Are we done yet?

I thought my school supply shopping ended on Sunday, the day before the first day of school, but I was oh so incredibly wrong. I revised my assessment and thought my school supply shopping ended Monday, after visiting three stores for book socks and a pencil pouch to replace the pencil case I sent to school. (For those wondering what in the world is a book sock, it is the modern replace for paper book covers, or grocery sacks we used in my house to wrap the outer cover of schools book to protect them from natural wear and tear).

I really did visit three stores Monday night searching for a pencil pouch. The first big box store was completely out of pouches. The national drug store chain was also out. I finally stopped at the regional grocery chain and found a plethora of pencil pouches. I hoped I would never have to shop for school supplies again, and I didn't for a full 24 hours. Then, today happened and Little Clover informed me he needed two more book socks. I think I am finally done (at least for a year).

Little Clover has been doing well in school. Tonight we had the pleasure of story time. He read "My Grandfather's Journey" to Italian and I. It is the story of the author's grandfather's travels between Japan and America. Halfway through the story, we hit the passage of the Grandfather standing in "endless farm fields" and Little Clover stopped reading. He looked at us and said, "That makes absolutely no sense. How can it be endless. He had to get into the field which means there is a beginning, and if there is a beginning, there must be an end." I love his reasoning, especially when it gives insight into how he views the world.

For instance, I bought a "Travel the States" workbook for him over the summer. My intent was to provide him with an educational outlet whenever we found ourselves in a situation requiring downtime or waiting. He's entering the third grade and the focus at his school is America history and geography, so the workbook seemed like a good idea. In addition to the American geography, it teaches map reading skills and state facts. Last week, we did the Virginia worksheet page. The Virginia page had a cartoon picture of Colonial Williamsburg. The instructions on the page were to circle all the modern things that did not belong in Colonial Williamsburg. Little Clover circled the spinning wheel. I said, "Wait a minute. They had spinning wheels in Colonial times." He replied, "Yes, but they said circle the modern things. You have a spinning wheel, so it's a modern thing." He had me on that one.