Is School Cool?

A few days ago my son announced that he had heard that kids who go to school get a summer break. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but was hoping it would somehow work in his favor.

We homeschool in California. Your whole life is a summer break. What do you want a break from? Park day? Listening to audio books? Me reading to you about airplane engines? Playing math games on the computer? Surely you don’t mean that hour a day I sit next to you while you work on a couple math worksheets and phonics practice?

But I decided to give him a break of some kind anyhow.

This week while his sister is continuing to do her homeschooling lessons, he is going to soccer camp. But unlike the last one, this one is morning and afternoon and he is actually ready to go to sleep at bedtime. And not only is he learning soccer skills, he is experiencing a little bit of “school culture” too.



Everyone follows the coach.
Everyone takes a bathroom break at the same time.
Everyone obeys the rules together.
When I went to pick him up, he waved good-bye to his group and a chorus of 10 little voices said good-bye to him -- after the coach directed them to do so.
He loved it.

It made me wonder if he might love school too.

And I realized something else.

I like getting him ready for camp every morning -- packing him a little lunch, making sure his long soccer socks are clean and ready for him to find. I even like driving him to the park and listening to him on the way there.

Maybe I’d like being a school mom too.