Think Back Thursday: Graduation

This week the Think Back Thursday theme is Graduation.  So far I have had one student graduate from our homeschool, so I'm going to start by thinking back to 2010.

Our homeschool group's Class of 2010 getting final instruction before the ceremony.

Presenting the diploma -

Moving the tassel -

Class of 2010 -

We had senior portraits done at a studio, so I can't scan and share those directly, but you can see them in the two center frames in these pictures from Harrison's display at the reception.

Some of his friends signed their congratulations on the mat of this portrait.

This picture was taken by a friend and we used it for the grad announcements.  (I am going to have her do all of Spencer's senior portraits because: 1) she does a great job!; 2) I would rather pay her than somebody else; and 3) she knows the magic words to make Spencer smile: 'sausage gravy'.)

In 2011, Harrison graduated from the Broadcast Institute of Maryland.  He finished school in February, but the graduation wasn't until the summer.

This is our family when we arrived.  Are the we most confused people in the room?  Probably.

Let's think back a little further, just for fun.  Back to my graduation from high school.

I graduated way back in 1984.  I don't know where my official portrait is right now, so I can't scan it, but this is from a snapshot taken at a grad banquet.

I had big hair in the 80s, but it's a little subdued in this picture.  But exaggerated by the shadow behind me.  LOL  You can tell I liked the blue eyeliner and purple eyeshadow trends as well.  Nice.

Visit Debbie's Digest to join in with Think Back Thursday, and to see what other bloggers are sharing for this week's theme.  Next week's theme will be Clouds.

Think Back Thursday is a photo meme that encourages sharing something from the past.  It is hosted by Debbie's Digest.  You can find out more about it, and how you can participate, by clicking the link or the button below.  

G is for... Graduation

Sometimes when I'm feeling overwhelmed and inadequate for the task of homeschooling, I have to remind myself that we have, in fact, had a graduate from our homeschool, and by most accounts he is relatively normal (in the ways that "normal" is considered a good thing), and has been successful in his post-homeschool endeavors so far.

And doesn't seem too badly scarred by the homeschool experience.  LOL

We didn't pursue advanced academic standards, didn't dual-enroll in a college, and he didn't even write any standardized tests or the SATs! I remember the year I realized that the deadline had passed to register for the PSAT and we'd missed it.  I agonized over it, wondering how Harrison would manage on the SAT is he hadn't had the experience of the PSAT and the possible scholarship opportunities that went with it.  And then we decided to not even worry about the SAT and just hope for the best.  As it turned out, he didn't need those exams for the school he chose.  He wanted to be an on-air personality for a radio station, so he chose to attend the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland, which put him on a fast track to that goal.  He graduated high school in June 2010, started at BIM in August 2010 and graduated BIM in February 2011.  And got his first radio job the day he did his final exam at BIM.  Not bad.

Some things I find interesting -

• at home, Harrison procrastinated on almost every assignment (granted, he comes by that honestly...)  but at BIM he got working on assignments as soon as they were given, worked hard on them, and sometimes even complained to me about classmates that were leaving things to the last minute.
• at home, he slept as late as possible, and preferred to do schoolwork lying on the sofa.  With the TV on.  At BIM, he made it a point to not only have perfect attendance, but to always be about half an hour (at least) early to school every day.  And so far as I know, he has never been late to his jobs, and I don't think he's even called in sick.
• at home, he stayed in a t-shirt and pajama pants almost all the time and considered nice jeans or khakis and a polo shirt to be 'dressed up'.  At BIM, he was expected to dress for business every day - including a tie and jacket, and he did it without any complaints.
• at home, a passing grade seemed to be good enough - why put forth any extra effort when a passing grade was enough to earn the credit?  at BIM, he was determined to get the best grades possible and was often focused on getting the best grade in his class if at all possible.
• at home, he used to complain about being homeschooled, but since graduating, he has sometimes complained about the lack of respect, discipline, focus, and ambition he notices in public schooled young people in his age group.  And even defended homeschooling on occasion. 

Accepting a scholarship upon entering BIM

I can think of lots of things that we might have done differently, and at the time we wished we had.  But I think we did okay, all things considered.

When we were just starting out with learning to read and beginning math skills, I had no clue how we'd manage all the way through high school.  And there were some years and seasons (still are!) when I thought we were failing.  One year at my review, my wise and experienced reviewer and mentor gave me a bit of encouragement that went something like this:  You have twelve years to teach them what they need to know.  Don't worry too much about one semester that didn't go the way you planned!

