn't done right. So I decided to use this as an important lesson: Even before it occurred to her to dive in and try to get it all done in a day, we had a long talk about how well I understand the impulse for short cuts -- why NOT put it all together and THEN paint it? Why bother with primer at all? It would go so much faster if we just dove in and whammed it together, right? Don't you know that feeling? Kids have it worse than we do.

I got her on board with the theory of doing it carefully, so she wouldn't be too disappointed with not getting it all done today. She's a theory person and it wonderfully able to stick with something after she is convinced by its rightness. Plus, she's got a great imagination, so imagining the finished project is keeping her going -- it's going to be a "little red schoolhouse" with white gingerbread trim a la the little Victorian bungalows at the Methodist camp on Martha's Vineyard. All we did today was punch out the first part of the project, prime, and paint--because it's much easier to prepare each piece before putting it together. She spent quite a bit of time mixing the exact right shade of brick-red after we primed. I did put a second coat of the red paint on when they were upstairs and done with the project for the day, so it would look good.

Will post photos when it's done.

First week of school

Madison is technically in the sixth grade.
Ella is technically in the fourth grade.

Madison asked for greater structure this year in schoolwork. I don't find this in the least unreasonable, but it does require a bit more preparation for me.

The fact that we're using Time4Learning for the background math, "Language Arts," and science (and history and art if they feel like doing it in T4L) doesn't actually absolve me of the lion's share of preparation. But I've made a commitment to myself to do that on the weekend before -- actually to prepare and print out their daily sheets on Sunday, so that they can work ahead or catch up as they like, and so that they can pace themselves. The trouble, of course, is knowing exactly how to plan. Some things take a predictable amount of time, like listening to an Ancient History lecture or doing a Spanish lesson. But I don't know how difficult they may find a given logic problem, or the writing assignment, or what have you. So things could take 2 hours or they could take all day, and I can't exactly plan for that up front.

Madison is doing 14 subjects -- 8th-grade Time4Learning math, extra move-head math (current topic is probability), English, handwriting, nonfiction/essay writing, fiction writing, logic, Spanish, science, history, memorization, computer programming, art, household/life skills. Not everything is every day, of course. She has 7 extracurriculars: Karate, viola, flute, orchestra, choir, piano, Shakespeare, Odyssey of the Mind prep class, writing, and chess. She'll do some shows, too, plays or musical theater, and a few other odds and ends. Notice only three of those subjects are Time4Learning, so it's not like it really saves me THAT much prep time. Fortunately, almost all of it is done on her own nowadays, I just have to check it out and talk about it and keep track. She wants to do a special year-long project on ancient architecture to go with our Ancient History focus, and who am I to say no. Ambitious, yes, but she's an ambitious kid. And I don't have to do anything except buy supplies when she needs them.

Ella has about the same number of subjects, but not flute or viola or writing, and she's taking two different dance classes. She'll stop karate when she reaches Brown Belt, probably in October. Good thing, too, as karate is getting expensive and I only want them to do it if they love it, which Madison does.

I finished the week's preparation on Monday (Labor Day), which worked well. It was easy, as they only had three days of school this week due to Madison's birthday on Friday, when we took them and their four slumber party friends to the RMSC in the morning. The first day (Tuesday), work took them until 3:30, but they didn't complain; Wednesday they were done by about 1 and Thursday they were done by 12 or so. (I'd given them a light load, as the party started at 4pm and they needed to prepare.)

Today I finally finished organizing all of their papers from last year into the 2009-2010 binders. That felt good.

I still need to submit the IHIPs (Individual Home Instruction Plan) to the school district, but that's almost done and it's just me procrastinating deliberately, my small way of sticking it to The Man. A low-risk proposition, since I know I won't get in trouble for it, the school district knows darned well that I'm educating my kids thoroughly, the administrator is even on my KOA list and so is well aware of the multitude of ways I'm getting my kids educated and out and about in the community.

And I do need to keep myself in the habit of finishing the preparation for the week on Sunday night. If I can keep this up, I can maintain maximum productivity this year. Go, Deb!

Productivity

I got a lot done this summer. I had so much to do that I pretty much lived off my lists of priorities and scheduled trip times, and did very little else. Including blogging. That may change... I may blog a bit more, because it does help me to organize my thoughts and put down markers for where we are and where we need to be, but these posts won't necessarily be profound.

My three trips this summer were all combinations of business and pleasure: The trip to the Rocky Mountains with Madison in late June, then the 4-day-trip to PA-NYC-Albany that was meant to be 6 days but was cut off by Madison getting sick, and then two days this past weekend to Malone, NY to see the Almanzo Wilder Homestead. (Full KOA review here.)

On Thursday night, David and I launched the trip to Malone with the Rush concert in Syracuse at the New York State Fair, leaving the girls in a nearby hotel room (a first!) while we were at the concert.

