Spring Break is for children trapped in the red brick walls of a schoolhouse all day.  My kids aren’t, so we don’t.  However, this year we decided to take the week off to spend the time with my niece and nephew that are visiting. 

 As far as schooling philosophy goes, we aren’t much for Unschooling.  We lean in the direction of Classical Education.  That said, I do see some of the magic of learning without structure.  We indulged in this all week.  Here is what Spring Break looked like in our (school)house.

<center>![rsz_img_20180322_234049.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmafy1eNBRtRMCu79hhPT9k1soVW61J1szXssgFgFB13o6/rsz_img_20180322_234049.jpg)<p>Dog, in Fairy Land</p></center>

The spring air has been accommodating toward exploring everything out of doors, and this is how we started out the week.  We have a large amount of little purple flowers that pop up at this time every year.  They grow up to the children’s thighs, and in close proximity to each other.  The gold sun of late afternoon filters through the overhanging Chinese elm, landing elegantly on the birdbath, and flickering streaked shadows across the flowers.  The place looks like a fairy wonderland.  The kids spent time picking the no-name purple flowers (root and all by the tot), examining them, running through them—inhaling spring.  And also lots of pollen.  We are a snotty group.  

Then the cousins arrived.  For my boy, time spent one-on-one with someone that is close enough to be a brother is invaluable.  I mean that not in a heartwarming, mushy kind of way.  I mean, the time spent arguing, wrestling, telling poop jokes, one-upping one another—it is all special.  The soundtrack to this week could probably be my voice, played over and over again saying “Settle down!  I really don’t want to take anyone to the ER tonight”.   Besides the aforementioned activities, the kids did do their fare share of independent learning by play.  

As soon as the sun was up to clear up the chilly morning air, I saw the boys out in short sleeves creeping about the back porch.  My son got to observe the art of catching lizards by the master himself.  His cousin stalked about like a cat, then pounced with impressive speed.  I feel like I should have put this kid to work in the kitchen catching house flies with his hands.  The little lizards puffed themselves up and writhed about in a pitiful display of desperation.  They would get passed back and forth and eventually released, or so I thought.  They also had a stroke of good luck and caught a frog.  After they accidentally admitted to feeding a lizard and frog to the chickens and got chastised, they resorted to lifting up old wood to find those big, fat, shiny black cockroaches.  The chickens ate them up with a snip and a snap.  (I’ve never observed this, as I can’t get the idea out of my head that there will be a disgusting crunch involved.) There was also a great deal of shuffling through water weeds to seek out tadpoles.  Overall, there was work in the department of insects, reptiles, and amphibians never before done by my son.  

There was also a good deal of other subjects covered, such as fort building and the frustrations involved.  Bedding from a small child’s bed is not very effective as a roof to any sizable fort.  It constantly pops off and results in a lot of accusations about who caused it to happen.  Still, building practice is always handy.

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![rsz_1rsz_img_20180322_234344.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTxoQdeMq1UiHwm79qLDrbwr23HiyfTtNMjfYbtjcLegK/rsz_1rsz_img_20180322_234344.jpg)

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We took a field trip downtown today, which provided some life lessons.  For instance, the homeless man that sleeps on the bench sitting up in the sun is NOT a statue.  Pizza with exotic toppings is way better than your standard kid-friendly slice of cheese.  And, when a (very overpriced) cup of ice cream is spilled, it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.  

Tomorrow is our last day with the cousins and draws Spring Break to an end.  We will see what subjects are covered.  It could be *anything*.