It was a windy day at the park

And Brielle slept through it all.

After the girls were super good at their appointment (Aviana: 36 1/2 inches, 30 pounds Brielle: 28 inches, 21 pounds), we went to the park for a walk (for me), and stroller ride (for the girls). It was one of those great days, unhurried, restful.

Surprisingly, a day at the park made me so thankful we are going to try homeschooling. There was a kindergarten field trip there, playing as a group and independently and doing an alphabet walk around the park. Each adult had a small group of five year olds and their job was was to find things in the park that began with each letter. I watched bemusedly as the volunteers tried corral their four or five charges into focusing on the task at the hand. After hollering at Ashton to get away from the edge of the pond, keeping Bryson and Riley from sword fighting with sticks, redirecting Annica back to the walk from her tree wandering and reminding her the acorns aren’t for throwing and yelling at Quinton to stop chasing the geese, the alphabet game was pretty much moot.

The alphabet walk is a great idea! A field trip on a gorgeous albeit windy spring day is a great idea! Rounding up enough volunteers, requisitioning buses, getting permission slips signed, lunches accounted for; long hours were put into making this day a reality for the tots. Teachers do all they can with what they have, believe me, as a former teacher myself, I know. But most of the educational purpose of this trip was lost on crowd control, and in the classroom, this is too often the case as well. So much time is wasted just because of large groups of children. Lining up, passing out and collecting papers, waiting, settling in, transitioning, = wasted time–and that’s with no real discipline problems or assemblies, or fire drills.

Just one of the reasons we’re seriously considering school at home.