Backyard homeschool days … We’re about to start school up again here at home, and I’m of course not even close to ready. I have to go through my resources this weekend, and see how they match up to the plan I’ve sketched in my head (sort-of) and need to put to paper so I don’t forget it actually finish it. I looked at math workbooks in the dollar store today, and decided that wasn’t the way to make a decision, nor did it look like it was the right level for Douglas. I’m not that desperate yet :).
The end of summer is bittersweet, it always is … I get just as excited now by acres of clean notebooks and new pens as I did in 3rd grade, albeit for somewhat different reasons. The bubbling in the pit of my stomach is similar too, though I’m not nervous about how my first-day-of-school outfit will be received and who I’ll sit next to, but whether I’ve got it in my to teach my kids what they need to know this year. I alternate between serene confidence and frantic doubting, though thankfully the confidence trumps most of the time. It might be deliberate ignorance though, as I haven’t checked to see what’s on the test he’ll have to take next year, nor am I keeping too close a track on what’s considered normal for his grade. I’m enjoying the process of mutual discovery, and assume that as long as that continues we’re in good shape.
Getting back into school routines though? Not looking forward to that so much! At least we don’t have 6:25am bus pickups, I can’t even begin to imagine the pain of that. It helps that we have new (and delightful!) housemates here for the next few months, and they’re more on the scheduled end of things than we tend to be so it makes it easier to slip into one myself. Here’s hoping it rubs off at least!
The warm empty days of summer are winding up, and I’m enjoying the cooler nights and occasional long sleeves. My cleanup frenzy is settling down too, it always hits me as the temperatures start to drop. Purging toys and video games, cleaning closets, washing those beach towels that have been hanging on the ladder for too many weeks, and making room in drawers for the sweaters I’ll soon need to unearth.
Happy Labor Day weekend to all of my stateside moms, and hope the rest of you get a break of some sort before fall hits? Catch up with you all on Tuesday, and I promise to come up with a question this time to get the week started off!