A Home-School Recess

"Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths."

Psalm 25:4                          

 

It's funny how home-schooled kids find out about the good things that they miss-out 

in "real school."

A couple days into the school year, my then 7 year-old informed me that she needed to have recess.

I never told her about recess,

did I?

Of course, she thought recess should be first on the school schedule;

I'm still learning, too.

After a few days of first period recess taking up too much time

I rescheduled recess to follow her two hardest subjects of the day.

Hurray, for smart thinking!

It happens to me once in a while;

 a little late, but still valuable.

No more fighting over that math book.

 It gets done before I even have my breakfast finished.

Violet lives for recess.

Her recess also follows her job of feeding the calves, cows, and donkey.  Her dad does some of the feeding in the morning before work but it's too early and the cows are a little fussy about what they'll eat when they aren't "awake" enough.

Well, at least ours are.

They'll eat the hay first thing in the morning, but not the bread.

(We feed them stale bread that would otherwise be thrown away: we get it from charity centers. We feed this instead of feeding them grain.  This helps our feed bill and also keeps needless waste out of the landfills.)

If they aren't ready for their coffee and toast,

one or two will nuzzle it all with their stinky morning saliva-dripping breath,

and then nobody will touch it.

I kid you not.

Ask Violet.

So Violet goes up and feeds them the bread when they're good and hungry for it.

(They aren't really given any coffee though.

I get a little sarcastic when it comes to fussy-eater cows.)

I used to do these jobs for my Farmer before the kids woke up, but after the birth of my last baby, I just couldn't leave her alone in the house with my boy in case he woke up.

I just couldn't risk that.

He's trouble sometimes.

He's a boy.

 Violet loves the job anyhow; she never seems to tire of it.

So it has fallen to her.

 I looked out the window from the upstairs porch to check on the progress of the animal feeding the other morning,

and saw that Violet had begun her recess directly after her feeding chores.

Lately Levi has been suffering from a bad coughing cold that has lasted a month,

so on really cold days, he's been banned from going out.

On these days, Violet has had no companionship for her recess,

except for the animal of her choice for the day...

 as well as the vehicle of her choice.

In this case, her bike was in the shed and

not convenient,

so Levi's tricycle was hijacked.

 She even has her snack bag firmly gripped in her teeth.

Snacks are essential in this child's life.

 Jake was not too keen on this new development and

suddenly pranced about and away,

despite his geriatric age and normally unshakable demeanor.

 Still, when the blue terror was abandoned, he succumbed to his curiosity and love of a visit.

He followed his little companion to her next adventure where he waited patiently underneath the tree in the pasture

as she climbed it's heights to discover what might be aloof from her lofty perch.

-

I'm sure she could see the two distant on-lookers,

both of whom are too smart to enter the domains beyond that electrified fence.

Besides, they have their own agendas to attend to during recess.

Linked to: Home School Chick: Hip Homeschool Hop