Back in LA: Catching up on the Sweet Simplicities of Summer

We are back in LA, and there is still so much to blog about from our trips, but I'm hoping to catch up over the next few days.

I'm giving the kids a "real" break from school work, meaning I'm not asking them to do any classes, assignments, worksheets or lessons. But since most of our "school" is life learning anyhow, I'm assuming we will have a rich unschooling kind of summer.

So far our 9-year-old son has spent alot of time playing Monopoly with his stuffed animals and with us. Last night we finished the first game ever. I remember playing Monopoly alot with my sister when I was about that age. The game would go on forever and never finish. I always thought that was a tragedy, but actually playing out an entire game last night made me realize a truth about Monopoly, and maybe Capitalism in general: it's just not fun to play it all the way out. The richer the rich get and the poorer the poor get, the less fun it is for everyone. Even the rich guy felt bad cleaning everyone out.

We had a nice little discussion about socialism and capitalism. Our daughter suggested we play "Socialism" instead, but we all decided that would get really boring, really fast. It made me think of the Ungame. Is that still around? I guess so, since I just found an Amazon link. LOL. The cover looked different in the 70s and 80s when our family played it.

I'm planning to take the kids to the beach every week this summer with our homeschooling group. Our son may go to a Cub Scout day camp or a Vacation Bible School. And our daughter wants to go to camp with a friend's church youth group. But we really don't have alot planned for the next couple of months, and I am really kind of happy about that.

Simplicity is good.