School 365

This is a guest post from former contributor Amy Schuff of AmySchuff.com.

School 365

It’s that time of year, the time when the days get longer and the nights hotter. Children wake up and put their bathing suits on, just in case they get to run in the sprinkler that day. Windows are thrown open, the dog barks exceptionally loudly at the squirrels, and the garden is haphazardly kept from wilting in the sun. It’s Summertime. My favorite time of the year, hands down, no exception (although Christmas runs a close second!).

It’s also the time when children are let out of school. Everywhere I turn there are end-of-the-school-year parties and saying goodbye to friends for the summer. There are teacher gifts and end-of-the-year report cards. The days after the last day of school can be spent doing whatever the heart desires: watching tv, playing outside, visiting family, having pie for breakfast.

But what about the kids who wake up on their friends’ “last day of school” and for them, nothing is different? There are no parties to attend, no gifts to give teachers (I wish!). We don’t have a “last day of school,” so there’s really nothing to celebrate. It’s just a normal day in the life of an eclectic, beyond school/unschooling family.

So what do we do? We wake up, eat pie for breakfast, put on our bathing suits, and try to nurse the garden back to health. We get our groceries, visit Grandma, write some books on “How to be a spy kid,” and do it all over again the next day.

There’s nothing to end because each day is a brand new beginning. A new day to explore, learn new things, swim all day, and write in our journals late into the night. It’s a day to learn how to make change for the nice lady who bought all the toys at our garage sale. It’s a nice day to look up why the Tower of Pisa leans. It’s a nice day to learn how to pump the gas. And it’s a nice day to do life, just like the other 364 nice days.