When we landed in Sausalito last month after our trip down the coast and I logged onto Facebook for the first time in many days I was bombarded with all the adorable photos of our friends’ children’s first days of school. It hit me that Leah was officially a kindergartener herself and I should probably get busy with a little schooling. I felt a little sad that I won’t ever be dressing Leah up in her new kindergarten outfit and sending her off to her first day of school with tears in my eyes. Although she doesn’t know how to put it in words, I think Leah knows she is missing out on some things too and remembers all the good times she had at our wonderful Coop preschool in Olympia. When I mention school at all, she crosses her arms and closes her eyes, her way of saying she just doesn’t want to talk about it. But the other day, I overheard her telling another adult proudly “I am homeschooled!” when she was asked about where she went to school. With a field trip just about every day, I think she sees the countless advantages of our boatschool kindergarten too.
A little geography and oceanography at the (free!) San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito
Experiencing other cultures (Dim Sum in Chinatown)
Art appreciation in Sausalito
Marine biology at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Seatwork aboard
Recess, Santa Cruz style
I think Leah is getting a wonderful education!
I think getting to wear a bathing suit and heading to the beach beats any cute dress and school bus scenario by leaps and bounds. Savor it!
It’s definitely a magical way of doing “school” for sure! And the things Leah (and Holly too of course) is learning as we travel…wow. She amazes me everyday with what she picks up from sailing full-time. I’m already over the wistfulness I was feeling a few weeks ago. Still a little nervous about our first homeschool year and just the feeling of being “in charge” of it all. But, it is kindergarten after all. 😉 Just need to have fun, remind myself to relax; the learning just happens as it has for the past almost-6 years together. And this time together is very, very special.
We were thinking about this the other day–Maia stays in touch with friends she was in school with (k-2) and they were comparing notes. Last year rather than reading where the explorers went–she sailed the same way waters and anchored in the same harbours. And this year rather than simply reading about subsistance economies and sustainable living–she’s visiting isolated communities where it is a part of life. Certainly we’ll miss out on some things–for me it’s not seeing all the kids she’s been friends with growing up. But we still get the ‘class’ plays and musical concerts–they’re just different.