Today marked Asher's first day officially of no school and while we spend our life with our kids by our side learning and sharing with them, today it was more intentionally. The time has come for kindegarten to begin, summer is over and the other kids in our community have boarded the bus and taken to their indoor environment, and as to our pattern, we have chosen the path less traveled. And while the choice revolved around Asher staying home to learn, River joined in right on cue responding to someone Sunday night if he went to school with, "I homeschool." His little voice, uttering that simple phrase brought so much joy to my heart. And today, our simple measures of figuring out this new path (though really the same path) were full of suprises. We spent our morning playing with letters, our mid morning learning how to use a saw cooperatively, our afternoon doing dishes and drying peppers, and the evening with some drawing outside. All child led.
The boys figured out quickly that their little saw was no match for the boards and moved onto sticks, then realized green wood from a weak shrub was harder to cut than dried sticks that had been lying around for months.
This evening after dinner, I sen them outside for their last ten minutes and was surprised to open the back door to see they had brought out the colored pencils, their tiny notepad and an Illinois bird book opened to the barn swallow and set them selves up to draw! A beautiful way to end the day.
And while the day wasn't perfect, it was reaffirming that this simple choice is the right one for our family at this time and I really belive the right choice for our incredibly sprited, passionate, capable, independant little boy.
