Hard to believe K is a high school sophomore this year. We had a fairly successful homeschool year last year. We didn’t accomplish all our goals, but that’s okay. We were probably overly ambitious with our planning.
We got a late start because we didn’t return from vacation until the second week of September. We had gone on an around the world cruise with Princess Cruises. The family had scrimped and saved. The kids contributed most of their allowance money and we held many garage sales to help pay for the side trips. We spent the days before leaving carefully laying out a budget and priorities for what we wanted to do.
Onboard, both kids frequently hung out in the teen center. There were few enough kids that the older and younger kids all were together. Although there was a published schedule of activities, they pretty much just did whatever they wanted. Our son flew back a week before the end of the cruise by himself from New Zealand in order to attend his university class. That was exciting!
K made a new best friend on board, a teen girl about her age from New Zealand who was on for the entire cruise as well. They were almost inseparable. Our room became a hangout on hot afternoons because we had a balcony and bunk beds. We even went on a few side trips with the girl and her mom. Sometimes in the evenings the girls would go dancing. That always amused the band and other passengers, once even getting a standing ovation and calls for an encore.
Once back home, we hit the books. She learned geometry and biology. For writing we used a small, paperback manual called The Lively Art of Writing. I highly recommend it! I used it in public high school myself. She once again delved into trying to learn Spanish.
Finally, for social studies, we decided to tackle government and civics from Sonlight. Now, usually government is taken senior year. However, we had a couple of reasons for wanting to do it last year. First, this is an election year, so we figured she would understand what goes on better and why it’s important. Second, our school program participates in Close Up. They send students to our state capital one year and Washington DC the next. Last year was to be DC and New York City. K had been wanting to participate for a couple of years since she first learned of it. But, that meant she needed to take government in order to get the most out of it when they went on the trip in the spring. She attended planning meetings and did special assignment over the fall and winter to get ready. As spring approached, we all got more and more excited about her trip. The school started to finalize travel plans. We found out that their would be so many kids coming from around the country that over a dozen hotels were booked. However, Alaska would have only about a dozen total students in this group.
Then covid began, and our excitement turned to nervousness as travel restrictions began slowly spreading across the world, getting closer and closer to home. People began getting sick in Washington DC and New York. Seattle became a hot spot. Travel restrictions tightened from international, to national levels, but that didn’t really affect us initially. Then the announcement came from our district office. All school travel was cancelled, including upcoming national and international trips, for the remainder of the school year. K would not be going to DC or NYC. A few weeks later, our governor instituted a statewide travel restriction halting all non-essential travel throughout the state and schools were closed. While she understood and was grateful for the abundance of caution, she was still severely disappointed.
In October, she joined one of our local high school cross country ski teams. She enjoyed being outside and skiing with others her age. We bought her a team jacket as her Christmas present. The coach switched providers and styles. Unlike the previous jackets, these arrived in plenty of time to wear during the season. The previous 2 years orders arrived in time for the end of year banquets. Races were encouraged, but optional. She decided not to participate in them, although she did come with me to watch her brother in the 1 race he did. Then, like her DC trip, the ski season abruptly ended after spring break due to covid. There would be no end of year team banquet this year. The borough run ski center building was dark and locked. All group ski events and practices in March and April were cancelled. Junior National races in California were called off mid-week and athletes scrambled to get back home.
We finished off the school year, trying to maintain as much normalcy as possible, allowing her and her brother copious amounts of telephone time and online chats to make up for staying home.
Summer came. We planted a huge garden after hiring a tractor to rototill it, including a new addition. She helped take care of it. She went for walks. She watched tv and “hung out” with her friends remotely. In August, she helped harvest and freeze the veggies.
My sisters in law live in a tiny remote Alaskan village where the nearest paved road is 80 miles away and the only practical way in is by plane. On the plus side, they have the most amazing view of Denali right out their living room window. After much discussion, we decided K should spend September out there helping them with their fall chores. So, in mid-August, we spent a few days buying her clothes, including $200 worth of rain gear. However, since this is Alaska, she needed warm clothes, which were difficult to find. Those wouldn’t hit stores until mid-September, even up here! But, we managed. She quarantined for 2 weeks before hopping on a plane. Not all of her school books were here yet when she left, so we mailed out what we had. We left her return date open, since we weren’t sure how well she would like an extended stay. However, at the end of September, she was doing fine out there and so will stay at least through freeze up.
Filed under: 2020-21, AK Life, family, garden, high school thoughts | Tagged: Alaska, covid, cross country skiing, high school, home school, Homeschool | Leave a comment »
