The back-to-school sales are revving up in the box stores- crayons, bright folders, goldenrod lists of preferred brands, how many pencils and contraband that will be sent home immediately filling red shopping carts.
I loved shopping for school supplies. The pencils were so perfect and sharp- the notebooks smelled like new paper- the assignment grids were all empty, anticipating brilliant and exciting learning activities. It was a fresh start.
We are pretty relaxed home learners- landing somewhere in between unschooling and learner-led unit studies. As such, we don’t have a big need for a checklist and a trip around Target.
This year Carter has requested that we study King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and I’m excited about plunging in- but still, during my last trip through the grocery store I worried that Carter would be missing out on the whole school anticipation ritual.
Then this morning as we were leaving swim lessons he patted my hand.
Carter: Mom? I can’t wait for September.
Me: Why? I thought you were enjoying swim lessons.
Carter: No- I mean, September is when our school starts, right?
The unschooler in me cringed a bit at the idea that school is only in the fall- don’t we learn all the time? The mom in me got all choked up. His excitement is worth a zillion perfectly sharpened pencils.
Addendum:
Later I was driving Carter home from ceramics class and talking about Nanna’s birthday, August 31st.
Carter: Nanna’s birthday is the day before September?
Me: (waiting for a little more school sugar) Mmm Hmmm.
Carter: So two weeks after Nanna’s birthday, we’ll be PLAYING SPORE!!!
Me: (sinking feeling)
Carter: Mom? Why are you making that face?
Me: At the pool this morning, when you said you couldn’t wait for September, what did you say?
Carter: I said ‘in September we’ll be playing SPORE! I can’t wait! Why are you making a face then?
Me: I have to go edit the blog.
Mommy needs to work on her listening skills, but all the wishful thinking skills are stellar.
*author’s note: something on this blog is preventing the I’s from being capitalized at the start of quote sentences. I am not deliberately pulling an e. e. cummings on these posts. Just FYI. Also, all of the Septembers are capitalized when I type them.
3 replies on “Back to School”
Are you guys taking ceramics from Katie? We miss Katie, but I can’t have the kids do it year round or we’d have to buy another house to keep their ceramics in.
I’d never heard of Spore before, but it looks really cool! I’ll see if my kids (at least the 10 year old) might want to play. 🙂
We are fast approaching the Carter Makice wing of our vast estate. He’s making some cool ceramic stuff, though, and enjoying every minute of it.
Spore is a must get. The basic creature creator is free and lots of fun. For a mere $10 you can get the full creature creator and make all sorts of interesting critters. The game is due out in the fall and is ripe for a lot of educational discussion as they evolve from small celled organisms to terraforming aliens.
You should post some photos of Carter’s creations; we’d love to see them! We enjoy looking at Katie’s other students’ works.
Spore sounds fun as well as educational. I’m going to see if I can talk my kids into it.