Could be interesting...

We went to the library today and saw thelady in charge of children's events - she said she had been meaning to contact me about acknowledging the 1,000 library books we read this past year. She has an event happening at the end of September and she would like to invite T2 as a guest. I have no idea what to expect but it should be fun!

Stay safe

I'm concerned for those in the path of Hurricane Irene and hoping she's not as powerful as anticipated. Stay safe friends.

Is it wrong.....

....to be excited about public schools restarting just because it will mean less kids at the park, library, beach, store and all the other places our days of homeschooling take us? Here September 6 is the magical day and we will spend the day withour local HS group at our annual not-back-to-school-playdate in the park. We restarted HS on August 2 so we are nearing the end of our 4th week already and so far so good : )

WE DID IT

We reached our goal of reading 1,000 children's library books. Exhale.

Apparently T2 will receive gifts next week at the library. This was not a library challenge but seeing our book haul every week did lead to conversations about what we were doing and at subsequent visits inquiries as to how many we had read. Earlier this week I told the librarian that we were only 50 or so from our goal and we were told to go in next week when we have reached 1,000. T2 does not know she will receive anything so that will be a nice surprise.

Hmm now for the next reading challenge.... a mini one is to read every book on her bookshelf and decide which ones to keep. Some of her books get read over and over but there are some that haven't been opened in a while so I am looking forward to that but after that I have no idea....

So close

After a reading marathon tonight we are at 982 books. Tomorrow we'll reach our goal - wahoo!

Reading now

Looking forward to craft filled days in the Fall

Excited

Last year I met an amazing new friend and her fabulous boys who were also new to HS. Despite being a member of a large HS group - I only felt a connection with her. I was happy to know someone who was embarking on the same adventure as me. We bounced ideas off one another, had regular playdates (our kids totally hit it off) some field trips and tried geocaching together. I truly feel that our first HS year would have been very different had we not met. To be able to call someone on a day where nothing seems to be going right, when the kids seem disinterested with everything, when the TV/video games have held way too much of my their attention or when in need of a sanity check - we were there for one another, something I hopecontinues this coming year and beyond.

This year I know a few other Mom's beginning their HS journey and I am excited about that - to have a larger group of local people finding their way, seeking ideas and social time for their kids and themselves will be awesome and may lead to our own spin off group as we are in the same town (the group I currently belong to is spread over the region). It is so fun to share how our life has changed since we left public school with others contemplating HS. I hear the excitement in my own voice and see their eyes begin to glint as the possibilities start to collect in their minds and they realize they can do it, it doesn't have to be just a dream.

HS was a dream for me for a very long time. Many things in my life could be better - I could be more organized, take better care of myself, spend less time on the phone/internet - I could go on and on and on but despite those things I can still say I am living the dream - my dream : )

Final haul

Today we returned our last week batch of library books and selected 55. Our last bundle to take us to 1000 library books read since September. As is typical eyes were rolling and feet were tapping behind us in the line to check out as we had about 70 books in total. We have to take a wheeled grocery cart (not a store one but a thing you can either push or pull) because I couldn't carry all our books each time. This is our second cart - the first one crumpled under the strain - oops. We should reach 1,000 next and then decide on our next reading challenge.

The finish line is in sight...

After our most recent reading marathon - we are at 930 library books read since September. I am so eager to get to 1,000 and be done so we can move on to another reading challenge.

Remember me?

So I guess those previous good intentions to post more went out the window but this time I really, really, really mean it!

After a break we started our new school year today. I enjoyed the break but as soon as I started pulling out books and planning for many, many hours I couldn't wait to get back at it.

This year I have divided our year into 4 nine week blocks and it has made it so much easier. We are starting earlier than schools here start so that we can be done when the garden needs attention and to make the most of the warm weather and going places before the kids are done school and the people who summer here roll into town.

We talked about our goals for the year and I took pictures of them to commemorate day 1 of grades 1 and 6.

I decided we should learn Latin using
Our first lesson from it was simple and fun and T2 (now aged 6) was very excited to share what she learned with G when he arrived home from work this evening.

It is so nice starting HS this year because I don't have the anxiety over whether I can do this like I did this time last year.

I can't wait to get stuck into some projects especially art and science.

T2 and I are still reading and tallying the library books we have read. We are at 905 and are determined t9o reach 1000 before September. We would be way past the 1,000 mark had I included reading books we already own but we decided only to include library books and it didn't matter how many times we read it - it only counted once unless we checked it out and read it again at a later date. It's getting hard to find books we haven't read yet at our local small town libraries but we will make it to 1000 be August 31!