Today we went to the park with a few friends and I was reminded of why I hate summer vacation. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate summer. I love the sunshine and the warm weather interspersed with spectacular thunderstorms; love the flowers, love being outside and growing things; love blowing bubbles in the wind and watching my kids running through the sprinklers (okay, fine, sometimes I run through them too--but in a very dignified and mature way); love cooking outdoors, hiking in the mountains; love, love, love that I can walk outside nearly every single day and I sincerely appreciate the complete and total lack of ice and snow. But I hate summer vacation.
"Huh?" You ask. Well, let me explain. From August through May us homeschoolers essentially have the world to ourselves Monday through Friday from roughly 8 am to 3 pm. Well, we share it with the retirees and stay at home moms with preschoolers. The library, the YMCA, the public parks, the zoos and museums, even the stores. They are all ours. And we like it that way. When I take my kids to the Y during the school year, we frequently have a whole pool to ourselves. When we go to the library, the librarians are relaxed, friendly and helpful and the few other patrons there are the same. We have the run of the parks or zoos; even the big parks are relatively empty on a school day in October or April.
Not so once school lets out for the summer. Suddenly, everything is packed to the limit. The Y pool on an average Tuesday afternoon during summer break is unbearable. Screaming, yelling, totally out of control and mostly unsupervised children from one end of the pool to the other. The librarians are on edge and typically there is a game of chase going on throughout the stacks. The parks? Oh my...the parks. Today there was no less than 3 separate day camps at the relatively small neighborhood park we went to. The day camps are my nemeses. I hate them. When I pull up to the Y, or the library, or a park and see the tell-tale school bus, I sometimes turn around and drive home. It's true.
It won't take me too long to figure out the basic schedules this summer of the biggest and loudest groups and to adjust our schedule accordingly. We will enjoy the weather and the gardening and the water fights of summer. And we will take advantage of the chance summer affords us to play with PS friends. But the truth is we really look forward to the end of summer vacation, when the world will be all ours again.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Easter Eggs
I seem to have missed the memo regarding posting lots of cute family Easter portraits on Facebook. All my friends are doing it. I feel left out. But we didn't take any cute family portraits on Easter. We did take some pictures of the eggs we dyed though. We are not exactly traditionalists when it comes to Easter Egg dying. Take a look:
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