August 16, 2011  7:38 a.m.

Remember the movie Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep?  To this day I always feel a special connection to Meryl Streep because she was the speaker at my college graduation.  She began her address to us by singing:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

The future’s not ours to see,

Que sera, sera..

Then she went on to tell us about how she never could have imagined her future when she was our age.  She never guessed that she would be washing Robert Redford’s hair in the African savannah.  It wasn’t a particularly erudite speech for a college graduation.  Rather, she was reminding us, in her movie star way, of the sovereignty of God.  Of how God weaves us into His story in a way that we can never predict, and never fully understand, until all is revealed.

Well, I am happy to say that we are finally out of Africa.  In sixth grade Geography, that is.  We had a particularly trying day yesterday, a day in which too great a percentage of Chips’ work was offloaded until the end of the day.  There are certain things I expect of him to do the first time through his work; I have told him repeatedly, and yet he still claims not to remember.  Again they were not done, and I had to keep at Calvert with him until late in the evening, and I was very unhappy about it (because it was all preventable) and I was unpleasant and the evening was unpleasant. 

I am trying to teach Chips study skills, so that he (and I?) do not have to suffer so much in the grades to come.  I want him to take notes on his reading, gosh darnit, especially on Geography, because Geography is not easy to remember and keep straight in your mind at test time.  Chips has been doing great on his Calvert tests, but Geography weighs him down.  Especially as we have been stuck in the African continent for the past two months (or so it seems).  One can’t help but get all the facts about all those countries confused.  I hate to say it, but with only a few exceptions, those African countries do blur together in one’s mind.  Chips is very happy to be out of Africa and moving on to Asia.  He feels certain that he will be able to keep those countries straightened out in his mind much better.  I hope so.  The fact is, he needs to take notes on his reading, that’s it.  I have been urging him to do this for Geography since January because I could see the difficulties coming.  Fast forward … he still ain’t taking notes, or very (VERY) slim ones at most.  He is able to get away with little to no notes much better with Science and History, but Geography – well, that’s another story.

On a brighter note, we have finally gotten to the point in sixth grade where we are reading The Phantom Tollbooth, and this book is going to last us through the rest of the course.  Hooray!  This is a book I remember enjoying very much as a young person, and Chips is liking it, too.  Lot’s of fun in this story, clever, and lighthearted. 

P.S. Part of the reason our day was so long was that I had a doctor’s appointment.  But that’s a topic for another post.  Nothing serious.