So, you may have noticed a tiny decrease in content this week. It’s because Igor starts school next week. Were he going into the local school district, he’d be starting kindergarten. He tested in the top 1% to get into the gifted and talented academy, but it’s a long way away, they’re still doing stuff way below his level, it’s a lock-down school because of the neighborhood it’s in, and frankly, he just doesn’t learn well by rote, which is how public school is taught.

So, we’re going to try homeschooling this year and see how it goes. I’ve decided that when it comes to actual book-learning academics, we’re going to pay attention to the school calendar of our local district. That way he starts “school” at the same time as his neighborhood friends. Mind you, I’m pretty sure our school is more fun. Heh.

We’ve broken out some books already, and have started refreshing what we learned before summer.

This year we’ll be doing History of the World – Part One . . . and no, not the Mel Brooks movie.

Even though the material is intended for kids about 5 years older than he is, we’ve started reviewing The Complete Book of Maps & Geography. He seems to get the spacial concepts pretty easily, and the book has lots of fun cut/glue type activities, which Igor loves.

We’ll be starting again with First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. We’ve been working on language stuff all summer, so I don’t think we need much review on the topics he seems to know.

We’ve got a couple of math books, but I’m not sure if we’ll pick one, or float between them all. He really digs flashcards too, which is great because I make a game of it, and we can take them almost anywhere.

Science; I don’t even know where to begin – we have so many science books and projects. We’ll be doing at least on project/science experiment each week.

And of course, there will be crafts. There is no avoiding crafts in this house. I’m like a crazy person, I swear I could open a craft store just on the supplies I have around the house. I cannot be trusted in a Hobby Lobby, I tell you what. So I think we’re laid in for supplies. Let the teaching begin!

How will this impact Soapy Hollow? Well…somewhat. I’m scaling back production, so there will be limited quantities of some items. I’m not accepting any new wholesale accounts at the moment. But other than that, I plan to continue tracking various legislation that impacts artisans, news about the industry, chemical updates, product updates, product testing results, development and of course, we’re going to try and have some new instructables up every week or two.

So, stick around, how else will you know when I’m making your favorite?