Home again

Two weeks, six states and 50 hours of driving and we are back home. We as parents learned a year's worth of ideas for our Charlotte Mason run homeschool, caught a free symphony in the gardens of a colonial governor's palace, ate seafood and surfed on the Atlantic coast, saw a dolphin and a shark, played tennis and walked the marina, watched mountains of cooking shows and soccer games (we don't get those on our tv), attended a wedding with long missed friends and generally enjoyed eating and sleeping at our whim. The kids explored two zoos, camped for 4 days with grandparents which included swimming, canoeing, fishing, sandcastle building, marshmallow and hotdog roasting. They played soccer, baseball, cricket, croquet, I'm probably forgetting something, and lots else that I didn't hear about. They didn't get to bed anywhere on time and they decided that chocolate and popcorn counted as vegetables.

And my first thoughts on our return home was how the garden fared in our absence. The rabbits had a feast. Good for them. As good as it is to go away, it's good to be home.

I want to write more about the Charlotte Mason conference and what I learned. I'm not sure I'll get much done though. In the meantime if you're interested here's a website with some of the ideas from those in my homeschool group who also attended the conference.

The crew are outside working on the chicken coop. I am inside working on packing. Our little holiday is being counted down and looked forward to by all. As I cooked my porridge this morning, I found myself daydreaming of what I would choose to eat in the restaurants.

School finished last Friday. We have all enjoyed late mornings and the lack of "have to" pressuring us to move on. We've all been a little bored too! A routine will make itself felt. At this point I don't feel like forcing it. We are all ready for a backing off from outside direction. (Read: Mom tells the kids what to do all the time and we're all, even Mom, tired of that.) Firm reminders though that: "Mom, I'm bored" will result in a chore. They're quick to learn and the comment has changed to: "I'm trying to decide what to do." So they build a chicken coop. Or they play games that they haven't played in months. Of course there are tons of books to read. And when it's not so windy they love to be outside. And Mommy likes to sit in a quiet, sunny corner with a good book and a coffee. Some things don't change.