Snow Moon

Snow Moon, is the first full moon in February.  I wish the pictures could show it like it truly is.  It was so big as it crested the horizon and such a beautiful golden color.  I can't get get my camera close enough even with my big lens to show size and despite the tripod, the pictures had a halo and and camera shake.  My camera actually took a better photo although it was rather grainy ( darkened the pictures and that helped).

Regular camera

Cell Phone

I also took some pictures of the moon with my cell phone through the telescope lens.  Oh my, this is near impossible.  I can't hold still enough to hover over the view finder and have the camera focus and take the picture.  I got these shots.





Piano lesson views...

(time out)

So, I am having a homeschool crisis.  I am burnt out.  High School is really hard.  I feel a ton of pressure to be organized with lesson plans and hours and scope and sequence for the required credits and to have options and a plan for the elective credits.  There are so many things that I want to teach (like knowing all the states and having a decent working knowledge of a world map, writing in cursive, being a proficient typer, memorizing poetry) and I want to go in depth (like reading novels set in the time/about the era of history we are learning, checking out library books for further information rather than just reading the next chapter in a history book).  There are not enough hours in the day to cover even half the materials, especially because it takes my students a particularly long time to do the basics.  I feel like we are barely skimming the surface.  I went back to the drawing board to reevaluate and see what I can cut out and how to narrow down our time.  We are doing too much during the day and everyone is getting burnt out.  

Homeschool moms who have been through this are so much more lax about things than I am.  They tell me that the only thing that really matters is SAT scores and no one cares about transcripts.  I find this so discouraging.  I don't expect my learners to excel on tests (I sure didn't).  Is this really all that matters?  


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