The End Is Near - Of School, That Is

The signs are all there. When we step out of the house, you can hear children's voices - other children's voices. When we go to the pool, the lifeguards are anxious and have duplicated themselves. They shout, "No running!" until they are hoarse as countless heedless children scurry on the moist blue padded floors around the pool. Our school district has finalized its lessons.

We, on the other hand, will not be done until the end of July, which coincides with my middle's birthday. Our month off will be in August, two weeks before the public school kids start school again. Our school begins again in the second week of September.

My kids are dragging their feet. I'm waning. The heat is palpable as soon as you step outside, a wall of humid heat that you enter like a spoon in jello. The air-conditioning that usually shuts off is always on, whether it's set on 85 or not. Schoolbooks are getting done one by one. A few more weeks, a few more weeks.

As excited as I am about showing my eldest the Superstar Student DVDs I got (from Great Courses), I'm not going to do it now. I'll wait until that first week or two of school, when the idea of the new school year is still fresh and he is much more likely to be receptive.

This July has been intensely hot. Good thing I had the World Cup to divert my attention. Now that it's over we still have the AC - and the pool. Bike rides followed promptly by cool showers. Nothing else will do.

RIP Tadpoles

The tadpoles didn't make it. The amount of lettuce we gave them must have exceeded the amount recommended for the amount of water they had inside the bottle. I was sadder than the kids were. They basically shrugged their shoulders and said that that sometimes happens. This from the kids who created fingertip-sized drawings for the "baby frogs" to enjoy, and a few hours long of entertainment. But so is the thing with kids. They move on - and rightly so- faster than we do. RIP, little tadpoles. Swim and hop around in froggy heaven.

The Newest Member of Our Homeschool

Dreamer (10) has been obsessed with reading Calvin & Hobbes for many weeks now. He decided that if Calvin had Hobbes, he needed his own buddy (apparently siblings don't cut it). After digging in his closet he chose his buddy in the form of the Sleeping Beauty dragon his uncle gifted him when he was four. He gave him a new life as Drago, and Drago now sits beside him during his schoolwork. Dreamer has assured me that Drago is fully rehabilitated and no longer bent on destruction. Furthermore, he is not actually the reincarnation of Maleficent, but transformed in a gentler male form. So far he hasn't caused any problems, but I'm keeping the family dog a safe distance away from him just in case. Here he is, hamming it up for the camera.