Not today, but yesterday, I said FUCK homework! I prefaced this idea with the notion that we will have to make up the work over the weekend (It's supposed to rain)
So, I took the kids to the park for a picnic and a stroll along the river. I decided that we could go into some of the places that aren't really public access, "If we are good explorers." We began making our own Wildcat Trails.
They loved it.
I had my kids start to name the places we were discovering and leave little sticks to mark them. There is a hill with tree roots exposed all the way down it and he named it Steproot Hill, and Steproot Point has the best view. We found a manmade perfect circle of big rocks, about twenty feet in diameter, and I suggested it was made that way for a group of people to sit around a fire, ages ago. It was in a small valley and he named it Circlefire Valley. We also found a tunnel, Wetworm Passage, that I did not know was there. My daughter slipped and scraped her knee trying to climb up to Circlefire Ridge. My son got a minor injury, too. Everyone got dirty as fuck! We threw our blanket in the middle of Firecircle Meet and had our dinner surrounded by the stones where the ancient fires once burned, under Grandfather Oak.
I don't have any regrets about how we spent our evening, even though they did not do their homework and they went to bed late and exhausted.
How cool a day is that! I hope you made some nice memories. Sounds like it to me.
Homework? More like Lifework...how to imagine and take a step outside of the ordinary. Sounds like you all had a very special day. Always a bonus...and much better than homework!
See, that's what I was trying to do.
I have felt that we are all over-burdened by the workload lately and WE NEEDED a break from the daily grind. It was my impulse to just ditch it all and try a little freeform stimulation. Once we got started, it all just worked. I can guaranteee that my first grader learned more with me yesterday than she would have from a three letter word story or my third grader would have learned from a whole page of wiggly, long column arithmetic problems, all of which, they already have mastered.
In addition, I made some valuable, personal memories ... watching their young minds actually work as they experienced another small fold of nature's wonders. I'm sure it will cost me, but I don't care.
