![]() | A JOURNAL ENTRY: The whole point of Cabbage Key was to study Botany and do nothing. That’s what we did for seven days. Cabbage Key is directly across from marker 60 on the Florida Intercoastal Waterway. That’s due west form Pine Island, Florida, USA. . Sanibel and Captiva islands are 8 miles to the south. The high point of this morning so far was watching Chip the dockmaster at Cabbage Key replace the Channel Mark signs stolen away by hurricane Charley. This high point however was soon replaced by our sighting a lone dolphin scoot by the dock. We debated if reading "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway is considered doing nothing. But we decided reading was an activity, especially when it’s Hemingway, so we went back to watching the dolphins and the Osprey. My student was learning that it was very difficult to do nothing..... |
Our “school days” on Cabbage key begin on our dock reading. Along with studying Botany, we’re finishing "A Farewell to Arms" and “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder. When you travel to an Island that you can only get to by boat you choose your school materials carefully. We thought Botany, Philosophy and Hemingway made an interesting accompaniment to learning the art of doing nothing.


Life
as a homeschooler and in constant daily contact with a highly gifted student
brings an energy I can't explain, yet drains me; makes me think about
things in a new way, yet causes me to stick with tried and true methods;
makes me strive for accomplishing all the tasks I need to, yet causes
me to think forward to the time my student will go to bed and I can have
a cup of tea and listen to Jimmy Buffet in peace and quiet. Eclectic.
That's the description of the path I am enjoying on my journey right now.
Eclectic is also our homeschool "style". We do what works. We
dig in the dirt or the beach sand, we kayak on rivers, we read, we travel.....