You can do this.  You have lots of time to teach what's important.  Teach them how to learn, how to find out what they need, so that they can do it on their own.  Do your best, and trust God for the rest.

Are you homeschooling through high school, or planning to?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Blogging through the Alphabet is a weekly link-up hosted by "Ben and Me". Please visit to join in and to see what thoughts this week's letter has prompted for other bloggers.

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This post was added to the Throwback Thursday Blog-Style link-up hosted by Tots and Me... Growing Up Together! on April 8, 2016.

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©2006-2016 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author.http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

New to the Crew

This is not only my first time on the TOS Review Crew, but the first time I've participated in a Blog Hop. I'm excited about being on the Crew, and I'm already working on three reviews! I guess I should introduce myself to readers who haven't visited here before -

• I'm now in my 14th year of homeschooling my kids! Every year I find new reasons why I'm so glad we homeschool!


• My oldest son, Harrison, graduated from our homeschool in 2010, and last year attended the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland.  He graduated from BIM this year.


• Our other students are Spencer (Grade 11), Landon (Grade 7), and Kennady (Grade 5)  I've listed the curricula we are using this year on a separate page - you can find it here.


• I think we'd be classified as "eclectic" homeschoolers - we use curriculum from several different publishers and I adjust, add, subtract, and supplement all kinds of things along the way.


• I'm a part of a wonderful local homeschool oversight group, and do peer reviews for several homeschool families.


• I'm also involved in a local Christian fellowship group for homeschoolers.


• I love to read!  Kym's Bookcase is where I write about books as I finish reading them.  Sort of reviews, but since the books I write about there are the ones I choose to read, it's seldom that I give a really critical review.  Because if I don't like it, I won't finish reading it.


• I recently started keeping a second blog here - Just A Second - because I thought that it might be fun to have another 'home' for things I share that aren't necessarily related to homeschooling.


• My husband and I are from Canada, and our oldest son was born in Canada as well.  We have been living in the US for about 18 years now, and received our US citizenship several years ago.  We still love the Great White North, Tim Horton's, and hockey!


• I love coffee!  (and cheese.  and bacon.  and barbecue.  and Coca-Cola. Not necessarily in that order...  but I really do not love to cook.)

Blast from the Past - School Daze

This was our first week of school, so I did try to get "official first day of school pictures" of my kids (you can see them here). Only Kennady cooperates at this point. I started taking this kind of picture on the first day of school a couple years ago, when Landon and Kennady were both willing (to some extent anyway) to play along. The older boys were never interested in having their pictures taken during school time. So my Blast from the Past for this week takes a look at some past school photos.



I took a whole series of pictures before getting the one above.  She was so darn cute, I may have to do a Blast from the Past post sometime that is just from that day's photo shoot! LOL










They must have been Kindie and Grade Two, but I'm not sure.





Yeah, he was lookin FINE that day.  *sigh*  I wonder if both cans of soda are his?  If he drank a can of Coke and a can of Vault for breakfast, that would explain a LOT.


You can totally tell that he is just patronizing me at this point.  Fake
smilegrimace, awkward pose - he is just hoping it will be over soon.


I wish I remember what joke I told to get him to smile.

And that was it - no more school pictures for Landon in Grade Six or for this year - Grade Seven.  Oh well.




I think that must be an eighth grade picture based on my assumption that it is a Saxon 8/7 math text he has open.  I could be wrong.

This is Harrison heading to his first day of class last year at the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland - he wouldn't let me take a posed picture, so I snapped this one as he walked away.  LOL



And now, for the sake of amusement, nostalgia, and comparison... Here are first grade pictures of me and my husband.


Is it just me, or do those sneakers he's carrying look several sizes too big?  Other than that - stylin!  Also, the flowers - those can't be real?!? What kind would they be?  Lovin the trash cans in the background too.


Stop laughing.  Those were the only frames available back in those days.  Check out the pointless plastic barrettes - awesome.  It's the goofy smile that bothers me the most, actually.  I was probably missing a front tooth and didn't want anyone to see.

This post is linked to Debbie's Digest where you can see other Blasts from the Past, and join us!

Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which I Make New (School)YearResolutions

In our homeschool this week... Spencer finished up the last of his Science and Math!! We are ready to go for Monday, and even took a field trip on Thursday that got me wondering what other cool field trips we'll be able to include in the coming year.

The field trip was actually more for Harrison's benefit, and it was a VIP tour I won in a charity auction. We toured the NBC affiliate studios in Baltimore. We also stopped at BIM afterwards to say hello, and I think Harrison got a lead on a possible job while there. I hope so.

