Burning Books

Fahrenheit 451 anyone? No not really. We don't burn books. But, every year, we have a tradition at our house. Young One looks forward to it throughout the school year. In fact, he stores paper during the year for the annual burning o' the homework.

Environmentally a good idea? We all know the answer to that one! This isn't about what's good for the Earth, though. It's exhilarating to watch him gleefully torch his much hated homework. We sit around the fire and toast his graduation to a new grade with ice cream and reminiscing. (S'mores cooked over burning colored paper and notebooks have been shown to cause numerous diseases and loss of brain matter, so we don't go there.)

Actually, we had an interesting talk about his sex ed class at school and how the boys asked 55 minutes of questions (God love the instructor!). Young One couldn't believe kid's parents didn't talk to them about this stuff. Welcome to the world, kiddo! Amazing what they talk about when the you just take the time to listen.

I now have a 6th grade middle schooler. Next year, new school, new experiences. Life is changing quickly! His last day of school he leapt from the bus and immediately went to a friends house for a celebration. His life is becoming more and more his own and I couldn't be happier. Although, I have to admit, I had twinges of loneliness when he was gone that evening. It was our first night of waiting up for him to come home. He arrived at the late (gasp!) hour of 10 pm.

So, our annual burning o' the homework didn't happen until a couple of days later. Still was fun. And so, summer is launched!