First Day of School

Yesterday the schoolers went back to school. That means a parade of bikes, cars, and walkers past our house at about 8:45. I love this parade. We go out and wave and say hi to friends. Sometimes we are still in our pajamas at this point. Yesterday, thanks to rare ambition on my part, we were all dressed. My kids called to their friends, "Are you excited?" Some were and that surprised them.

That back and forth the kids engage in concerning public school and homeschooling is almost always entertaining to hear. Most recently, my kids reported that some of their friends were excited for school for the prizes they got when they had done well at something. My kids reported this in a sort of, "What do you have to say about that?" fashion.

Well, what I said pertained to OUR first day of NOT Back to School yesterday. So after the parade (my 3 year old being very disappointed no one threw candy, and not loving the suggestion that WE should throw candy at THEM next time) we loaded into the van to head to a celebratory breakfast at a local fast food joint with a large play area. We had invited any homeschoolers who wanted to join us to come, and we mobbed the place. The kids munched and played with old friends and new for an hour and a half.

After that we headed home for a bit of yard work and to try and get something healthy in them before another celebration at a local splash pad. That party was hosted by my daughter's public online school. So they ran through the water in their swimming suits and played on the playground, snacked on popsicles the teacher brought, and my daughter received a school shirt and laptop for the year. They made new friends here and moms exchanged info on getting together to do fun things.

After that, we came home, fired up the  new laptop, and took in 3 lessons about Vikings while we lay on the guest bed in our cool basement. The excitement about this new "learning device" had not faded, so my son used it to work on the "book" he is writing about being a Viking god.

And that was pretty much it. As I relaxed and played with my kids, I couldn't help contrast the experience we were having to the experience the families who live around us were having. I'm not saying Back to School is all bad. In my memory, there was something very exciting about a new locker, new clothes, new teachers. And there was stress too, which itself isn't even all bad. But I couldn't help but wonder, if we could somehow break down old myths about socialization, or standardization, or what it means to prepare for the "real world" (as if traditional public school is anything like it), that more families might find a way to inject all they loved about school (field trips, new clothes and supplies, or whatever) into a meaningful, joyous, enriching, and educational experience with their own kids every day.

So I write to you, my imagined audience who has been tempted by the vision of homeschooling, and tortured by fears not born of your heart but injected by the norms of our society. And I ask, what have you got to lose? And perhaps more importantly, what have you got to gain?