The concert was so profoundly good that it kicked me into thinking seriously about excellence: specifically, about how pretty much everyone (except for you, of course) lacks standards of excellence, and how very much the world sucks as a result. It didn't help that the Wilder Homestead and Malone NY in general, which we visited the next day, were both characterized by having a lot of potential but falling far short of the mark. Damn it, just a bit of extra thought and effort by a couple of interested people would have made all the difference. But no.

It has been about 16 years since I last saw Rush, and I was staggered at how good they were. I was also staggered at how old I am, and how it's all flown past. One of the songs they played was "Time Stand Still," which they released in 1987, right when I started listening to them...when they were (gasp) in their mid-30s. I was hard-pressed not to burst into tears right there in the middle of the concert.

And there those three nice, smart, regular guys are now, 23 years later, more at the top of their game than ever. It's as though they've been practicing for all those years rather than resting on their laurels. I was really happy for them. They seem to be mostly living the life they deserve to live; they've navigated the vicissitudes of life and stardom very successfully. I want to be as good as they are, at something. I know I won't be. I can try, though. I can work like hell.

OK, I DO work like hell, let me not be over-dramatic.

I came home from the trip pretty cranky at the rest of the world for not caring about productivity, about creativity, about getting as close to perfection as possible. I'm different, I think to myself. I must be different, because I'm cranky about the lazy people who should be making the world a better place but aren't. But just because I'm working like hell doesn't mean I'm getting done what I need to, or what is best to. This feeling is reinforced by days like yesterday, wherein I accomplished nothing of what I meant to, except fretting and fussing for five hours over the damned KOA Wilder House review. Was I achieving excellence? No. I achieved a so-so review of a so-so place, and six loads of laundry. I know when I count the actual loads of laundry as an accomplishment, that's really scraping for something positive to say.

So, okay, I tell myself. Get a grip. One can't be constantly in achievement mode every minute of every day.

Yeah, but what if the next 16 years blows by in the blink of an eye like the last 16...as I know they will. What then? What if I don't spend my 40s in constant production mode? What if I'm 57, and the kids have already graduated college, and I look back at...not much?

Huh. The first sentence of this blog post talks about how I did indeed get a lot done this summer, and here I wind it up worrying about lack of accomplishment.

Maybe what I'm worrying about is lack of *important* accomplishment. Sure, lots of the stuff I am trying to do is about making a difference in the culture in some small or large positive way. And, I want to make money, of course. But I can't stand the idea of looking back on another 16 years and experiencing regret over how I spent my time.

At least, the girls are with me instead of in school, and are happy and thriving. I can't say I have a single regret there. I get an extra 14,400 hours with them, apiece, over the course of their school years. Knowing that, how can I possibly look back with regret? Right? Do I hear an Amen? Or at least a "go to bed, Deb, school starts tomorrow and you're up way past your bedtime"?

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UPDATE: After writing this rambling, not-very-coherent and self-indulgent post (sorry for that), I went to bed and had bad dreams about missing out on important things (like forgetting to give water to a dog I was supposed to be taking care of) because of being caught up in details. And, worst, I was equally concerned with getting away with it (not being sent to jail) as in helping the poor dehydrated dog get the medical attention it needed. Yikes.

Wired and wireless

I'm currently in a hotel room in Peekskill, NY. So nice to have free wireless internet that works just dandily.

I've been on the road with the girls since Friday. We visited friends in Pennsylvania until this morning, stopping by the Bethlehem, PA MusikFest yesterday to see the kids rock band StarFish. An old high school friend plays in this band, and it was wonderful to be able to be so sincerely complimentary to him. Great to see that he's doing well.

Today we visited with my friend Anne; tomorrow we'll go to NYC. First, and most important from my perspective, I'll get my hair cut by Maria at Zoran's at 46th and Lex; she's the only stylist I've ever known whose haircuts I have consistently loved, and they tend to last 3 whole months. I try to have her cut my hair whenever I'm down here, about twice per year.

Then, and more important from the kids' perspective, I'll take them down to the Statue of Liberty. They're really looking forward to this.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of Thursday we'll spend in Albany, as I'll be opening a KidsOutAndAbout.com there in the fall and need to get the lay of the land. I'll also meet with the folks from Albany Broadcasting to see how we might work together.

Ella is having a good time.

Madison is WIRED. She has been, ever since Thursday, when we went to the Yo-Yo Ma concert (which was so fantabulously awesome that I can't possibly do justice to it with mere words). Not that there is any connection, exactly; it wasn't Yo-Yo that caused her to be so tightly wound. (Pun not exactly intentional but not exactly unintentional either.) She started being hyped up as soon as David's student arrived to accompany us, and she has been up and down (hee hee) ever since. Frankly, it's been driving me a little nuts.

I've been noticing that as Madison enters the preteen years, she has if anything become *more* oblivious to her external presentation in social situations, and even less go-with-the-flow-be-a-good-sport-when-in-Rome kind of person than ever before. I think she can overcome this eventually, with brains and theory, but it's hard not to compare her with Ella, who naturally seems to know what is called for, and does it easily, without even thinking about it, as long as it doesn't seem unreasonable to her.

