Breathing Room

 What do sharp new pencils, pigs, and a gym ball have in common?

Call it a surprise twist in the plot, 

a hopeful story arc...

 

One that involves less free time while we learn the ropes

but hopefully more flexibility in the long run. 

Pip and Winnie are trying a new school setup: 

a public school / home school mix. 

 

Today was our first day.

It felt like the first day of a tricky job. 

Do you know that feeling? 

The feeling that you might possibly be drowning after only minutes into it?

Or like finding the opening lines to your novel of novels, the jaw-dropping first page...
Every word has to be wonderful.

 

That was me today.

It should have been great. 

We're home all the time!

But somehow, I crammed all my expectations 

into one small day's window. 

I even had a list written up on the wall - our day's assignments. 

The first fifteen minutes were bliss. 

And then it all began to unravel:

Pip asking over and over when we could go to the library, 

Winnie crying about the math game where you throw the little pigs and count them,

Sugar Snack bouncing the gym ball at everyone, 

sneaking off with the camera, 

and me wondering who was going to make me some coffee 

if I was down here doing MATH! Quelle horreur!

"Gym Ball" - by Sugar Snack

I love perspective.

The day is now folded away.

The moon is up, warm and embracing.

And I'm here, peeling off my layers.
Thinking about how sometimes I take a great wad of expectations that would probably fill a year or a lifetime and I stuff it into a summer, a holiday,
or one small first day
when really,
all that's needed is joy for the moment,
patience,
and a lot of love.

Tomorrow, we'll try it home style.
We'll aim to get some learning done,
but this time we'll add a generous dose of
breathing room.

 "Uniforms"

A sweet book about breathing room:

Little Bird, by Germano Zullo, illustrated by Albertine