School's Out!

There is no music anywhere
Like children's voices in the air.

Like crystal bells they peal and ring
They never really speak... they SING.

But, oh, their cries when school is out--
A song... a cheer... a bell... a SHOUT!

~Mae Winkler Goodman

Last week we decided to be done for summer. I don't feel like I can give my full focus to the task at hand, and Sunburst certainly doesn't want to focus either. We're tapped out. Plus, the pool down the street is open. It's a big one with water slides and kiddie sprinklers. From our house we can hear the happy din of swimmers all day long. Water slides or math problems? It's not really a fair contest.

So we went through our stuff and together figured out what projects we absolutely must finish up in order to have some closure on the school year. There was a lot that I had planned to cover but didn't get around to. And I'm learning to take my own advice and feel okay with that.

Plus Marsha Johnson, of the Waldorf Home Educators yahoo group, said something the other day that really moved me. She said, "You do not have to teach your child every single thing, little tastes, little exposures, little hops on stones in the stream, little meanderings around the meadow, remember........ They already KNOW it. You are simply part of the process where they are waking up and REMEMBERING it.........."

So now that I'm totally off the hook (whew!) in order to feel personally satisfied this is our little list of stuff to finish up:

• The King Of Ireland's Son --we took a break and are now back, fully entranced, with the story. Sunburst wants to draw a few more pictures and write about them before she shows it off to her dad.
• Saints and Heroes embroidery --just three more squares to go! And this is no big hurry, except that she's anxious to sew them up into something for display purposes.

Like I said, it's just a wee list unless I've forgotten something, which is entirely possible. I also have a few books that I would like to continue to read to her out of since we haven't finished them. Maybe we will remember to get to these:

• Jataka Tales
• Aesops Fables
• A Pebble For Your Pocket, Thich Nhat Hanh

And all those lovely math stories I didn't get to I will hold over for next year. I'm planning on REALLY preparing ahead this summer for next year. I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants this year (well, since the car accident anyway.) It's not that I don't function well that way most of the time, but I really want to take the effort to sit with the material for longer this time and really contemplate what it is I want to bring to Sunburst.

And Moonshine, oh! She's excited that she's finally old enough for kindergarten this Fall. She DOES realize that she's not going anywhere for this. She knows she's on the homeschool plan. What she doesn't realize, I think, is that she's been doing kindergarten all along. So I will go out of my way to find something novel to bring to her-- the stories and songs she doesn't remember hearing, that sort of thing. Her excitement is awfully cute. She's counting down the days, figuratively, until she'll be old enough to do "that fun picture work" like Sunburst.

I'm starting to understand all that talk about building anticipation.