Weekly wrap UP 9/6/19-- Official School begins

We school year round and over the summer the kids have done a bit of school but it is more relaxed.  Now however School is officially started as College classes began last week and this week Coop classes began.

Firedrake driving off to her first day at College as a dual enrolled senior high schooler.  She is pretty excited and nervous to be on her way to adulthood.

Firedrake said after class on her first day they college had therapy dogs in the lobby for the students to meet to help with the first day of college jitters:). She loved it!

Firedrake is already noticing a drastic difference in how college professors teach. She is not at all impressed with her Math instructor (which is a worry since this is her one area of struggle).  We just  discovered a rating system online where other college students have rated instructors and this one was only average.  We didn't know that before classes began:(. We will have to utilize it for the next semester and hope we can find a better Math professor.  She has only attended two classes so far but says the Math professor doesn't teach anything, hopefully as the class goes forward it will get a little better for her.  For now I am strongly encouraging her to utilize the free math lab at the college to aid her in math class.  The Literature class, on the other hand, she enjoys.  This doesn't surprise me as she loves literature, her only complaints was she rented a college textbook for $60 and the instructor said on the first day of class they probably wouldn't use it.  Another lesson learned is not to buy or rent any textbooks until after the first class just in case they don't really rely on the assign textbook.  

MarioFan has begun his classes at co-op this week!  He has be been doing some of his 10th grade work at home since August so we are on a full load course this week.  Next week all the extra curricular activities begin.  It is going to be a very busy year once again.

For MarioFan's Official first day of school we went on a field trip to Junior Achievement.  They had a homeschool day for high schoolers and it is very educational.  We have done the middle school side before but this is the first time on the high school side.  It is run a bit differently.  I only have a few pictures as I was not needed as a volunteer so spent most of the time in the lobby.  I snuck in a few times for pictures then relied on MarioFan to tell me what went on.

the large business room

MarioFan was assigned a job at an entertainment center

The high school section is set up a bit differently rather than concentrating on job skills the kids were introduced to budgeting and more life skills.  They were given $2000 budget and needed to plan out their living budget which included housing, car, utilities and extras.  the goal was to have $ left over and not go over.  MarioFan was happy that he ended up with $36 left over but said several kids in his group went over budget.  He said the only way he managed to stay within budget was to forgo buying a car and taking public transportation to his job and to college.  This is a great introduction to the reality of having to make choices when an adult in order to live within your income.


Next week is the official start of Co-op class for MarioFan!