And the tide goes out.

Today, this deep water in which I've been swimming for the whole summer disappears in a rush as all the institutionlized schoolers start their school year.  It's nice.  I'll be able to breath more easily.  The museums will be empty, the beaches and playgrounds clear of packs of little kids all wearing the same design and colour  shirt.  I call the early fall Second Summers.  In fact, this year, I have organized a beach party in celebration, not even pretending that I am organizing an event that is 'good' for the kids.  I am doing it this year because I feel so lucky to have this freedom.

Okay, I hear you.  My joy in freedom is no good reason to home school my daughter!!  Of course.  Well, to justify my choices:  Home schooling reason, number 4,382.  A body of research has been published over the last ten years that states the teenage brain is hardwired differently to the child or the adult brain.   Instead of doing its best learning in the morning as children do, it soaks up the most information better in the evening.  The latest in these studies suggests that teens who start their day even one hour later do significantly better than teens who are forced out of bed and into school by nine.  Which suggests that teens are cranky and a pain and making poor choices because they are not getting enough sleep.  But, also, this research is further evidence that humans likely do not thrive in institutionalized systems; though they do learn to do what they're told.

Ironically, if parents give up home schooling for institutionalized schooling, they do so as the child enters her teenage years (probably because of the belief that she needs more freedom to fully individuate).  Happily, most of these parents choose alternative schools that work under a core hour or core attendance model (could be as little as one day in ten) that allows their kids the semblance of freedom and the opportunity to sleep in most days.

So, so.  The home schooling community contracts and, then, expands over the summer.  A lot of older kids disappear and a lot of younger ones pop up with bright, shiny faces.  Sadly, we are losing a lot of familiar faces this year.  I am understanding, now, why teenage home schoolers are very much in the minority.   They drop like flies in a snowstorm around the age of thirteen.  Whoosh.  The tide goes out.  Could be us, too, in the next few years.  You never know.  We are not quite at that place, yet.

So here we will be standing, on the newly revealed beach, ready to build our castles this year.  Even though there are fewer of us, I think it will still be fun.