Cool Things About My Kids

We got a notice this past week that Ben and Sophie came up in the lottery for Legacy Preparatory Academy – a charter school that uses a classical education foundation based on the Well Trained Mind, complete with Latin, etc., and it’s FREE!  Yay!

BUT, we sure have loved Capitol Hill Academy and it has been perfect for Ben, so it’s hard to mess with something that is working, even though it costs money.  At the same time, we’re trying to cut back on the money thing, so it needs to be a matter of prayer.  Still, I told them to keep us enrolled and had to take the kids for testing over at the new school.  Ben will be going into 5^th grade and just finished Saxon 5/4 last year--he tested into 7/6!  That means he just skipped a whole year of math in one test!  He also tested firmly into 6^th grade level for everything else.  Sophie also tested at the top of where she would be expected to be, with reading and math at about a 3^rd grade level.  With Saxon Math, many schools, including this one, want to have the kids doing one year ahead (grumpy homeschoolers say that Saxon sold out and was trying to dumb down the program for public schools), so the second graders at LPA do Saxon 3 anyway. 

So, I was proud of them.  I’m always happily surprised when things point to the fact my kids are turning out, because heaven knows I do very little to bring that about.

David’s out of town working in GA and FL.  I’m taking the kids camping with my mom up at Tony Grove.  So, I think I’ll bail out on work now and go.

My quote for the day from today’s NYT:

“Napping, writes James B. Maas, a Cornell University sleep expert, ‘should have the status of daily exercise.’

“Mammals that divide their day between two distinct periods — sleep and wakefulness — are in the minority, according to the National Sleep Foundation, which pointed out on its Web site: ‘While naps do not necessarily make up for inadequate or poor quality nighttime sleep, a short nap of 20-30 minutes can help to improve mood, alertness and performance.’”

Hooray naps!  May I get one someday!

I’m finally recovering from the big weekend last weekend and starting to feel normal and not so wiped out.  I did do the gym three days this week and was made to feel like a slacker by the diehards I work with.  Well, time to start training again.  This time I’ll be sensible and do a sprint tri.  I’m trying to eat by asking myself “Does my inner triathlete need this for fuel?  If not, we don’t need to eat it.”  But, my eating does not come from a lack of knowledge, up-to-date scientific information or good gimmicks to keep myself on track.  I have yet to really understand where it comes from.  So when I asked myself today, “Does my inner athlete need these Cheetos for fuel?”  I thought, “No, she needs them because they are yummy and full of MSG.” 

The chasm between knowledge and action is so, so wide.  All I can do anymore is try to bridge it with heavy duty exercise.

Thanks also to you all for your sweet, supportive comments.

Xoxoxo

Valerie