HS Elem. 2015-2016

"Hey Austin, who was that guy who wanted all of their followers to be under one religion because it's easier to rule a population that all believes in the same thing?"
He has to take his headphones off to hear me..."Ummm, that was Clovis."
"Thanks...what was he? A prince? A king?"
"He was a king...the king of France."

Right. Thanks.

Austin has the first three volumes of The Story of the World and cannot stop listening to them. Yesterday we had a 9 hour travel day with 7 of those in the car. That is all he did. Last night, after he helped with parking, setting up and walking the dogs, we found him in his bed, headphones on, listening again. And again this morning. This is one of the curriculum packages I purchased last year and it's the one Austin clearly loves the most. Our first day of school is tomorrow, but these stories have been going all summer.

Study time

I have been getting us ready for the upcoming school year and I find myself getting so excited. The second grade curriculum of Oak Meadow focuses on ancient people and society's which is right up our alley. We love reading stories and most of what we do is literature based...Oak Meadow, Story Of The World, and Life of Fred are our main curricula. We use other things as they make their way towards us reading tons of Little Creature books, Pete the Cat, and other stories we fall in love with. We have a cool book about architecture books that focuses on the buildings of the past that allow us to feel like we are living in the lives we are reading about. We have books on science experiments (Oliver's favorite subject!) and again, I am leaning towards a literature based science program, Sassafras, as those really capture the kiddo's attention and they love to do extended projects based on the characters they are reading about. The hard part is figuring out how it will all fit in!

This year will go by in a flash, I am sure. We still aren't sure what we will be doing for the following school year and if the kids will be home or back in school, so all I can do is enjoy each of these days with them. I have gone through this process for so long...thinking it was my last year with Austin home full time before pre-school, and then the same process with Oliver. Watching Austin go off to full day Kindergarten and sitting and crying at a coffee shop while two friends bought me coffee completely understanding as they'd done the same with their son the year before. Again, I find myself gearing up for the final year with them and I feel the old familiar pangs of sadness and nostalgia mixed with excitement and curiosity at wondering what is to come.