Hiking and Homeschooling

September 22, 2004

I took the kids on a hike today. We went to a nearby state park called Bradbury Mountain State Park. It's not really a mountain like the Rocky Mountains. More like a big hill. But it does have rocky summit and we could see a bit of the ocean. We took a steep .2 mile hike up and came down a gentle 1 mile trail. The kids did great.

I carried Brienne part of the way. By the end, on the way back down she refused to walk. Celine and Laurent were real troopers in spite of the mosquitos - my one real complaint about Maine. After our hike we had a picnic lunch and played for few minutes in the playground. I had a really great time with the kids today. It was fun to do something active with them and I'm so happy they are old enough to do these things now.

These kind of days are a nice trade off for all the sleep deprived nights (years), being cooped up indoors with 3 preschoolers, diaper changes, sibling squabbles and all the other less than pleasant aspects of my job.

Our hike today was a great example of homeschooling at its best. The kids explored science, geography and were physically active. Not to mention the enjoyable conversation we had while hiking & picnicking which included the above "subjects" but also just general life stuff. Sometime later I will expound more on our homeschool philosophy but very briefly it's not school at home. It's learning together through play, conversations, reading, exploring etc.

Needless to say I'm very excited about it and I'm looking forward to spending these growing years with my children.