Mid-month Mention: Wheaton College Summer Institute

This week I received an e-mail about an opportunity I desperately wish I could snag. Wheaton College, my alma mater, wrote to inform alumni of their Wheaton College Summer Institute for high school students. Yes, I have a high school student who fits the requirements (will enter junior year with a strong academic record). No, I do not have a high school student willing to participate. I mentioned to Sean that Ivy Tech was offering free summer school courses to high school students this summer. His response? "Why would I want to take summer school? Besides, I plan on getting a job." Well, there's that. Plus, I cannot imagine Sean heading off for two weeks to a camp experience, even if it would prepare him for the college application process. He always hated our annual Bible camp excursions. But this opportunity sounds like something I wish I could give my child.

The Wheaton College Summer Institute offers a two-week campus stay from June 18th through July 1st, 2023. Students not only experience living in the dorms and eating in the cafeteria, developing friendships with other college-bound teens, but also take one college course for credit. There are 16 courses to choose from and I see several that appeal to me (say Shakespearience, Otherworlds of Imagination in C. S. Lewis, The Brain: A Neuroscience Primer, or The Makings of Middle Earth). Besides earning college credit, they receive hints and strategies for college entrance applications and essays. Plus, if you complete the program, you gain an expedited Wheaton College application (with fee waiver) and the chance to earn a renewable $500 scholarship.

My time at Wheaton was wonderful and full of many happy memories. It was a chance to make life-long friendships and sit under excellent professors who taught fascinating courses. I enjoyed the Wheaton-in-England program and the rare opportunity to work in The Marion E. Wade Center, transcribing C. S. Lewis' correspondence. Although it was expensive, I received outstanding financial aid and worked three jobs to keep myself afloat. I could think of nothing better than to send my child off to experience the same. Perhaps you have a teen contemplating a Christian college journey. Look into the Wheaton College Summer Institute today!

Pushing One Off Into the World

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, a perfect day for celebrating the gift of offspring. I spent the day focusing on the accomplishments of the one who first made me a mother - my oldest son, Bryce. We are so very proud of his achievements. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in chemical engineering. Thankfully, we were all able to attend the commencement ceremony (his paternal grandmother, a Purdue graduate herself, would have loved to have attended with us if we could have secured an additional ticket - when we sung the Hail, Purdue song, I'm sure she would have misted up):

His additional trim (white and red ropes) indicates his involvement in the OXE chapter (he did a fine job as their president).

I had to chuckle at Trevor's antics. While we waited for the ceremony to begin, they displayed tweets and photos celebrating some of the graduates. Trevor attempted to jokingly get in on the fun. He leaned over to show his dad the tweet he had sent - a photo of our dog with the appropriate hashtag and the line "So proud of my brother, Toby." Of course, they must have had someone wisely screening what displayed on the screens - ha!

Bryce managed to take a photo with his girlfriend, Elizabeth, prior to her departure for home (she's a Purdue chemical engineering student, as well, but doesn't graduate until next year because she participated in a co-op program, working in a job this past semester):

Now, he is living at home for a few weeks (probably the last time he'll reside with us) before he heads off to his new job, working as a chemical engineer for Solvay (an international chemical group) at their Marietta, Ohio plant.

When the Start of School Interrupts Your Favorite Camp

What's a mom to do when the start of school interrupts a favorite annual Bible camp? This was the dilemma many months back when we first learned that CBLI (Central Bible and Leadership Institute) ran from July 30th (it always begins on the final Saturday of the month, but this year that Saturday was very late in the month) to August 7th and school resumes on Wednesday, August 3rd. My initial response was simply to keep them out of the first three days of school, but alas it was Trevor's transition year to the middle school. I couldn't exactly expect him to return on Monday, the only confused and lost kid in a sea of students who had already learned the ropes the previous week. Thus, we landed on a compromise: the boys would miss one day of school and two and a half days of the camp.

So, last Saturday we drove up to the camp and began to settle in. When the settled in feeling just started to take root, we packed up and returned home. Thankfully, we discovered an easy route to the camp that takes us four and a half hours (this is better than our old ways of visiting Grandma for one meal and then taking a road closer to her house, making the trip almost six hours). Still, it's 4-1/2 hours! Groan!

Here are the boys, bright and early, awaiting the school bus on their first day back:

I enjoyed sitting on our wonderful, newly-refurbished porch to watch them wait for the bus. Hopefully, they will get off to a great start and do well in fourth and sixth grade. Praying also for a great end to our CBLI encampment (so glad we attended despite the obstacles and setbacks).

