There you go, there is a controversial statement for you.
Today, Eb decided once and for all that "We are awesome."
We were in the car, on the way to meet some friends for a picnic by the river, armed with spare clothes, footballs and food. It was ten in the morning and all the windows in the car were open with 'The Lost World' blasting from the speakers.
He later said that he felt sorry for kids who were stuck in school with the sun shining. He said he used to stare out the window at the school field and imagine he was out there playing.(Which explains why he never got more than one sentence written in his book!)
If you asked me to pin point exactly what the kids learnt today, I would probably struggle to define it. They played team sports (football), took turns on the swings, protected the picnic from the feral chickens that appeared, paddled in the river, watched boats in the Lock, made mud/ sand pies and got stuck in boggy soil, climbed trees, got filthy, got stung by nettles, laughed so much they were nearly sick and ran bare foot through the grass (which accounts for the nettle stings.)
This one aspect of home education makes all the other blood, sweat and tears days worth it. I would never for one minute paint a picture of unobtainable idyllic living. There are days that a school uniform and the potential quietness of 9 to 3 appeals to me. There are many, many days that I question what we are doing, if we are setting the kids up for epic fail when they are adults, and if they will hate me for not being normal.
Then today happens.
We all wake up and for once the weather forecast is accurate and we are indeed blessed with a warm, sunny day. So we down tools, grab some food and head out.
I know that in our own small home ed group there are at least two other events that have been organised because of the good weather. Even the die hard curriculum followers have turned out, some bringing a text book with them but most armed with bats, balls and suncream.
For one day we are living the dream, and it's actually a rather good dream to live.
(So good that I for once forgot to take a single picture)
1 comment:
That does sound like an excellent day. I had a similar but different experience the other day. My children do go to school, but I'm one of the only mothers around here who stays at home and on Wednesday (which is always a half day in Belgium), we spent most of the afternoon in the park playing in the sun and it felt so right then to have decided to put my work on hold to be there for them.
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