Reality

I have visions of grandeur.  I want my kids to love Latin and the classics.  And then, there is reality.  14yo has expressed a desire to focus on English (writing, grammar, spelling, etc.) this summer.  While math is non-negotiable I have reluctantly agreed to drop Latin, French, and Christian Studies.  I am seriously sad to let go of my dream - Latin.  I was so enjoying our discussions during Christian Studies, so I am disappointed about that one too. 

There is another type of reality that goes with homeschool.  Your child isn't always going to be working at the average grade level.  The older girls (14 and 16) were involved in a co-op this year.  It was only a few hours each week, but it ended up cutting our school down to four days a week.  Play rehearsals started in earnest in April (two days/week) and then became very time consuming in May (three days/week).  A few hours a week seems like a small sacrifice, but it ended up being much more time consuming than that.  We went from being "behind" to being really behind in our textbooks.  14yo feels so behind that she has asked that we start over from the beginning of her math textbook (Math 7) and grammar (English 5).  I dislike backing up so far, but  this really needs to be about mastery instead of box checking.  The textbook may be titled grade 5 but if that is where she feels she needs to be, so be it.  I want her to know math and grammar rather than merely having visited them.