August Again

You know, when I was a kid, August meant that we still had one last month of summer left... no longer! The schools around here start next Wednesday, and co-op begins on Wednesday too. With all the planning and prep, it seems as though I've spent most of my summer "doing school", but at least I wasn't having to make the kids do anything, and that's the harder thing by far. But on Monday, we'll be ready! I have an annual list of school to-dos:

• Recover and return all last year's books to their proper shelves or tubs
• Purchase any new curricula
• Sell or paperbackswap books that won't be needed again (I've done lots of this the last week)
• laminate any flimsy book covers- especially on books and teacher manuals that have to last more than one year
• create the "math calendar," which lists all assignments for each child for every school day throughout the year. This is the only thing that has ever worked long-term and kept us on track all year long
• make copies of any curricula on CD (I know you're not supposed to, but better to scratch or lose a $1 copy than part of a $150 math curriculum, right?)
• label all workbooks with name and year of each kid (because the number of workbooks seems to multiply exponentially each year, causing much confusion unless you tag those suckers right at the start)

And it's almost all done! I've been on a school shopping binge too, purchasing all the loss leaders at every store (.15 packs of looseleaf paper, .01 folders, free scientific calculator with rebate, .05 notebooks... love it!) and I went on a book binge at the library used book sale, where I found almost everything JM and Becca need for literature, as well as a bunch of other great stuff. I am torn between being delighted with my great finds and annoyed at the library for getting rid of these things in the first place, but oh well.

This year in co-op, we're studying the Middle Ages and Renaissance, which is probably the kids' favorite time period to study because they love the projects and preparations for the Medieval Feast. I overheard John Mark explaining to a sibling how he was going to build his Viking longhouse this time around- and he's in high school! I negotiated with the Sunday School teachers, and today, Becca and I went over and decorated the history classroom:

Cool projects, brand new crayons, sharpened pencils, shiny new notebooks... the kids are eager to get started again. I guess you can only lay around so much before even textbooks begin to sound appealing. And just like when I was a kid- and against all reason- I am eager to get started too.