As a homeschooling family, we tend to follow the schedule of the public school system with one exception: when the material is done, we break for summer. Last year, that meant pulling out the calendar and letting our son count up the number of day until he wanted to be done (he had a concrete goal in mind), the number of math lessons he had left, and figuring out how many lessons he had to do per day in order to reach his goal. He was done the Friday before Memorial Day. The reading and science continued through the summer, but his official lessons were done much earlier than the official "end of school."

This year, I delayed buying books, mostly because I was busy with some other projects. But when I did sit down with the catalogs and the rest, my excitement became contagious. We get to read really fun books this year - books I remember reading and re-reading as a kid, just because they were enjoyable. Enyclopedia Brown books, Strawberry Girl, and Henry & Ribsy, just to name a few. Our son looks longingly at these books and wants to know when we'll get to each one -containing his excitement is a challenge right now. But that's a small price to pay.

We've got field trips lined up (this week is the Renaissance Festival) - some line up with our medieval history books, some don't - and the Jiffy Factory Tour in Chelsea. We'll head to museums (The Detroit Science Center) and to the newly re-opening Imagination Station (formerly COSI) in Toledo.

As I write, my boy is plucking away at suffixes and compound words and will tackle his math next. Yesterday, we read an abbreviated (and MUCH more comprehensible) version of Beowulf that actually made me realize I didn't hate the story like I thought I did. Pity I didn't figure that out in high school.

Our son is excited about this school year, and for the first time in 3.5 years of homeschooling, I feel more confident of what I'm doing and where we're going as a family, which is a nice feeling to have. My scope & sequence is laid out, the books are here, and I have a greater ability now to close out distractions during lesson-time than I've had in the past. I think it's gonna be a good year.

Photo credit: Sue Talbert, c. 2009. All rights reserved.