Hands of Time

Oh, those last few weeks of summer vacation have crept ever so slowly. I can tell that the kids are eager for school. Inwe asked to wear her McGehee uniform today, which I refused. She'll wear it all year. The real problem is that she had no clothes that she wanted to wear.

Larien keeps asking to do more reading lessons than her brain can handle. The more complex words require more attention and coaching on my part. By the end of the story, she's excited to discover something new, but she doesn't last long. We stop at one lesson now. She received a letter from her teachers that contained a drawing of a ladybug, the class mascot. She colored it and only needs to write a sentence about a ladybug on the sheet of paper. These will be put in the classroom on the first day.

Finwe knows that he'll start school, too. I asked him what he'll like about school. He replied so quickly that I suspect he's been thinking about it. "Other boys." Methinks he's weary of the overbearing, controlling sisters?

One of the reasons the kids are ready for organized learning is that they've only had one organized summer camp, which was only two hours focused on music appreciation. This is more about how I spent summers than any financial restraints. My summer camps were always only a week at most and only for the mornings. We played at home and on the beach and in the park. Summer camp? Ick! That resembled school way too much. While I liked school immensely, summer meant time for renewal of that excitement, not time away from mom and dad.

At the camp the kids did attend, they also did art. Two of the projects I enjoyed so much that I'm displaying them in the front of the house, a watercolor painting of flowers in a vase and these hand prints mounted on canvas frames.