end of summer

if you keep track of the seasons using the old English reckoning, then August 2nd is the first day of Autumn.  that might seem strange at first…isn’t August high summer?  but really it’s the beginning of the harvest.  in our CSA this week we’ve got melons, tomatoes, peppers, and corn to prove it.  and we’ve picked our first tomato from our front door garden.  but for us, for now it still feels like summer.  AP is around, we are watching so many movies, we have lunch in the park a few times a week.

and most of all, we haven’t started school yet.  i was planning on starting next week, to give us a trial week while Andy was still around for backup, but we are having house guests instead.   there will be lots of conversation, lots of drawing, lots of margaritas.  see it can’t be Fall yet, we’re still drinking margaritas!

i am slowly getting our bookshelves + learning spaces organized and ready.  and we’ve got a passel of graphic novels about Greek mythology coming from the library.  this is Nico’s kinder year, so we are going to travel The Alphabet Path again.  really we won’t be following Elizabeth’s plans all that closely.  but we will be making plenty of room in the schedule for lots of picture books.  i think everyone will be happy with that piece of the curriculum.  we will also be making ABC Snacks and even trying our hand at some bento fun!

i’m looking forward to a bunch of free webinars coming up in September.  Julie Brave Writer will be speaking on September 9th, 17, and 23rd.  i heard Julie speak about helping your struggling writer.  i don’t have struggling writers, but even still, it was time well spent.  her “authentic writing voice” really shines and her gentle, loving, grounded approach to writing and homeschooling can throw the lights on for you.  and did i mention it’s free?  go sign up already.

one more thing…i’ll be signing up for the fiction writing MOOC offered by the Iowa Writers Workshop.  it doesn’t start til the end of September, but that gives me time to get school underway and dust off the novel that needs to be completely re-written.  if assignments help you get your work done, if you love hearing working writers talk process, if you want feedback from readers on your work, then this is the place for you.  and i would be foolish not to plug ModPo again.  hands down the BEST MOOC out there.