Readin’, Ritin’ and ‘Rithmatic

Back to school.

If you have children, the end of August signals major purchases: new crayons, Elmer’s glue, multicolored folders and brand-spankin’ new notebooks. My kids may not be headed to the school bus, but they are headed back to school.

Our classroom may look slightly different than the standard, however …

And you should see the battle ax of a school marm!

Just kidding … I’m not that scary. (At least I don’t think so.)

This isn’t really our classroom, though we did learn interesting things here.

We took a family vacation to celebrate the end of summer. We’re tucked away in a cabin in the woods … remember the story of The Secret House? That’s where we are.

The state park happened to be hosting a Heritage Days Celebration. The kids tried quill and ink writing. Farmboy practiced letters on a slate. Then we worked our sums.

After school, we headed to the candle-dipping demonstrations. We churned butter, washed the laundry on a scrub board and took our turn at some early children’s games. Farmguy was intrigued by a logging demonstration. The girls visited the sewing table and practiced their embroidery.

It was the perfect way to kick-off a new season of learning.

I’m not sure what today has in store for us.

Perhaps a walk through the forest with our botany books. Maybe a geometry lesson involving a rope, tall tree and a swimming hole. We could practice penmanship and language arts by writing an essay about the seven deer that grazed within a stone’s throw of our cabin.

This is vacation … there’s not really a lesson plan.

But there are many wishes, thanks to a back roads drive and the discovery of a stone well.

My wish for you and yours:

May your back-to-school season hold exciting discoveries and intriguing surprises.

And mastery of multiplication tables, long division and linking verbs.