Not Ready for Back-to-School — That’s Not Such a Bad Thing!
Once upon a time the first day of school was the Tuesday after Labor Day. In those days summer break was really a summer break. My little brother Steve and I spent many hot summer hours playing at home with Mama. Most days we walked across the parking lot at the back of our yard at least once to enjoy a visit with Daddy while he worked in Daddy Leland’s air conditioned grocery store. Air conditioning was such a luxury back then that stores had the words “Air Conditioned” painted on the outside of the building to encourage customers to come on in and get cool. Daddy Leland was so modern that he had air conditioning and an automatic door. He was what you call “uptown!”
On most days Steve and I also rode our bikes or walked to the city playground a couple of blocks from our house where Steve played baseball and I swung on the swings. No fence kept us children away from the railroad track that sat right beside the park. I don’t remember anyone ever getting hurt when the train rattled by while we played, not even the brave boys who laid coins on the track ahead of time so they could get squashed by the train.
In the afternoons the popsicle truck rolled along the street in front of our house, playing its alluring music. Sometimes Mama gave us coins to buy a treat. Of course, we could get those at Daddy Leland’s store, too, but it was much more fun buying them from the popsicle truck.
Ashland City didn’t have a city pool, so swimming was something of a luxury for our family. Except for the rare trips to Marrowbone Creek with Mother, my Aunt Lavon, and my cousins, going swimming was a whole family event that we enjoyed rarely when Daddy could take us to the city pool 20 miles away in Springfield or to one of the private pools that were also several miles away. If Steve and I wanted to cool off by getting wet, we sprayed each other with the hose, which we Tennesseans called a hose pipe back in those days. Kinda redundant, huh?
Our summers were punctuated with three annual special events. One was our four-and-a-half day family vacation, most often to the mountains but sometimes to an out-of-state destination. During our childhood, we managed to take trips to St. Augustine, Florida, Six Flags Over Georgia, and Ft. Sumter, South Carolina. It was in South Carolina that Steve and I had our first taste of an ICEE®. As I recall, it was at a country store or filling station (which is what we called service stations back then). It wasn’t long until he put an ICEE® machine in his store, too. I told you Daddy Leland was uptown.
The other two annual events were at church. One was the gospel meeting with sermons from a visiting minister on Sunday morning and on Sunday through Friday or Saturday evenings. Mother and Daddy made sure we didn’t miss a service and I’m so grateful that they did that. I cherish those memories, especially the year that the visiting minister had all us children come to the front to sing children’s songs before the service began. That was new and exciting. One year a tent was set up right next to our building and we had a tent meeting, which was also very exciting.
The other annual summer event was Vacation Bible School which was held on Monday through Friday mornings. We gathered in the auditorium to sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “Deep and Wide,” and other children’s songs before going to the basement for classes. I don’t remember skits or puppets or grand outdoor games. We had Bible classes with coloring and simple crafts. The highlights of the week were singing, being with the other children, and a sweet treat. The one I remember best was popsicles. There seems to be a theme here centered around cold sweet stuff and I haven’t even mentioned cold watermelon or Mama Sue’s hand-cranked fresh peach ice cream yet. I guess we had to find some way to beat the heat!
So, what does all this have to do with school starting and it being okay if you aren’t ready yet? Well, just this: children deserve lazy days. They deserve summer memories. In the county next to us, summer vacation is eight weeks. Eight weeks! That’s just too short in my book.
Besides I wouldn’t be surprised if you can look back over the summer and think of several days to “count as school” anyway!
When God was prophesying better days for the city of Jerusalem, He described what life would be like there then. Keep in mind that the streets He was talking about didn’t have fast cars and semis barreling down them. They were the gathering places of the people.
Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem,
each man with his staff in his hand because of age.
And the streets of the city will be filled
with boys and girls playing in its streets.’
Zechariah 8:4-5
If your children have some more days for playing (someplace safe and not in the streets!), that’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing!
One of the many blessings of homeschooling for us has been the flexibility to schedule our school year around what is convenient for our family. So for us, the first day of school is always after Labor Day! Having that summer break has indeed been a sweet respite!
Way to go, Betsy!
Agree!! Six weeks is too short for this homeschooling mama too! I need a longer break than that. I would love to start us after Labor Day but it puts us schooling way too far into May and June so I compromise and start us the last week of August 😉
Sounds great!