Kennady started using BigIQKids to brush up on her math and spelling skills.  She's having a good time with it - except when she has trouble with the math questions... Hellooooo. That's why you need to work on your math facts!!  Anyway, more about that in a future post, since we are reviewing it for the TOS Crew!

Homeschool Resolutions: Stick to the schedule. Stay organized. Include piano lessons. Read aloud. Go on field trips.  Teach Math facts - again.

In other news... On Monday the van was repaired and I also got to pick up my new glasses. I have to say - as much as I'd looked forward to having the, so far... I am not a fan.  I'm undecided as to whether that is because they are somehow unsuitable or if I am just a slowpoke at getting used to them.  The sunglasses are fine and I love them.  It's the regular glasses that are causing my frustration.  I feel like I'm in a funhouse or something, and sadly, my nighttime driving problem with having auras around lights and anything reflective is not solved by the glasses.  So I think I'll be calling for a follow-up appointment with the eye doctor, and hopefully they can determine whether I'm just an extremely slow learner or whether something in the prescription or the lenses themselves needs to be adjusted to make me happier.

We got busy with some fall cleaning projects.  Our kitchen counters needed recaulking around the backsplash, so we worked on that.  It's almost all done.  We got some decluttering done, and that is ongoing project.  With no end in sight.  During a power outage a month ago, our cordless phone was fried so I finally bought a new one and am trying to figure it out.

DH found a way to hang up our extra hummingbird feeder... Canadian redneck style!



The hummingbirds are actually bolder than you might expect, and they are feisty! VERY territorial.  It's a challenge for me to get pictures, but I managed a couple this week.

Other Resolutions:  Figure out my glasses.  Continue cleaning and simplifying.  Live within our budget.  Bake my own bread at least once a week.  Take more walks.

My favorite thing this week was... the studio tour day.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

"The purpose of education isn't to train for a technical skill, it's to develop the whole person. The more fully a person meets his potential, the better his work will be, no matter what that work is." ~Charlotte Mason

On the Bookshelf...

• Deep Church by Jim Belcher


• Persuasion by Jane Austen


• Surrender the Dawn by ML Tyndall

Finished Mr Darcy's Little Sister by C Allyn Pierson, Surrender the Night by ML Tyndall, and This Time Together by Carol Burnett.

Bookish Resolutions: Read more. LOL

A Parting Shot...



This post is linked to:  Homeschool Mother’s Journal at The Homeschool Chick

Yesterday's News

The news is that yesterday we went on a field trip - to the NBC news and radio stations in Baltimore.

Background - several years ago I arranged a field trip for our homeschool group to visit these studios and was overwhelmed by the response from families in the group that wanted to attend.  We wound up doing three groups on consecutive days, and I went on the first day with Harrison and Spencer.  There were only one or two other families on our day, the other groups were maximum size though.  As it turned out, the other family/families that were going to attend with us could not make it, although I can't recall the reason.  I had thought it might have been a weather worry, but now that I see the picture I took at the time of the outside of the building, I doubt it.  Look at how green the grass is and how blue the sky! I don't think it snowed that day.  LOL  Anyway, Harrison and Spencer and I got the tour all by ourselves and had a great time.  The families that attended on the other days gave the tour great reviews and I've been asked a few times about organizing the trip again.  Fast forward to this summer.  An employee of the station plays hockey with my husband, and at their recent charity tournament there was a VIP tour of the stations offered in the silent auction.  I bid on it - and won.  So yesterday I took Harrison, his girlfriend, Landon, and Kennady on the tour.

One of the first things we learned was that the building has been extensively renovated and updated over the past couple of years, and it was vastly different from when I had taken the boys previously!

I think the outside still looks the same...

I didn't take pictures on this particular trip, except in the news show studio, which had been updated but was still the same basic set.

Landon and Kennady bring you the News

We saw the new - huge! - newsroom, the art department, editing and control rooms, and the radio station studios.  This last is what we were particularly interested in, because of Harrison's career.

After seeing all the fantastic updates and how different everything was, I asked our friend if they still did school tours and if so, who should I contact to set something up for our homeschool group.  He told me I could just let him know when I wanted to bring the group and he would help me get it organized.  I will definitely take more pictures then.

After this, we stopped by Harrison's 'old stomping grounds' at the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland so he could say hello to his instructors and get a lead and some encouragement on the job front.

