Summer School

I am so proud of these two. First, a little horn-tooting on Caitlin's behalf. She just received her geometry grade for the year: A-! For a girl whose aptitudes lean more towards the arts and humanities, I'd say that's a superb showing. Much credit goes to Caitlin, but we were also blessed with an excellent teacher at the homeschool co-op where Caitlin took the course. We are pleased that Caitlin will have the same teacher for Algebra II/Trig next year.

Now to the pictures you see below. Yesterday Caitlin began summer school math. You will notice that her teacher is her brother, who has offered to coach her in math while he is home this summer. He is designing a custom curriculum based on his study of Caitlin's performance on the math portion of the PSAT, which she took for practice this past fall. Her scores on reading and writing were in the 99th percentile for sophomores taking the test, but her math score was not quite so impressive. She is my word girl, after all. The simple fact of her having now completed geometry should help a lot, but we would like to be proactive this summer and help her to be as competitive as she possibly can when she takes the test for keeps.

Trevor is such a fine teacher. Towards the end of last week he asked if he could have at least an hour per day of Caitlin's time for math this summer. I said yes. Then he asked for that hour to be put on the schedule at a regular time. Math class has been set for the hour following lunch each day. Class includes timed drills on various types of problems (one of Caitlin's weaknesses was speed) plus targeted work on concepts utilizing various resources, including Khan Academy videos.

I am so proud of Caitlin for what she has accomplished in math and for her continuing commitment to achieve her highest potential in it. And I am equally proud of a son who takes to heart his callings as brother and friend. How blessed I am to watch and learn about love, family, perseverance, and vocation from these two fine individuals. And how blessed to claim them as my own!