We kicked off Benjamin’s junior year at the same time as he started volleyball practices. Yes, TX Wind made a men’s volleyball team and Benjamin decided to become a multi-sport athlete. So between volleyball practices, games, and tournaments, and his dual credit classes we try to squeeze in the remaining subjects I have to get him to finish for high school. 😉 He knocked out his english over the summer so he only has math, science, and lit to do. He is taking CALC I and CHEM at MCC so all we have to finish at home is 20th Century Liturate and his bible/theology readings. He gets himself to his classes and practices and most games which was a big relief to us, but there were some games in Austin/Dallas that I didn’t want him driving himself to so we sometimes still had a few travel/schedule conflicts. We got the first 6 weeks done between end of July and first week of Sept.
For bible, Benjamin follows along with our church bible reading plan or we do the daily scripture reading from YouVersion as a family. During this unit, we read Mere Christianity for theology, great book! I’m not making him recite scripture anymore but we do ask the kids to have a short personal devotion time before school.
Since he isn’t doing history, we only have his literature books to read. This unit we had The Great Brain, Heart of Darkness, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Great Gatsby. He has Robert Frost’s Poems and Heart to Heart for some poetry selections each week. This year we will continue vocabulary with Wordly Wise 3000, Book 11, Latin with Classic Roots C, and word analysis with Analogies 3. He’ll be taking the PSAT in the fall and SAT in the spring so word families and analogies practices continue until then.
I did purchase a college and career workbook set that he has been working through. Starting to make decisions about what he wants to do and where he might want to go and what jobs fit his personality and what he is interested in. He was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society due to his GPA at MCC so we got on a bunch of email and mailing lists for colleges. We think we have him on a path to getting an AS by the time he graduates next May which should almost completely transfer to A&M if he still wants to go into engineering. Definitely be nice to skip some of those entry level weed out classes.
CHEM and CALC I are keeping him busy this semester. He is less than thrilled with the chem lab that he has to attend. I guess he isn’t going to be a chemist, just gotta get this one credit under his belt so he can move on to Physics.
Extras are Work, Volleyball, Dual Credit, church, and sometimes time for his family. 😉 He actually took his Subway work hours down to just a couple weekend shifts and only when he didn’t have volleyball. It is nice that they are that flexible with him. It’s enough to pay for gas and snacks and some fun things to do with friends. He really enjoys volleyball and its a good group of boys who are all learning how to play together.
During this unit, we had a couple visits from Grandpa and Grandma to watch games, we took Hannah to college and attended her Girl’s Ministry celebration, and had a youth glow party to kick off the school year. Between everything else, Benjamin usually has time to scroll his phone and play video games. He is making good friends and coming out of his shell a little without Hannah here to take him to everything. He has also enjoyed a little bit of freedom having his own car and gas money. Good thing for Life 360 as he doesn’t always tell us (or ask) what he’s planning to do.