The State of Schoollessness
You have just started reading our homeschool article for this month. I thought I'd better tell you because otherwise you might not know. This article is designed to be different than the usual ones. Now, to make the most out of this article, I want you to sit back and forget about what you did in school this year. And please don't be thinking about your plans for the upcoming academic year. I invite you to spend a moment in the zone of schoollessness.

We're well into summer now. There's something special about early summer mornings. You wake up to the singing of the birds. You can sense a certain stillness and peacefulness. The house is quiet. It is bright and sunny, but the air is still cool. I love to open all the doors and windows and feel that fresh, cool air before the heat of the day sets in. Summer nights are also special. There's no great hurry trying to get homework done or worry over getting to bed in order to be ready for an early start the next morning. We can sit on the porch in the dark, listening to the crickets and staring up at the stars. I imagine years ago they did a lot of that. There was no air conditioning and the houses must have gotten quite steamy. Even warm evenings outside felt cool compared to the stuffy living rooms and close kitchens - kitchens hot from cooking the supper meal. Maybe now we don't have to go outside to get a little cooler. Maybe that's why it's more fun when we do. We like to take the kids to the park. Our one-year-old laughs with glee as she swings, ever so gently, in the baby swing. I look over and see some of our kids playing on the slide - forming a sort of human chain as they slide down, and laughing as they fall into a pile at the bottom. The older kids are enjoying a game of - what is it today? Baseball? Football? It's pretty hot out, and so we soon go back home. Cool drinks in hand, we lie back on the couches, our faces flushed. The play has been hard, hot, fun.

We love to spend time on the beach. Our favorite place is along the Gulf of Mexico. The water is so warm and calm. The blue water stands in sharp contrast to the white sands. One of our children loves to catch the birds on the beach, if only he could. Other children like to ask us to "bury" them in the sand. And I can't tell you how many shells are thrown into buckets to take home. We walk from the beach, everyone and everything filled and covered with sand. I'll be battling that sand for days. But it was worth it. Even now I can feel that warm sun beating down on me.

But the mountains are nice, too. The cooler air in the mountains is a welcome retreat from the hottest summer days. The air smells so fresh and clean. Looking down over the valley and across the hills, we get just a taste of the majesty of God. The rolling hills, the green trees, the soaring eagles - some of the most breathtaking scenery to be seen. Summers are especially loved by kids. Every summer when we were growing up our parents would take us on a vacation - a road trip. We visited all sorts of places. There were no worries for us kids, no concerns over gas prices or 'no vacancy' signs or decisions of where to go. It was just fun getting in the car and going. It was fun playing games and reading in the car. All those meals at restaurants were a treat and staying in hotels was kind of exciting. Yes, it was fun and interesting to see new places, but getting there was half the adventure.

Summer days at home were fun, too. It just wasn't summer without water fights and running through sprinklers. They have all sorts of fancy water gadgets now, but growing up we had a lot of fun with those little squirt guns - you know, the kind that holds about an ounce of water. Just a couple of squirts and you're back to the sink to fill up! I remember, too, having fun with the sprinklers. We didn't need the fancy water slides and such. Whatever game you chose - get the wettest or stay the driest, run into the water or dodge the moving water stream - it was fun. And for some reason that circular sprinkler we had always held some kind of fascination for me. Still, sometimes maybe the best thing about summer is what we dream it will be like this year. Maybe it's just that we're a little freer, or have something special to look forward to. Maybe we find the sweat of hard work in the hot sun exhilarating. Maybe just the thought of a tall iced tea cools you to the core. You see, everyone has a different answer when asked their favorite thing about summer. And so we come to the end of our homeschool article.

I hope my meager efforts have helped trigger some memories for you, whether they be recent ones or ones long past. I hope you remember some summer fun you've had as a child, or some fun you've had with your child. I hope you've remembered what summers were like or realize again what summers can be. I hope I've carried you some distance from your homeschool, even for a moment, and I hope that moment doesn't end when you finish reading this article. I know that not all families school according to the traditional school calendar. But no matter when you've chosen to break from school, I hope you do take a break. I hope you remind yourself that rest is good for the soul, the mind, and the body. It enables us to reap a little reward from the hard work we've done. It also enables us to start that work once again - rested and fresh in ideas, energy, and zeal. You've done good, hard work these past nine months. The work will start again soon enough. Now just take a little rest. And savor that glass of lemonade on the porch.