Back to the grind . . .

Mom and Dad left this morning, and we started school again . . . but the Christmas decorations are still twinkling merrily all over the house, and I am not at all motivated to put them away. I do miss the extra room in the family room, true, and I am tired of seeing little green fake pine needles on the floor from the garlands going up the stairs, but it is such a hassle to put it all away! Besides, Jonathan has finally gotten used to it all and isn't bothering any of the ornaments! Maybe next weekend.

It was a little hard to start school again after our 2 week break, but we had an easy day of reviewing (just like public school, right?). We got started on thank-you notes, reviewed math facts, read about Charles the Hammer and Charlemagne in history, and reviewed grammer and Latin. This evening I was able to go to the library while the boys watched football, and I found tons of great books, which always revitalizes interest in school-related things. Apparently the library staff were busy little beavers during the Christmas break because the whole library was totally rearranged AND (I'm so excited!) the children's non-fiction has been moved and is now shelved separately from the adult non-fiction! All the non-fiction kids book, in one place, and I don't have to sift through the adult stuff to try to find out which ones are appropriate for children! You might think this would be a given, but believe it or not, my last library, the Beavercreek library, also shelved their kids' non-fiction in with the adult non-fiction. When we moved here and I found out this library did the same thing, I wondered if this trend was just going to follow me around the country. Fortunately, they have seen the error of their ways here, but what I think happens is that people don't really think kids like non-fiction all that much, so who cares where it is shelved? "As long as they can find it for reports" seems to be the thought, as though no kid or parent might ever just want to browse in various topics. Homeschooling people certainly do! So now I am looking forward to future trips to the library, where I can browse with ease!