Not Back to School

Every homeschooling family celebrates a “Not Back to School Day”, at least that is what I like to believe. Our day to celebrate was Mondaythis week. The plan was to go to our local coffee house to catch up onthe latest news with the coffee-house-posse, to go to Staples to not-buy back to school supplies, to go to Morgan’s Livery one last time to kayak our favorite river and then to Eat at Joe’s (Joe’s Crab Shack) on the river for dinner.

You always see a flurry of noteworthy news regarding the idea of students returning to school:

Parents Clueless on Drugs Surveys show teens, folks out of synch, out of touch... BY PEGGY O'FARRELL | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER A comparison of two recent surveys shows parents apparently don't have a clue about their teenagers' use of drugs and alcohol....[Read on] Goal is Grads, Not Dropouts Schools put emphasis on getting to finish line BY DENISE SMITH AMOS | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER Glen Este High School in West Clermont missed its graduation goal last year by four-tenths of a percentage point, the equivalent of one student dropping out, says Superintendent Gary Brooks...[Read on] No Cheating, Kids Pledge BY SARAH HARDEE | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR When Villa Madonna Academy senior Sean Spille turns in his schoolwork, you can be sure it's his own - he even put it in writing. Spille is one of the high school's 180 students who signed a new honor code this year that calls for honesty and academic integrity....[Read on]

Just once I’d like to see for example, the Literature reading lists that returning students are required to read, the lists of texts being used and perhaps a syllabi or two of some of the more enlightening classes offered in our schools. This might make me wonder what we are missing by “not-going-back-to-school”.

On our "Not Back to School Day", Staple’s is always a fun stop. As we walked the crowded rows, we saw parents and kids pouring over lists of items required for learning at school. The bulging baskets made me wonder if I had missed something in our planning. There really isn’t much “stuff” a homeschool needs, though I have to admit to replacing our 7 year old laptop this year. Published in Today’s local paper:

How much we spend (selected items) Clothing and accessories - $230 Shoes - $98 School supplies - $86 Electronics (lower grades) - $114 Average total spending (lower grades) - $527 Source: Bigresearch What I spent Clothing and accessories - $0 Shoes - $0 School supplies - $61.60 Electronics (lower grades) -- $19.98 Average total spending (lower grades) - $81.58 Source: My Staples Receipt

Though, if I really wanted to start totalling my dollars that go toward education, including the property taxes I pay to fund what our local public school system does, we’d be in the thousands...though I am not going there today. (I generally have that number ready for when they start the cries for more taxes to pay for the schools in November.) We did have a glorious day on the Little Miami River. The leaves on the trees were that green, showing a golden glow that Autum is just around the corner. All the turtles we saw in the early spring were back lazing in the sun on the logs. Several large fish jumped for us and the ducks and herons were all there to celebrate our "Not Back to School" day on the river. Sunburnt, and tired, we finished our day at "Joe's Crab Shack". It was a good "Not Back to School" day.