September Update

Nearly done with our first month of school!!  For some reason, it seems easier this year.  I'm guessing some of that is due to my improved mental outlook on this new medication.  Speaking of which, I'm doing really well!  I had a few rough days with side effects, but they have become very manageable.  :-)

We are enjoying co-op.  It's amazing how unique each trimester is with the changes in membership and classes offered.  Individual interests in Kylen's age group are becoming more defined, which I find rather fascinating.  It will be neat to see where they take those interests over the next 4 years.  Kylen's primary interests right now are chess and learning to play various instruments.  He'd like to take up drums next!  Not sure that's going to happen.  Violin is going well.  They played at a coffee shop today!  Being a beginner, Kylen only played one song with the group, but it was pretty cool seeing him perform in public.  :-)

One of my goals this year is to have him write more reports/essays.  He chose chess for his first topic.  By happy coincidence, we have a tin of "Old Century Games for the World" that was given to us one Christmas.  We'd never played any of the games, but I came across it when we were moving stuff around.  I decided we would open it up this month.  Well, just after he started research for this report, we tried the first game.  It was an early form of chess!  Ha!  He told me he had even read about that game in the chess history book.  Some of the key differences: Players roll dice to find out which piece they get to move.  It's designed for four players, who actually play in teams.  (With two players, each player controls two colors.)  One's Raja (king) can actually return after being taken.  There is no piece equal to the queen.  Greg and Kylen have been playing it the last few evenings.  On top of that, a student brought an old version of chess to class today that Kylen had seen in that same book!  It's called Chinese chess.  What are the chances??

We are still attending the same church, where we have fallen into a routine of going every other Sunday.  This works well for my illness by allowing me a day of rest twice a month.  We also withdrew from the Belize mission team for various reasons (nothing bad, it just wasn't working out for us to participate much), but I felt God drawing me toward a monthly counselor training class.  I went once and loved it!!  Can't wait to go again!  We just finished a great video series in our Wednesday night Bible study, and I'm enjoying the Bible studies that resumed at co-op.  We also like the two books we're using as part of family devotions in the evenings (discovered through Sonlight currick).  They are Live Like a Jesus Freak and The BBC Manual.  Greg alternates between reading from the Bible and reading from one of those books while Kylen looks up scriptures.

Well, October typically feels stressful for some reason.  I have high hopes that won't be the case this time.  We shall see!