Half a year of maternelle

I dread making the call to the directrice at Charlotte's school that she won't be coming back. It's been about four days now of calling in sick. I'm going to have to tell them soon. I'm still not sure what I'll tell them either. They're very nice so I don't want to say anything negative, but then again I don't want to have to fabricate lies. *

Yesterday both kids were home "sick" so it was a taste of what the future will bring. I let them play happily in the house in pyjamas building things. We read a few books and enjoyed the rainy day inside the house. As the day wore on I began to have phone calls, "was S okay?" "would I be able to take L to school tomorrow morning for sure" "could we make the schedule for the pick ups and drop off and the lunch schedule tomorrow," all different mothers who depend on us for ride shares and scheduling. I wonder what will happen when we aren't here anymore? Who will they turn to to help manage their busy lives. For one day I got to experience the feeling of freedom from worrying about scheduling our life around school and it was very liberating.

I'm slowly ordering the books we'll need for next year. I won't have the library at my disposal and no way to order materials in China. That part worries me but then I say whatever, it will force me to be more creative. I'm worried about not having enough nature around us and the nagging feeling that the parks are the hands off type. But then I say, it's okay we'll figure it out, we'll make do as long as there are trees we'll be okay. But still I worry about that a lot because I'm not much of a city person and this is a very big city. I want them to be outside as much as possible. It's the basis for my whole curriculum with them. Outside, outside, outside. If we're trapped inside with books the center of everything will fall apart. I plan on using Steiner and Charlotte Mason which recommends two hours outside in the late fall and winter months and six hours outside the rest of the year. I'm hoping we'll be able to make this work in a concrete jungle somehow.

Explorer Robert Scott wrote this in his last pages of his diary-- a letter to his wife. He talked about his son:

"I had looked forward to helping you to bring him up, but it is a satisfaction to know that he will be safe with you....make the boy interested in natural history if you can. It is better than games. They encourage it in some schools. I know you will keep him in the open air."

I think about that when I have doubts about homeschooling. Little S has two fifteen minute sessions of recreation per day at his school. It isn't near enough. Charlotte has about thirty minutes a day. Both have their outdoor time on a concrete courtyard. The last few times S played at his best friend's house he was bored because L wanted to play video games the whole time. This is a boy who always built forts in the garden with him and now he's glued to a television screen nearly every time we visit them.

At home maybe we can't recreate a forest school but we can try to get closer to it.

* I called charlotte's school and they were really understanding about me taking her out. I said she wasn't adjusting well and it was probably best for her. I did get a short speech about the time it takes for adaptation but I stayed firm and said said "yes maybe you're right but it's best for us now if she just stays home." And so just like that she was out. They'll give me certificate that says she's been enrolled in a French school because if she ever needs to enroll in a French school again apparently she needs this paper. Just like in the military she has her discharge papers!