(Want to see pictures of Harrison and Spencer at this same news desk when they are about the same age as Landon and Kennady are now?  I just posted those on Just A Second's "Blast from the Past" for this week)

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 ©2006-2014 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which Our Lawn Gets Cut Down to Size

In our homeschool this week... there were some lazy days but overall things went well. DH got involved by establishing a minimum number of pages Spencer was to read each day (World Lit) so that helped keep him on track. Our co-op ended two weeks ago, but this week we had a pizza party to celebrate, so Thursday was a fun day.

In other news... we bought a new lawn tractor. After several years of saying we probably should, we finally did it. And boy, does our lawn need mowing after all the rain we got over the last week or so! More storms rolled through the area this week as well, and we got a fair amount of rain on Wednesday night, but despite tornado watches and flash flood warnings, nothing really serious occurred in our area.

Thursday evening we attended the church's Grad Dinner to honor high school and college graduates from our youth group and church. Harrison got to attend as a grad again this year, since he finished classes at BIM. He was hoping there would be a special prize for being a grad two years in a row. ;-)

Kennady was finally able to play some softball this week. She had fun but lost both games. There's another game today, so maybe they'll have better luck.

My favorite thing this week was... news from home that a new nephew joined the family, born to my brother and his girlfriend on Tuesday!

What's working/not working for us... piano lessons still aren't working very well. We have good intentions, but Kennady and I still haven't found a good routine.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have... I really need to make a decision soon about whether I will attend both days or not at the homeschool convention and curriculum fair. I suppose I will have to look at the schedule of workshops and see if just one day will do it for me.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

You can kinda see the backyard before it was mowed:

On the Bookshelf...

• Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen by Peter Leithart


• Deep Church by Jim Belcher


• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen


• Thorn in My Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs

Finished Lady Macbeth and In Search of the Lost Ark of the Covenant

A Parting Shot...



This post is linked to:  Homeschool Mother's Journal at The Homeschool Chick and Weekly Wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Resort to Drastic Measures

Homeschool: I figured it was about time for another school boot camp, since Spencer has been slacking off lately and is falling behind. So starting on Monday, I cracked the ol' whip a little. ;-) I'm hoping that getting strict with the clock, and doing a thorough check of each day's work before any screen time will get him back on course, and it certainly won't hurt Landon and Kennady either.

We started off Monday morning by reading about Japanese culture and daily life, and Landon and Kennady worked a little on some art projects related to Japan before getting out their Language Arts and Math. Unfortunately, all three kids were sniffling and not feeling well, and Spencer even had a long nap in the afternoon. Even so, schoolwork did get done - yay!!

We hit the books pretty hard on Tuesday as well, with a couple of Science lessons and everyone working hard on Math and Language Arts. But on Wednesday the kids were on their own for the afternoon.

Co-op on Thursday featured Aboriginal dot painting (Australia) in the Art and Geography class.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="319" caption="Kennady did this dot painting at home, but co-op was the same design"][/caption]



Friday we did a little more Science - all caught up there again! - and worked on everything else. Kennady and Spencer both have some weekend homework to finish up, and Kennady also completed a HomeEc lesson today - making homemade Chicken Noodle Soup for our dinner! It was really good!



In Other News: I left on Tuesday night intending to go to choir practice, only to remember when I was almost there, that we didn't have practice this week! So I had plenty of time to do the grocery shopping, instead of quickly picking up what I could from my list like I usually do on Tuesdays. I even went to the warehouse club store so I could stock up on several things. I'm hoping that I won't have to buy very much in the way of non-perishables the rest of the month. We'll see how that goes...

Harrison visited BIM on Wednesday morning to speak to incoming students for the new semester. Now that he is an alumnus and has an industry job! When he got home from that, I went with him to pick up his new glasses and check in with the retina specialist to make sure everything is still fine. (he had eye surgery a couple years ago)

Kennady was able to go to her friend's place after co-op on Thursday and spent most of the evening there. The rest of us enjoyed take-out fried chicken from the local grocery store - yum!!!

Everyone pitched on today to get some housecleaning done. It's just unfortunate that I run out of energy before I run out of chores to do.

On the Bookshelf:

• Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen by Peter Leithart


• In Search of the Mountain of God: The Discovery of the Real Mount Sinai by Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook (I will finish this one today!)


• Dark Moon of Avalon by Anna Elliott (novel of Trystan and Isolde)

Finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.  And Sense and Sensibility is sitting on my bedside table, just waiting for me to get started with that!

Parting Shot:



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Every chance he gets - the cat is in the turtle tank... *sigh*"][/caption]