I used to write about our homeschooling adventures all the time, and then this year came along and I stopped writing about it altogether. There’s a reason for that, and the reason is not that the children have stopped learning but that I have for the most part become more of a homeschool administrator. And that’s just for Poppy. Pete isn’t homeschooling at all this year.

The last time I posted about homeschooling was in April, in The Evolution of a Homeschool Mom, in which I said I was struggling to figure out my new role. And that’s just what I’ve done this year. My job this year has been to keep up with their schedule and get them where they need to be and make sure they’re doing their homework. And it’s gone pretty well, for the most part.

Our semester of co-op just ended. Poppy took video production (in which the kids made a sequel to “Pretty in Pink” with puppets), French and literature, and I taught Creative Writing to 9- and 10-year-old girls. One of them wrote an amusing little poem about Elvis meeting Nixon. It was a fun class. I had fun, anyway. I don’t know if the kids did.

Poppy’s also taking US history, physical science and writing elsewhere, and she’s also participating in a book club and working on a monthly newsletter there. She loves her classes there, although she’s a little disillusioned with it today because one of her teachers assigned a lot of homework over Thanksgiving break.

Pete got his first report card recently, and he’s done just fine. He made the A/B honor roll, and he’s made a few friends. My primary concern for him and public school was that he’d be in trouble for talking all the time. That hasn’t been an issue at all, though. I had to laugh in our parent-teacher conference earlier this year when his teacher said, “I was worried when I saw he’d always been homeschooled, but he’s fitting in just like he’s always been here!” I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

So all in all we’re having a fine school year. I’m mostly just driving people hither and yon and saying “Did you do your homework? Do your homework!” a lot. The kids are happy and healthy and they’re learning, so I’m OK with that.