School at the Beach

Well I sort of disappeared from this space for a while there.  I’m sure you can guess why:  I came down with the flu the kids had. Somehow The Daddy Monkey was spared.  But today we are all sick with some sort of sinus cold.  So rather than focus on how much sickness I’ve dealt with over the last three weeks, I decided to pop in here and share a beautiful moment from last week.

It was Friday, and we had finally gotten back into the swing of things.  Laundry was caught up, and we were finally back at school again. We hadn’t yet come down with this bug we have now.  I usually make Friday a half day as far as school is concerned, but I just decided at breakfast that the day was far too beautiful to be inside.  The boy asked me, “why don’t we make Fridays a weekend?”

So for once, I indulged us all.  It was our first beach trip of the year.  We arrived to find the beach pretty empty, and changed from how we left it last year.  The water was still cold, but we managed to get a bit wet.  We had a lovely time, and it was the first time I took my children to the beach, just the three of us, and they weren’t asking, “when do our friends get here?”

I will admit I’ve had a few homeschool moments when I have thought, “what have I gotten myself into?” But to be able to take my children to the beach on a Friday morning (and manage to learn something while we are there!) fills my heart with such gladness that I am able to give them this gift.

“School always appeared to me like a prison, and I never could make up my mind to stay there, not even for four hours a day, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was such a joy to run about in the free air, or to paddle around in the water.”  ~Claude Monet