"Our" first formal multi-session class

At the homeschool convention in May I signed up for information on a rhythm class by a mother and daughter team that teach music lessons. One thing I liked about it was that it was for ages 4 and up (grouped by age). Another thing I liked was that it was only 6 weeks long, either summer or fall.

The teacher followed up with a phone call about a week later, asking which day(s) of the week and time(s) during the day would work best for us, if we were still interested. At that point I was still interested but not committed. Sometime in the last 2 weeks she called again; the message got lost for a few days, so I'm not sure.

Yesterday she called to remind me that the class was that day, in the afternoon. She was planning on us. Oh. I had intended to discuss the class with DH before enrolling but decided to go ahead with it anyway since he was at work. I told the boys about it. Neither wanted to go. They wanted to stay home and watch TV. They watch too much TV.

Reluctantly, they got dressed (earlier than usual), and I packed us a lunch. We went to our old house (we're getting ready for a moving sale) where they played, and I worked for a while. We had a picnic in the car in the rain outside the teacher's house. By this time they were interested in the class but not necessarily enthusiastic. The class was scheduled for 1:15, so we went up to the door at 1:00. (It was my first time there; I wanted to make sure the boys were comfortable; and I wanted to take care of payment.) She had just finished up with a private music student and was not ready for the rhythm class kids yet. (I'll know better next time.)

One of our co-op friends is in the class also. She came up to the door right after us. Those 3 got to play with a box of instruments while waiting for the rest of the kids. All of the other moms left, but I sat on the staircase, out of sight, during the class. I wanted to eavesdrop both on the teacher and on my boys. They loved the class! About half way through, DS1 asked if they could come back again. Yeah!

That evening they excitedly told Daddy about the class. This morning DS1 asked how many days there are until next Tuesday. I'm glad we are doing this. It might lead to more music lessons of some kind, or it might not. Either way, I think it is going to be a good experience of all of us!

What's in a Name?

Since DS1 will meet the Kansas age of compulsory attendance this school year, I will have to stop procrastinating and register our non-accredited private school. One of the required fields on the form is School Name. I don't want to be "(OurLastName) Homeschool". I don't really want "homeschool" as part of our name. Part of my reasoning is because homeschools aren't recognized as such legally. I'd like to be so satisfied with our name that I use it until DS2 graduates from high school. However, I would be content to keep the same name for 8 years, then create a new high school name.

As much as I like the name of this blog, I don't want to use it. It's just too long. I had a t-shirt made last year with "Life is Learning, Learning is Life, Everywhere, All the Time." That's a bit long for a school name, too, but since I like it even better than this blog's name it's going to be our motto.

When I registered with Scholastic Books as a homeschooler, even though I used our co-op name that ends with "academy" they still added "homeschool" to it. So what are we... to us? A school? An academy? A center? An institution? A homeschool? An adventure?

A month or two ago, I came up with the following list:
Center for Life Learning
Life Learning Center
Life Learning Academy
Learning Is Fun Everywhere
Learning Is For Eternity

Now I'm leaning toward
L i f i s    S c h o o l
Is there a better way to spell the first word? Life-Is? Lifeis? Please leave a comment telling me how you pronounced Lifis the first time you read it.

I'd like it to be something that sounds "normal" at first, then you "get it" (or at least other homeschoolers would get it).
Not At Home
At Home Plus
Home And Away
Wherever We Are
Brains In Gear
Learning Is
We Learn
Nottin (Not In)
Okay, these aren't very good. I'm getting sleepy. But you understand, right?

If I ever want to compare my kids to the official Kansas public school standards, Kansas Education Resource Center is the website I will use. It used to be very cumbersome to find the state standards on the KSDE website. Now this website has a very usable chart with links to the standards by curriculum area and grade.