After a break during the month of June, girl7 is ASKING for school to start again.  So today we went out to buy their new binders and some other school supplies.  Think I've talked about this before, but each year the kids get a large 3-ring binder where we keep all their work(art projects, writing assignments, worksheets, etc) for the year.  If the binder is getting too full, it's time to start giving some art work away or throwing it away(gasp!).   I have a few children who have a desire to save EVERYTHING - wonder where they could have gotten that from?   I splurge and buy the kind where you can put title pages on the cover.  The first day of school they decorate the front page of their binder and do a self portrait (I'm looking forward to showing them what they have done in years past to compare).  I'll also take their pictures. 

I'm planning to ease us back in gradually.  We are going to do just Bible and Language Arts this week and then add Math next week.  Then in August, we will take two weeks off because BW will finally be done with summer school and we can officially "vacation" including our first ever family camping trip and a trip to Northern California to visit family.  My hope is to have our schedule down so that we can start Konos in September with their online co-op and add in art, social studies, science, etc..   

We are still enjoying our summer reading.  The kids are officially hooked on the Magic Treehouse series.  I got tired of reading them out of order, so I was able to get a collection of books 1-8 on CD from the library and we listen to them each night.

-J