Starting something new from stash is so exciting!

You know, when you mention "stash" you conjure up all sorts of different pictures, depending on your audience.... Some people stash yarn, some stash fabric, shoes, recipes, shows to watch on tivo, music downloads, myriads of other things that don't even cross the mind of joe-average mom-types living in the suburbs.

I stash curriculum.

Last spring I decided we would do some science over the summer. I purchased the My World Science on weather, astronomy, and oceans & coral reefs, intending to study weather (VKid2 was obsessed about tornadoes, which is a long story...anyway, I thought maybe studying them would calm her down).

Anyway, that idea fizzled before it even started. Kid1 was involved in so many summertime activities that doing any sort of curriculum was just too much. So I shelved it.

The other day Kid1 had the brilliant notion that since we were near the solstice with its long, long nights, and since it was pretty mild out, we should study astronomy. Voila! Pull out the My World Science, plus all the myriad astronomy-type books (including Usborne, One Small Square, H.A. Rey, How The Universe Works...hey, I don't limit my stash to just textbooks). On the downside, now that we're cityfolk we have to deal with quite a bit of light pollution. On the upside, we have access to a planetarium, which we visited last Saturday.

Last night we went out to look at the stars. In a way the light pollution made it easier. Since only the brightest stars shown through, it was quite easy to pick them out. Kid2 was the first to spot Orion's belt, and then excitedly yelled, "there's the girls!" pointing up at the Pleiades. Kid1, our junior astronomer, never did spot the Pleiades. You know what's really funny? Kid2 learned about the Pleiades at the sky show at the Planetarium Saturday. Yep, that sky show she begged to skip. Do you know how many hours of whining we endured Saturday because she Did Not Want To Go To The Boring Ol' Planetarium? And now she's running around our yard in jammies, boots, winter coat and hat, absolutely absorbed in the stuff.