As an example: When one goes to a concert as an audience member, the feedback that one gives the performers is part of the payment. (Even, or perhaps especially, at a free concert like the StarFish concert yesterday.) So we clap, we cheer, and at a kids concert, we do what they ask like wave our hands in the air or stomp our feet, because we are good sports. We laugh at their corny jokes. We get into it, in any way we can. And when they ask for a volunteer mom from the audience to go up and play air guitar and our kids point-point-point at us, and when the lead singer urges us forward, we stifle any inward groans and put on a big enthusiastic smile and jump up on stage and do whatever they tell us to do. Because we are good sports.

Ella likes to dance. Ella goes along with basically whatever positive flow there is around her. So when they invite the kids up in front of the stage, she goes and dances and bounces the beach ball around or chases bubbles. She sings with the music. She claps. She gets into it. Ella is the ultimate good sport.

Not Madison, or at least not Madison YET. Although later she said the concert was great, during it, she was a big old blank. She did go up to bounce that beach ball around, but then afterward she stood stock-still in the dead center of the little kids dancing and just gazed at the stage with this NOTHING expression on her face. Even though I beckoned her over to the side and I whispered to her a bit about feedback and "if you can't go up there and get into the spirit then you just should politely sit back...when in Rome do as the Romans do or gracefully extricate yourself from Rome..." It was as though she had no idea what I was talking about. She looked bored for the entire concert, and I didn't really want the band to look down and see some bored kid. That's no good, especially when they were working really hard for a crowd of maybe 30 kids max. And, when one of those band members is a friend of mine.

So since yesterday, I've been thinking about Madison. She isn't "self-absorbed" in the sense we usually mean when we say that phrase, as in egotistical, but -- especially when she is in a wired phase as she seems to be this week -- she has a really hard time stepping outside herself and evaluating her own responses to people. Which is weird, because that's not to say she lacks consideration; she'd never be mean or rude to a friend one-on-one, or even be really oblivious. The idea of hurting someone's feelings fills her with horror, but maybe that only applies to kids, not adults, maybe she doesn't realize adults have feelings or think she can affect them, or something. I can't tell. It's as though the stuff she does right, she does it deliberately, sort of rehearsedly. We've gotten her to shake people's hand, say clearly, "Hi, I'm Madison" and look people in the eye. She does this like a good student, not like it's at all natural.

I know that I was awkward as a kid. Was I as awkward as she is? I vaguely doubt it, but I can't be certain. I'd love to think that I was as bad about this as she is, because then I could relax in the confidence that she'll outgrow this. In certain things, Madison gets by on brains, and I suspect that this is one of those things. I hope it happens soon, but I kind of don't think it will; she's got this big gawky new body that is poised to grow even more and in weird new ways, and I think she feels less comfortable in her own skin than ever. It may take a while.

Time4Learning

The Time4Learning program continues! This will be the second week, and the girls seem to like it so far. Madison is doing 8th grade math and she says it's about a perfect level; Ella is doing 5th grade math and *I'm* loving that, while she is not, not so much. Here's the reason: It's not the conceptual issues that present impediments, but the requirement for PRECISION. There are word problems in this that end up being addition or subtraction problems, but with the words spelled out in the hundred-billion range. ("There are seven hundred sixty-seven billion, four hundred thirty million and two grains of sand on this part of the beach, and three hundred four million... etc.") She doesn't get the problem right unless she gets it ALL right, and those sorts of problems present endless opportunities for tiny mistakes. If *I* were to be giving her the problems to help her practice precision, she would rebel, but the fact that the program gives them to her, and the fact that the computer-based reward is so cute when she gets them right, is really working for... well, it's really working for me.

The "Language Arts" (I must put "Language Arts" in scare quotes not because it's teaching illegitimate concepts but because it's such a silly way to refer to an English curriculum) section seems equally appropriate for each. I have Ella doing 4th grade and Madison doing 7th grade, and that seems to be working out. They're both liking the science part, and I have told them that if they want to do history for fun they may, but we're going to be doing Ancient History this year via two audio programs, so they needn't.

So, call it the lazy way of home schooling if you like, but as I'm going to be really REALLY busy this fall, I think it will work.

Math: Time4Learning supplemented by David's conceptual work with them
English: Time4Learning plus lots of reading as usual
Science: Time4Learning, plus U of R monthly classes, plus lots of discussion as usual
History: Ancient, two audio programs (Gretchen Riley and Scott Powell). We'll also do architecture units on ancient history.
Spanish: Visual Link Spanish
Writing: Madison's class will continue Wednesday afternoons
Karate: For both through December, then Ella will drop
Logic: Chess class at Rochester Chess Center
Acting: Probably a Shakespeare class at Spotlight Theatre Arts
Dance (for Ella): Musical Theater dancing at Spotlight Theatre Arts
Singing: Bach Children's Chorus
Music: Piano for both, Flute for Madison in Honeoye Falls, Viola for Madison at Hochstein
Computers: Programming here and there as usual, video editing, audio editing

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it's time to start the day.