That was a short vacation

Here's been our schedule so far this summer:
Friday, June 1 - last day of school.
Sunday-Friday, June 3-8 - preparation for Church Outing
Friday - Saturday, June 8-16 - Church Outing
Sunday-Tuesday, June 17-19 - preparation for my parents
Tuesday-Thursday, June 19-21 - parents here; preparation for vacation
Friday-Friday, June 22-29 - vacation
Friday-Friday, June 29-July 6 - kids sick
Sunday - Sunday, July 8-15 - Tony's at camp
Sunday - Friday, July 15-20 Home, final prep for Tony's school
Sunday, July 22 - "Mom, ple-ease, can't I start school today?"

Why not? We've done church outing; our vacation is out of the way, and Tony's experienced summer camp for the first time. We don't have anything else planned for summer vacation. So let's keep him busy and start school. This way he'll be busy, and we will have more flexibility later on during the school year. I've already rearranged the school year so that we don't have to cram a day of school with co-op. This will ease the burden and the stress. In addition Tony is in third grade. The way the program we are using works, K-2 is the lower school. There the kids have multiple reading circles, an activity time where Science and History classes were "fun" classes; he didn't have to take tests or quizzes in them.

In third grade that all changes. Tony is done with phonics class; now he has book reports to do; a science project; tests and quizzes in all subjects, and comprehension quizzes in reading.

I found out on Thursday that both Rachel and Paula will not be returning; Paula is taking duel credit classes at the local community college with a fellow homeschooling friend, and Rachel wants to go back to the school her parents took her out of a couple years ago. So they agreed to "give it a try." So for now I have the girls' young cousin, the preschooler Alex. That one I'm not considering a positive return because I don't yet have his paperwork.

I took Rachel's paperwork to the school she is returning to. I taught there for a year when she was in second grade - an experience that was both beneficial and horrible. At the end of that year, I left the school and have only been back inside twice, once for a graduation and the other time was Thursday. While there I was quite blunt and told the vice-principal that the parents pulled Rachel out of school a couple years ago because they were very dissatisfied with the poor results. "If you want to keep Rachel here," I told the VP, "you have to prove yourself to the parents every single day."

So, Tony is starting school today about a month earlier than I had planned. This will be an interesting year.