New Classroom Innovations

The boys have settled into the school year and are both enjoying the fact that they get to be around friends every day (when you live out in the middle of the country, getting together with friends is more of a production than simply walking up the street like Bryce used to when we lived in a neighborhood back in DeKalb). Two years ago, when Trevor was in 3rd grade, he was in a shared learning community, with two teachers who team-teach. The kids rotate between teachers for language arts, math, and social studies instruction and do some activities as a large group together. They have a wall which can be closed to separate for separate instruction or opened for large group instruction. This allows you to have twice the number of friends. This year, Sean is in the same shared learning community for his 3rd grade year.

Sean is loving his new classroom for more than the teachers and the friends. They also have the coolest thing yet - a new kind of desk. Apparently, Trevor's class piloted this new desk a few years ago, and then the teachers set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a whole double set of the chairs. Sean is reaping the benefits of this campaign. The chairs facilitate the transitional learning structure of this classroom.

Here is a video to demonstrate the desk Sean gets to sit in every day:



Aren't they way cool? Almost makes me want to go back to school again... almost.

T-Shirt Quilts Rock!

I should say my sister-in-law rocks! She does! She offered to make this t-shirt quilt for me and shipped it to me in the mail last week. It is awesome! I'm so in love with how it turned out.

The upper left hand shirt is a staff shirt from when I worked at Littlejohn Elementary back in DeKalb, Illinois (so many happy memories but no real place to wear the shirt anymore). The middle top shirt is from the camp where we attend CBLI every summer. The shirt to the right of that was from a year when the CBLI kids' track focused on a construction theme and so the front of the shirt said "God at Work" and the back said "Person in Progress" (seen in the second half of the quilt). The grey shirt from the middle left is another CBLI kids' track t-shirt, followed by two more from Littlejohn (they used to have each class make a shirt and the kids would draw their self-portraits - I always loved those shirts). Finally, on the bottom right, is a shirt from my husbands's days as 1st chair cornet in Illinois Summer Youth Music. Then, another CBLI t-shirt followed by John's HS pep band shirt.

The second half of the quilt has the survivor shirt we received when we went to the celebration for my niece Amelia's completion of treatment for and defeat of cancer. This shirt belonged to the little boys but they have since outgrown it. The second half of the shirt, bearing the message "Our Family Soared on His Wings" is on the other side of a Littlejohn Harambe group shirt. Plus, you can just make out another Camp Wonderland logo underneath that message. In the second row, Bryce's fourth grade t-shirt is followed by another CBLI shirt (framing a Northern Illinois Music Camp t-shirt from way back in 1982), and the back side of hubby's ISYM t-shirt. On the bottom row, we have the back of the CBLI Basic Training shirt, the CBLI construction shirt, and Bryce's first grade Littlejohn shirt, with another self-portrait.

Moreover, I loved the background fabric she chose for the back side of the quilt. The middle has a section of musical notes flanked by two sides of a blue plaid pattern.

I am in love with this quilt. Now I need to think of some way to repay her kindness, since she will not let me pay her even for the time and materials required (no doubt this took a hefty amount of time to pull together and skills I couldn't even dream of possessing).

A New Family Dynamic When the Oldest Goes to College

It seems too soon to be writing a post about the new family dynamic. After all, we only just moved Bryce into his Purdue dorm room in Tarkington Hall on Sunday afternoon. Not even 48 hours ago. Ha. But, the emptiness is there and I'm feeling it ever so slightly. I think John is cut up about it far more than I am. My day will come when Sean is installed somewhere away from home. For me, while I'm sad about Bryce moving on, I'm more excited for him to have such a great opportunity and wonderful times ahead of him. He is ready for it and I am eager for him to live it to the full (well ... not if the full means partying or indulging in behaviors I wouldn't sanction, of course).

The move-in process was remarkably smooth. There were six or seven students outside his closest dorm door who assisted us in unloading the truck-load of stuff he brought. Bryce has spent the past two weeks honing and obtaining all the necessary (and many unnecessary, as we discovered) items for life in a dorm room. I believe it took us only fifteen or twenty minutes to get everything dumped into his room. At that point, he grew quite agitated and wished only for us to depart. It is, after all, a fairly small room and we were crowding five people among all the debris of his belongings. I wanted to take several of the moving bins home, so he had to unload clothes and shoes from several of them, but within minutes he was shooing us out. I think John felt a bit put out that he wanted us gone so quickly, but he understood that it wasn't a matter of getting rid of us so much as a matter of clearing the space and getting down to the settling-in process.

