A December Snow

I can only remember one other significant snow that occured before Christmas and I must have been about 12 at the time. This was treat, but it was physically exhausting for some! It did create opportunities for some beautiful pictures. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Irishdancer1955/DecemberSnow?authkey=Gv1sRgCICS9_i058SU3gE#

Christmas Time Is Here

I don't know who started it... Maybe it was the Groves who asked if we could do a cookie exchange. But it has become a tradition (3 years now) and of course we all had a good time!

GRADUATION 2009

Back in October, Austin and I met with the other members of the HEARTS graduating committee (parents and their students), to begin planning our graduation. May seemed a long way off at the time and we knew there'd be a lot of hard work to get to the finish line. What I thought might be a burden, turned out to be a lot of fun. The planning meetings were great and we got to know some people that we had just "run into" before. It's still hard for me to think that the little boy who started learning phonics at age 4 is now done with high school and moving on to bigger and hopefully better things! Our graduation day turned out to be that beautiful sunny day that we had all prayed for and unless I missed something the graduation ceremony was flawless. I do wish that Grandmother and Granddad Scott as well as the Urbans and the Rogers could have been there to celebrate with us since they've been such a BIG influence in Austin's life but we were thankful to have my parents there. Here's to a new stage in the Scott household....college!

Thoughts on This Past School Year

It seems the month of June always inspires me to write a blog. I guess I'll never have many followers, if I just write once a year! I'm winding down a little after a hectic school year and Austin's graduation. I keep forgetting that I actually have some time during the day when I don't have to be teaching, preparing notes, or grading papers. A week at the beach will be just the thing to clear my mind of the old stuff and prepare me to fill it with the new stuff, the new stuff being biology, chemistry, and human anatomy. I will be in my element this coming school year so I'm hoping that I don't feel the stress that I did last year as I attempted to teach Physics and Precalculus.

I had a great group of students this past year, including Austin and Evan. Each year God adds a few new students that fit just perfectly with our core group and it amazes me how they all interact so well. This year He brought us the "loud and funny" boys who seemed to be just the thing to shake up the "quiet, studious girls". I personally had a lot of fun with them but we caused a few problems for poor Mrs. Waller. I suppose that's the main reason my "noisy" bunch will move to the upstairs room next year but I think that it will work out great for all involved.

Next year will be my first year in 14 years that I will not be teaching Austin. This makes me sad:(, but we both knew, this past year, that it was time for him to be taught by someone other than mom. Anyway, I'm amazed that what started as an experiment (i.e. homeschooling the boys) got us through 14 years, including high school! After going to NOVA yesterday and talking about his classes for the fall, I have no doubt that this coming year will be both exciting and challenging for him! It also looks like this coming year will be my last teaching Evan since he will have taken all that I can offer, so he might as well apply for dual enrollment at NOVA starting in fall 2010!

I'm hoping to continue this blog throughout the summer, but in case my world falls apart today and this gets pushed to the back burner, have a great summer! Enjoy our class pictures and many thanks to Mary Elizabeth for providing this great song, By Your Side, by Tenth Avenue North.