Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Effects of Topography and Climate on Homeschooling

When we lived in northwest Ohio it snowed often. It was simply part of our lives. Snow happened, and we continued doing whatever it was we were doing. Sometimes we didn't even realize that local schools were taking a snow day, since it didn't make much difference to us. We laughed and said, "We take Nice Weather days," to emphasize that by working through the snow days we had plenty of time to goof around outside when the weather was warm and sunny.

Of course, northwest Ohio is pretty flat.

Now we have a hill that calls to us



and compels us to Go Down




And friends who yell out their doorways "Hey, wait for me!" when they see us pass by at 8:30am on the way to the hill




By afternoon everyone has dug out their driveways, and people from other neighborhoods are bringing vanloads of kids to our hill. But we persevere, because we never know if it will snow again this winter.



Actually, we met another homeschool family that lives within walking distance of The Hill (and thus, theoretically, to us). Bonus! And from talking to them, I have the distinct impression that they've taken the past 2 days to sled down The Hill. Heck, they're taking off next week on a skiing vacation, taking advantage of those off-season rates homeschoolers can get, and they STILL took off a couple of days to play in the snow this week. A fine example for us all.

1 comment:

Tara said...

That's a great hill! Northeast Ohio has some nice hills but we are just plain ol' "wintered out" over here. No more sledding, no more shoveling, no more getting stuck in someone's driveway... hhmmm, I'm having a tantrum, aren't I?