Bryce sent me a panoramic photo (not the greatest) of the room once they managed to get things oriented in the way they desired. He was thrilled that his roommate's futon fit in the space below his loft (they both ordered loft beds to make more room for relaxation) and is facing the TV (yes, they think they are going to have enough time for relaxation and TV and gaming - ha), refrigerator and microwave.

He had to send home several things he mistakenly thought would fit (a microwave cart which I had picked up for a song - $5.99 - at the thrift store, a set of drawers on wheels, and a few closet hanging storage devices). I laughed because I assisted Bryce in packing up his clothes (folding the shirts and placing them in his new laundry basket for transportation). His roommate has about 3 or 4 inches worth of hanging clothes between the dresser and the side of the closet. Thus, he is able to display a bunch of stuff on the top of his dresser. Once Bryce hung up all his hanging clothes, I'm sure they covered at least a foot and a half to two feet of space above the dresser. Bryce loves his clothes.

His location is absolutely perfect. He is not far from the engineering buildings and there is a wonderful dining hall just across the street. Bryce said they have innumerable choices available at that dining hall and he should do fine on the 13-meal plan we purchased for him. Thanks to their mini-fridge, he should be able to make his own standard breakfast just fine (a small cup of mandarin oranges and a Carnation Instant Breakfast drink).

I have sent him two e-mails already on these first two lonely nights without him and he has responded twice and promised to keep me informed about how things are going. This first week will be a week of fun, since it is what is called the "Boiler Gold-Rush." He is settling in well and having a good time.

Things have grown a bit more serious with his "friend" Madisyn. As of the 27th of July, Bryce informed me they were officially "boyfriend and girlfriend." This was not really unexpected since he spent most of the summer over at her house. He says her family loves him and treats him just like a son. When Grandma came for a visit prior to his departure, she took Bryce, Madisyn, and me out for dinner, so I had a bit of a chance to get to know her more and I really like her. I think she is a good influence on Bryce. She holds similar views to my own on his late nights and his spending habits (not sure she is able to curb them any more than I seem to, but nice to know we are in agreement).

So, we were not really surprised when Bryce informed us that she and her family are already scheduled to come visit him on Friday (they are going for a football game between West Lafayette and our high school). Then, he will ride back home and she will drive him back up on Sunday. While I hope this doesn't become a frequent thing, I'm not as opposed to his clinging to a girlfriend from home as I thought I would be.

Still, the house will be quieter (not by much since he was already absent quite a bit even when he was living at home) and his room will be different. John and I are cleaning it out and consolidating things from both closets into just one closet, so that Trevor can move in and use the bed, TV, one closet and the surface of the desk during Bryce's absence. When, and if, Bryce comes home for a visit, he will merely move to the bed available for him in Sean's room. We are going to be selling the bunk beds from their room and putting up a daybed with trundle opposite of Sean's bed. I don't think Sean is as eager to have a room of his own as Trevor is, so we will have to see how this transition goes once we get Bryce's room squared away and transfer it to Trevor.

Trevor is missing Bryce already. He had a weekend journal assignment and I encouraged him to write about his brother moving in to college. He said he didn't want to write about that (probably too personal). Sean was thrilled when he was playing x-box yesterday and Bryce was apparently on and sent him a message saying hi.

We will have to adjust to this new family dynamic. It is the four of us now, instead of the five of us. When Bryce does come back for visits, it will most likely be more for a visit with his girlfriend than for a visit with his family. He is on his own now. I hope that college treats him well and that he makes loads of wonderful memories and friends. I hope that he does, indeed, keep in touch and keep me informed as to his well-being.

First Day of School

Silence has once again descended upon my home and I have high hopes of many hours devoted to writing.  The boys all started school yesterday.  It seems a bit sad to already be done with our summer break.  We accomplished almost all of the things on our summer bucket list (we didn't manage a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's, as Sean requested, but I'm not complaining).

Here they are waiting for the bus at the end of our driveway:

Trevor is in one of his characteristic skateboarding beanies (although he has misplaced his favorite striped one, yet again). 

Both Trevor and Sean seem to be thrilled with their new classrooms.  Trevor is in a dual classroom where two teachers keep a combined open space and team teach.  I'm thrilled with the greater opportunities for community this provides.  Sean is equally pleased with his class so far and seems to have a much better attitude towards school (we'll see how long these pleasant feelings remain).  Sean's first grade teacher seems to have an intense passion for reading (thus, I like her already).

I began to wonder why we are beginning school a whole week earlier, while still getting out around the same date.  It turns out they have included a week-long fall break in October.  Oh, my.  We'll have to utilize that opportunity somehow.  For now, we've all had a great start to our 2013-2014 school year.