Homeschooler for Hillary

Finals!

The kid is home from school already this morning.  She got an A on the Psych final that she took on Wednesday, so that class is done.  I’m not sure she knows what she got on her Public Speaking final but that class is also finished.  Now, to get past the Biology final on Monday… fingers crossed, please.  Biology is really not her thing.  Heh.

Student government?

Here’s another thing I never expected from Michelle – she joined Student Government.

The kid never ceases to amaze me. 

She’s not running for office, she’s joining some committees.  Which committees, I have no idea. I guess we’ll find out

Or, maybe not so much?

Bah.  I jinxed it.  I blogged about being thankful about Michelle and her job and how great it’s been and she’s been and they’ve been and BAM, she quit.  She gave her two week notice, left in the middle of a shift during the FSU/UF game and was pretty hysterical about the whole thing.

Today, she’s much more calm and she’s on the schedule to work a couple of days next week and I’m hopeful that she can leave on a more positive note than when she left on Saturday.

Sheesh.

A Thankful Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving.  An early dinner with me, TW, Michelle, Chris and his g/f and then Michelle headed out to another Thanksgiving dinner with her fellow burrito making coworkers at the restaurant owners’ house.  I was just thinking how glad I was that she was there.  Not because it means the evening is much, much quieter.

I’m glad because it reminds me of how thankful I am that the owners and managers of Burrito Brothers took a chance by hiring a tiny little 16 year old homeschooled girl 18 months ago. I don’t think they expected her to last 18 days much less 18 months.  I don’t think they expected her to be quite the employee that she is. 

She’s a hard worker.  She’s reliable and loyal.  She doesn’t call out sick. She doesn’t call around looking for someone to cover for her.  She is almost always early and leaves late every single night. They took a chance and I’m pretty sure they’re glad now that they did.

I’m glad too. 

She’s learned a lot from working there. She’s built relationships with co-workers, managers and the owners that she never would have built in another workplace environment.  She’s struggled with being the youngest but one of the most experienced workers in the restaurant – 21 year old college kids don’t generally like being told what to do or how to do it by 17 year old "little girls"… and that’s been hard for her to handle but it’s something that she can carry on to other jobs in her life. 

Burrito Brothers has been good for Michelle.  I’m thankful.  Very thankful.

Next semester

We just returned from Michelle’s meeting with her dual enrollment adviser, who we really like but boy can she talkkkkkkkkkk.

We were really late scheduling the appointment and I was worried that the classes Michelle wanted to take would be full – and so was the adviser, but they weren’t.  She got every single class she wanted on the day/time that she wanted them.  The girl is charmed. 

Ethics
Advanced English Composition
Art History
Some Algebra class that I’ve forgotten the name of

Busy, full schedule for next semester but classes only on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, which is Michelle’s preference.

8am til like 3pm or something – nice long two hour break mid-day for her to hang out, study, go to the gym.

The Long Goodbye

If you read other ClubMom blogs, you probably have already heard the news that ClubMom is shutting down their Mom Blogs program and we’ll all be leaving this space soon.  (sniff sniff)

Michelle was really disappointed to hear I would no longer be blogging "Fast Times", I was surprised at her level of disappointment.  Kids never cease to amaze me, ya know? 

Me, I’m not disappointed – it’s actually a bit of a relief because it’s been hard for me to blog "home school" stuff when Michelle has not been really "home schooled" for a good long time – sure, she’s officially a home schooler and many things we do here count as "educational" but she goes to the community college full time so we don’t have to deal with most of the issues home schoolers face.  And soon, very soon, she’s going to "graduate" from high school and then what would we have done?  So yea, it’s a bit of a relief that ClubMom is putting the entire program to bed now. 

I’m planning to archive this blog and I’ll leave you the link when I do – but I won’t be posting any new content there.  I’m somewhat tempted to leave you the link to Michelle’s blog so you can follow her yourselves, but she likes her privacy and I like her having a wee bit of privacy so I probably will not do that.  I’m also tempted to start another blog about Michelle, because she’s an interesting kid and it’s always interesting to be her mom but I’m not sure I have time to do it justice – or if I do it, if I want to share the link.  While I adore most of you and most of the "unknown" people who stop in here, there is some small need for a bit of privacy… Or maybe I’ll just blog more often about Michelle on Flamingo House Happenings.  I don’t know.  I really haven’t decided – but I will keep you posted.

Many of the ClubMom bloggers seem to be closing up shop right away.  I’m not going to do that.  I’m going to blog interesting Michelle stuff right up ’til the end of December so keep the feed in your feedreader or keep checking in while I sort this out.  Michelle gets more interesting with each passing day – and I have about six blog posts in my head to write about her latest exploits… you won’t want to miss THOSE, right?

Thanks ClubMom – for taking a chance on a lesbian homeschooling mom who is a wee bit (ok a lot) different.  You’ve been a great community to blog for and with.  And I have loved every second of being able to call myself a "mommyblogger".

Fun Lesson Friday

I was traveling all week and don’t have a fun lesson for today. Well, I didn’t until I read my blog feeds and then I stumbled upon something I really love. It’s a little early, since it’s about a New Year’s Eve family tradition but who says we can’t start talking about this stuff with our kids now?

Granny Sue posted her link in reply to Sarah’s Question of the Week at BlogHer and I fell in love with her idea immediately.

Each year I ask people to send me their troubles. Most arrive by email, and I send my invitation to many listserves and discussion lists I’m on. This year my blog readers will be invited to send theirs too.

We have a bonfire on New Year’s Eve and the troubles are printed on sheets of paper and thrown into the fire.

Talk to your kids about what they see as your “family traditions” paying particular attention to the “quirky ones” and then ask them if they’d like to send their troubles to Granny Sue’s bon fire.

First time voter!

At the Fall Arts Festival we stumbled across the Voter Registration table and Michelle picked up her registration forms.  Yay!  She’s very excited to be a voter. I’m very excited for her to be a voter except that it means she’s going to be 18 and a real live grown up.  But that’s another blog post.

I don’t remember the first time I voted… probably because I almost always did absentee voting. I was registered in SC and was always out of the country, I didn’t know anything about local elections. So.  Yay.  Voting was sort of underwhelming for me. 

Do you remember the first time you voted?

Driving advice from teens

Michelle is back to thinking about getting her driver’s license and I think this time she’s serious. She’s back to studying the Driver’s Handbook and I’m supposed to register her for the Florida First Time Driver Drug & Alcohol class so she can get that four hour thing out of the way.

I can tell that she’s serious this time because she’s starting to give me more advice as I drive. Or to tell me that I’m driving properly – “Mom, you’re following exactly the right distance because I did the two second rule.”

I am almost looking forward to TW taking her out to practice driving. I won’t be going with them but am looking forward to hearing all of the stories that will come from those trips.