The beginning of the end of summer

It's time to look into school.

My friend Carla had her annual "end of summer" party today. It seems really strange to think of July being the end of summer. When I was little, it was still considered the middle! But, as I found out today, schools start soon. One district starts on August 2nd! The ones closer to me start August 14, but even that seems early to me.

In our version of homeschooling, we never officially stop. We just take more breaks in the summer because Spyder's friends are more available. There is something fun about the "beginning" of the school year though. Spyder and I both got sucked into the school supplies aisles at Target yesterday. We ended up buying pencils (several 8 packs for 20 cents each) and a composition book, but I managed to restrain myself otherwise. I can tell we'll be back though.

As for schoolwork, Sass will begin Pre-K officially. I'll need to make an entirely new curriculum for her. Spyder just skipped Pre-K -- or he did it before I realized it -- so I'll need to focus on researching that. As for Spyder, we're revisiting Egypt because he specifically asked for it. We're also continuing our geography study(Sass too), focusing on US geography mostly, but we do touch on European and Middle Eastern. Reading, writing, spelling, and math will continue as usual. The only thing we'll be changing -- sort of -- is science. I'm looking into science curriculums, simply because Spyder wants to use one. I have a sneaking suspicion though, that he'll get the currciulum and do it in about two weeks. He's done that before!

Summer has been good for science, really, because I let both of the children choose a plant to nurtre, and they've loved it! Sass chose lavender; Spyder chose impatiens. They've loved taking care of the plants and watching them grow. It ended up being an excellent teaching tool, that was completely unintentional! I bought some cilantro from Home Depot, and on the spur of the moment, I decided to let them each choose a plant. I need to do things like that more often!

Pretty soon, I'm going to attempt to dry some of the lavender to make sachets or something. I think Sass will love making those. I'm thinking Christmas gifts, at least for the grandmothers. :o)