Happy New Year!

So which is it?  Am I late or am I early?

But more importantly, who cares?

You can make a big deal about December 31^st, but my heart opens wide with hope and excitement around this time of year.  Forget the bubbly, unless it’s a splash of pomegranate juice in seltzer after hours of satisfying garden work.  I recall one December while hearing Andy William’s “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” turning to my kids and saying, “No, it’s not really.”

Spring is a metaphorical time of new beginnings.  It’s a time of year when people feel so alive.  I would bet that most babies are born January through March, but in checking the stats, I find that I’m wrong.  July, August (thank you very much), and September have that status.  Having kids with January and September birthdays, I see that I’m attuned to both theory and practice.

Our final year of homeschooling, I decided we’d enjoy the full benefit of that beautiful new beginning called “summer vacation” early so that we could bask in the glory of spring.  Thus, sprummer vacation was founded.  The previous year I had administered end of the year standardized tests for my kids in late May.  Testing was new to us, as Texas didn’t care what we did with our kids (Thank you, religious right!)  After my kids took their tests, they were like, “That’s it?  Didn’t we learn all this stuff last year?” So, that’s when I decided we’d plan to move everything up the next year and see if we could finish our school year on February 28, just in time for early planting.

Onions are in, thanks to the help of Flat Zach

who arrived just in time via post. FYI:  In case
you can't see him, there'sanother helper
hiding behind our visitor.

Well, like others things in this great experiment called parenting, it worked.  I still had them read an hour a day and they had to willingly answer math questions when asked.  For instance, on the way up to Mt. Vernon they heard, “Washington is 212 miles away.  We are going 65 miles an hour.  In Fredericksburg we’ll get stuck in traffic for 45 minutes while listening to Coldplay.  If we start A Rush of Blood to the Head in Chancellorsville, what song will we be on when we stop for my mocha?”   Smart alecks earned no points by saying, “Who cares?!  Can I get a frappucinno?”

We loved our sprummer – lots of outdoor time, plenty of fresh air and exercise, and some well tended plots.  We missed it the next year, all being back in institutions where our connections to nature were more regimented.  But, despite the change, it was good to know that life sometimes gives us a break on what we perceive as steadfast on the calendar.  We fulfilled our obligation (and more) to the state in terms of learning standards, so what better way to celebrate than with an extended recess?  That’s how they do it, anyway, in the public schools around here.  We just got a better head start.