Arlington

Me-Tae's father passed away some time ago. It took until recently to get his interment arranged, but it finally happened this month. He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, afforded full honors. It was, hands down, the most beautiful ceremony I've witnessed, and a fitting way to say goodbye and thank you.

James and John couldn't make it because they both had classes during the time we'd be gone. That's a major downside of summer term - you can't afford to miss a class early on in the term because then if you get the plague in July you have to just mask up and slog through. But four of us were there in person, and all seven of us were there in thought. I hope that they felt loved.

The three younger kids and I drove out there for the service. We splurged and stayed two nights -- not only so that we could spend time with Me-Wa and Me-Tae, but because I am OLD and there was no way I was going to be able to drive 12 hours, spend one night, go to the funeral in the morning and then drive 12 hours home. Oh, heck no.

Arlington is pretty impressive, and I just don't have the words (or the photography skills) to capture the enormity of what it represents, or how powerfully it pours over you when you set foot on the property. We were all so quiet as it soaked in what we were looking at, awed and grateful.

We appreciated, too, the chance to say goodbye to John, who was a generous and loving man. We will forever be grateful to have had him in our lives, and forever be sorry that it wasn't for a longer time. We should all strive to leave a legacy like his.

Be encouraged!
~ Dy

Missing One

Jacob is off at his summer intensive, and the house is shockingly quiet. (On a tangentially related note, do you know of any robust earbuds that can survive a 14yo boy? I'm resigned at this point to replacing them every six months, but I hate the waste.)

In some ways, not much is different. We still chat about news over coffee in the mornings (yay for technology!) and he still sends me photos of cool things he finds while he's out and about. I love that part.

But he's gone. I miss seeing him spinning in the kitchen. I miss hearing his laughter when he reads something funny. I miss hanging out in the kitchen with him while we cook. I miss hearing him talk about the book he's reading or the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch. I know that's part and parcel of raising children to be autonomous, productive adults. But I sure do miss him when he's off being active.

This is the second week. It's both flying by and inching along. Time is so weird. I'll be gone when he wraps it up, and Z will get to see the performance at the end of the session. He'll enjoy that, since he missed the school sketches in May.

I do hope, though, that Jacob's up for a marathon of something ridiculous with snacks and root beer floats and hanging out in the kitchen in July.

Be encouraged!
~ Dy

Testing

We decided to have the younger three run a lap of ITBS this year. It's not a required element of our homeschooling, and we generally don't do any standardized testing until they take the CLT and the ACT. I thought, though, that this was a good time to get a general overhead snapshot of about where we are, how we're doing, and what I may have completely spaced covering so far. Plus, I've had a sinking feeling that they may have all lost five or six years of learning during the cancer years, and I needed a sanity check.

The Littles were not thrilled. But they didn't die, so they're fine.

The results were about what I expected. They know a lot about the things we discuss in general. They aren't as strong in the things they actively avoid. We have surprisingly few non-mechanical pencils in the house. We also discovered that we are really not good at remembering to pack lunches.

Overall, the testing didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know or suspect, so that was good. (I always worry that I'm oversimplifying the process, or being a bit overly optimistic about our progress. Nobody wants to graduate a homeschooler only to discover after the fact that it was not, in fact, a great education. That hasn't happened yet, but still, we worry. Or I do.) All is well.

A funny thing from the test results was that all three of them maxed out the science scores. "But Mom, we don't hardly ever DO science!" And yet, we do. We talk about scientific topics all. the. time. Space, botany, biology, chemistry, inquiry, data, research, physics, propulsion, systems, dynamics, you name it, it's getting air time in the house. With all the things they've built, soaked, set on fire, and lobbed, I'm actually surprised the housing office doesn't send us hate mail. Do we spend a lot of time specifically studying one particular text, reading the sidebars, and going over the vocabulary? No. But we spend a lot of time steeped in various scientific disciplines, and it showed up on their scores. I thought that was rather interesting and encouraging.

And now, we don't have to do it again for a while. That was their favorite part.

Be encouraged!
~ Dy