Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Not Back to School

Happy Not Back To School Day!

It feels like our first unschooling in years! I am full of warm happy memories of the year we first stepped back from public school and just took a year away. That year instead of going back to school we took a family trip. A lovely trip around the Olympic Peninsula to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the Hoh Rainforest and to Ocean Shores, the kitchiest of little coast towns.

This weekend we went back to Ocean Shores to fly kites and drive mopeds on the beach (I know, but the men in the family were just so happy!).



And today we drove past little gatherings of girls in ponytails and pink capris, boys in spiked hair and wheeley shoes all waiting with moms and dads and grandmas for the bus. And we drove on by with our day. Drop the car off for work, stop by our "homeschool" school to move tables and set up chairs for orientation, home for left over tacos for lunch, a run to the community college to buy the oldest a parking permit, pick up the car, come home. Work, read, cook.

The days will come soon when classes will start, and homework is in full swing. But the oldest is back out of regular high school with its six hours of classes a day and into community college for the end of high school, and the youngest is old enough to be in middle school classes at the HOME school, which means we have Monday and Friday off from class. We can go to museums and the beach and the science center and we can be together. Maybe they won't want to be with me now that they're so old. Or maybe it will be like today when the oldest drove during errands, and I did equivalent fractions with the youngest in the back seat, and it was so good.

It's almost like just raw homeschooling again.

And it makes me feel so full.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ahhh, how lovely! We also had a wonderful first day of unschool. We had a homeschool potluck at a local park with other homeschoolers, although we did do some math curricula in the morning ;).

When I drove to town yesterday morning I couldn't at first figure out why there were so many kids running around on the street at 7 a.m., and then remembered!

Kari said...

Oh Kelly, I know, I know--we talk about our dear unschooling, and sometimes one of the boys reminds me, it's really "always" schooling!! LOL! Hope your September is just delightful. ~k

Cee Jay said...

Sounds wonderful. The time with our children at home with us flies by so quickly. You are wise to experience it fully.