We began at the awkward parent-filled gathering where the battery of questions follows the usual path once folks learn we are the crazy homeschoolers. You can read that post HERE if you haven’t already and then catch up with us.

“Where do your kids go to school?”

This is a fun one when seated all by itself. It would be easier to answer the negative, “Where don’t your kids go to school?” Well, in a school for starters. We have formally schooled in all rooms of our house, both yards, the neighbor’s driveway, parks, the beach, Legoland, downtown, friend’s homes (oh my gosh, yes, they actually DO interact with other humans), on road trips not timed to regular holidays, at grandparent’s houses, in museums, on the train, in the grocery store, in trees and tree houses… the list is inexhaustible. True enough, traditionally schooled children do these things as well, but the difference is the frequency and the freedom.

While we do a good deal of galavanting, we do have a dedicated school room that gets more time than anywhere else. Our round 1950’s formica table that belonged to my grandmother and held after-school snacks for her and Shirley Temple’s children is my favorite spot. It’s sturdy and lacks the stale and solitary feel of a desk. In addition to a bookshelf, we have a guest bed the boys love for working and lounging at the same time. In my kids’ case, this one gets axed pretty frequently as ‘lounge learning’ lends itself more to lounging than learning. Our designated space is simple, but it reminds me that simple is all that’s needed.

So while we are free to be wherever we like at home or on the go we are well anchored and regularly scheduled. The balance isn’t always in harmony of course, like when we had family in town for three full weeks, but we try to make use of the flexibility we have. I love that we can take last minute trips to events, rearrange our holiday breaks, or declare a beach day in the name of unfairly perfect weather all without damaging our academic progress.

I have to confess: Once this year we actually attended and participated in a legitimate public middle school history game day. On a campus. With oodles of real live tweens and teachers ordained by our great state. It was a fabulous experience and my kids absolutely loved the it. They didn’t want to leave even though our next stop was Legoland. This psychosis can possibly be attributed to my kids’ love of learning, but I’m putting my money on that middle school history teacher who created the event and happens to be a very good friend. She is a super star educator. I’d let her school my kids all day if I could.

Afterwards one of the boys remarked, “That was great! Too bad for all those kids, though. They have to sit in desks for the rest of the day plus homework. That was great, though!” These are the elusive glory days when I feel we have the best of both worlds.

So where do we go to school? Pretty much everywhere.

{Continue to the next post on why we homeschool HERE.}