Must....Finish....School

All of the sudden the weather has jumped from spring to summer with temperatures in the mid to upper 80's.  This seems to happen every year.  We rarely get a chance to enjoy the spring-like weather in the 70's.  I'm not complaining, though, because I love the summer.  But it's not summer yet.

Our push lawn mower is on it's last leg.  It's quite embarrassing, actually.  When my husband gets ready to mow the lawn I find the nearest place to hide.  It sputters, it spits, it clatters,  it hems and haws, it lurches, it fizzles then roars, it rattles...you get the picture.  Well, maybe it isn't quite that bad, but if our homeschool had a sound...it would sound like that lawnmower!

The outside summer air calls to us, it beckons us to come visit.  There are gardens to tend to, flowers to be planted bees buzzing, birds chirping.  It's a hub of activity.  Each day I can see another plant sprouting and waking up after a long winters nap.

I open the front door and feel the warm air hit my face. The perfect weather for getting my new plants in the ground! I head out with shovel in hand.  I get right to work.

"What should I do today, Mom?" Calls a voice from the window.

School?  Oh, yeah.  School.  They both have a schedule hanging up and know perfectly well what to do, but hope to take advantage of my distracted state of mind.

"Uh, just read....something", I say, with a slight dismissive wave of the hand- as in 'you'll figure it out.'

Before I know it, school has moved to the front porch, in the sunshine.  Jared's reading Story of the World to me out loud and Jenna is doing math on the laptop in the adirondack chair.  It couldn't get any better than this.

An hour later, I'm still digging.  I hear the kids making their way out the back door to finish building the fort they started on the day before. I sure hope they finished their work, I think to myself.  Then I remember their read-aloud stories I forgot read to both of them.  Guess I'll do it later this afternoon. I must be kidding myself.

Somehow we all ended up back inside later in the afternoon, by chance! Ha. I did actually read them their books, and we finished both of them.  Now it's time for each of them to pick one more book to finish out the school year.  The question is- will they get read?

Climbing into bed that evening I decide to quiz Jared on what he read in Story of the World, to reassure myself that they're actually still learning.  He recites the chapter back to me.  Good. After reading a chapter in Colossians, I make myself pick up a new book to read to them- "Maniac Magee".  We read the first 5 chapters before dozing off.

I think we can...I think we can!