Playing Hooky

I really hoped I wouldn’t do this, but I did.  I skipped homeschool today.  Not like when I bring a few things to Starbucks and call it homeschool.  I skipped it completely.

Thursday is field trip day.  And one or two Thursdays a month, Jeff or the au pair take the boys on the field trip so that I can write.  But I forgot that today was my day to write.  I write with two other women and I didn’t want to miss it.  So I invited them to my house and put the following schedule on the white board:

In September, I was afraid that I would do this every day.  Our lives are so full and unpredictable and, if you ask my mother, crazy, that on any given day I could find a good reason to skip school.  And even when we’re not busy, it’s so difficult to teach the boys that I am tempted to call in sick.

Luckily, because I am not the only one home with the them, some “school” things happened today anyway.  The au pair brought out some Spanish worksheets she wanted to try with the boys and she spoke to them exclusively in Spanish for two hours.  And unprompted by my choice to blow off my responsibilities, Jeff came home in the middle of the day and announced that he wanted to spend a couple hours working with the boys on the puppet theater they are all building together.  I came home after work and found the boys with their tool aprons on and their toolboxes out, and eager to show me all of their work.

I understand more and more how the un-schoolers justify their choice.  It’s just really hard to spend the day at home without learning all kinds of stuff – even when you’re mom plays hooky and puts you in front of the TV for two hours.