One Good Thing Every Day: August 26-September 2

As a home school family, we may appear to be "all work and no play."

In fact, a year ago, my youngest asked, "When is our first day of school?"

My oldest responded, "Our first day of school was when we started home schooling."

This year I purchased composition notebooks with favorite themes to create the illusion of transition from our lighter summer-school fare. Suddenly, work was judged more by these playful covers.

More playfulness ensued as we journeyed to our camper for our last jaunt of the season. We brought school with us. Why? Our geography lesson suggested drawing a map of our neighborhood and going on a treasure hunt. Our science lesson focused on leaf collecting. After getting settled at the camper, I snuck into the woods with poetic clues, a resort map with color-coded X's, and two sets of trading cards. Once I buried the treasure, I raced back to the camper to my eager hunters. They caught onto the clues and snapped up their prizes in record time. Good thing! Dinner time and sunset quickly approached.

The next day we collected leaves. Unbeknownst to the boys, this foliage was a treasure in itself. Next season, we will be at a different campground. These pressed leaves will identify cherished summer memories of this resort.

Labor Day honors hard work with a day of play. We did just that!