Back to School 2023-24

St. Bruno’s Homeschool and its class of one, is off to a soft start this week. But, in keeping with tradition, here’s a brief run down of each child and their academic plans for the coming year.

Addie, Senior, Cleveland State University

Addie’s classes started on Monday. She’s in the Honor’s College this year, and is also doing an internship towards her major in social work. She will graduate in May and then transition into a full time job with the same agency. She’s in an apartment this year and got her Ohio drivers license, so she’s officially “out of the house” I guess. She is still on the fencing team, but has been dealing with several injuries, so at this point, it’s uncertain how much she’ll compete this year.

Byron, Junior, Kutztown University

Technically, even though it’s only Byron’s second year at KU, thanks to all the community college credits that transferred, I believe he’s a junior. I took him back to school on Friday, and his classes started on Monday too. He’s still a Professional Writing major, and is hoping to one day be a screen writer.

Edith, Senior, St. Bruno the Great Homeschool

Edie, my lone student is wrapping up her homeschool career this year. Unlike her siblings, she had no desire to attend classes at the community college so she’s doing most of her course work through Homeschool Connections (HC) as either live, or recorded classes.

• Math – Pre-Calculus, live class, HC
• Science – College Prep Physics with lab, live class, HC
• History – U.S. History: Revolution, Republic, and Union (1763-1865) and Modern U.S. History: 1865-2000, recorded courses through HC
• Writing – Essay Test Mastery for College-Bound Students, then a few more fiction writing courses, recorded through HC
• Literature – American Literature Part One: Age of Exploration through Reconstruction and American Literature Part Two: Reconstruction through Present Day, recorded courses through HC
• Italian – Wesleyan Online Intermediate and Advanced Italian Courses
• Financial Literacy – MoneySkill
• Music Appreciation – The Sound of Beauty: Music Appreciation for Catholics, recorded course through HC (She’s taking this for two semesters and then will probably take an art appreciation course for the second half of the year.)

Last year, Edie had a job, that while wonderful in many ways, caused her to fall behind in her schoolwork. She quit in the spring and has been working since then to catch up. She did finish all her junior year work just in time to begin some of her classes this week. The schools she’s looking at all want four years of math and science and two years of a foreign language so, she’s working hard to make her transcript and application look good. Between her commitment to the Sea Scouts and her course load, I know she’ll be busy.

After going through the college application process twice already, you’d think I’d know what I’m doing, and in some ways I am better prepared, but there are challenges to being in a state that requires nothing from homeschoolers. The freedom is wonderful, but the responsibility to keep track of everything yourself can be tricky. I’d hate for an oversight on my part to be the reason my child doesn’t get accepted into the school of their choosing.While my ignorance and oversight have not led to that happening yet, we have had challenges (NCAA requirements, financial aide, deadlines) that set us back. I’m hopeful all our ducks are in a row as I prepare to make one more out of state visit with Edie to another maritime college and then help her start and finish the application process for her top picks before the end of the year. I’ll probably write another post soon about how I’ve learned to best keep track of high school grades and create transcripts.

Fulton, sophomore, local public high school

Fulton likes his class and teacher at the high school more than any other classroom/ school. I think he’s taking a digital art class this year, which will be great. However, we’re dealing with some nursing “issues” and without a nurse, Fulton can’t go to school. The uncertainty of things is sort of stressing me out, not because I’m worried about Fulton; he could care less. But I personally just want some sort of normal routine, and I have things I want to work on and not knowing when he will or will not be in school just makes that hard.

Teddy, 7th grade, local public middle school

After placing Teddy in 6th grade classes that provided extra resources for students “because he’d been homeschooled for a few years during COVID so we’re not sure how well he’d do” <eye roll> he’s been placed in all enrichment level classes for next year. I think he’ll do fine, and as long as they actually let him be a statistician for the high school football team, I don’t think he’ll ask to be homeschooled again any time soon. If the statistician position doesn’t materialize (all year I’ve been thinking, “Please don’t get his hopes up about this if it’s not going to happen!”) I’m not sure how he’ll feel about going to school this year.

We’ve been cramming in some last minute summer vacation fun this week, but, even as a veteran homeschooler, I’m ready for the boys to be back in school. I haven’t told them, but I’m thinking about bringing back morning meeting...in the evening!...so we’ll see if that happens and how well it’s received.

Prayers to all my readers for a successful school year, however it looks for your family!