Chelsea Handler, Rosetta Stone, Homeschooling

I've been so behind on my reading lately.  I just haven't had enough time to sit still and read a book...normally I read several novels per week.  So I felt quite accomplished this week when I managed to read two.  The first I'm not even going to bother mentioning because, while the book was good, I'm embarrassed by it.  Let's just say it's the latest installment of a trashy chick-lit series.  No, it's not a Twilight book, I would never stoop that low.  I read the first one and it was the first time I ever felt that I really wasted a small part of my life on something.

The second was My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler.  Awhile ago I read another book of hers, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea and found it LOL funny.  My Horizontal Life didn't disappoint...my favorite story involved Chelsea being suckered into dressing like an M&M to a party while everybody else arrived in sexy costumes.  She was unable to make it home after the party, so she crashed at some guy's house, and was forced to run in her costume the next morning to another friend's apartment a few blocks away.  I was laughing so hard while reading this one that my husband was rolling his eyes and telling me to be quiet.

Her next book: Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang is being released tomorrow, and I plan on immediately picking up a copy.  I wanted to go to her event at the Wang Theater in Boston, but tickets are $100+ for crappy seats, and $400+ for good ones...which is more than I can spend without my husband killing me and making it look like an accident.   

I've officially started my French language education.  I acquired a copy of Rosetta Stone French after my mother spoke highly of the program (though she owns the Spanish version).  I've gone through the first few lessons of unit 1 and I have to say, I'm rather impressed with it.  I'm having no trouble at all remembering the words and matching the pictures to them correctly...pronunciation, on the other hand...well, that's a different story.  Sometimes it gets frustrating because when I'm prompted to speak the words or sentences into my microphone, I have to do it for several minutes before Rosetta will finally give me the green light and let me pass.

I'm curious if I would have the same difficulty in the Spanish program.  I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I took 3 or 4 years of it in school and can understand enough to get a good idea about what somebody is saying if I pause on El Gordo y la Flaca or one of the nutty Spanish soap operas or game shows on Univision.  Is it because I'm really that horrible at pronouncing the words, or is Rosetta Stone a bit flawed when it comes to voice recognition?

And finally, this week is my daughter's last week in public school.  For this year at least.  As I wrote about previously, we've been having problems at the current school she's attending and switching to another school in the district is not an option because of policies in place by the local school board.  I've thought about homeschooling her for her first few years of school anyway, because she has life-threatening food allergies and several other not so dangerous ones.  She's young, and still not quite aware of the severeness of her condition.  And it's always a fear of mine that she'll take a cookie from a well-meaning kid who is trying to share and have a reaction. 

Anyway, we'll be finishing up the rest of this school year at home.  I've signed her up to an online curriculum, and will be supplementing with books and other materials where it falls short.  I'm really excited actually, there's a great local homeschool group that has get-togethers at least once a week...and I can take her and the boys on "field trips" anytime I want.  As if I need another excuse to go to the beach.  I'll also be enrolling her in dance classes, which is something I've wanted to do forever anyway but just haven't gotten around to it.  And, I'm going to have her go through the Rosetta program too.  It's ideal for a person to begin learning a foreign language while they're still young, so I'm hoping she catches on easily and enjoys it as much as I do.

Au revoir!