Let's hear it for Tuesdays!

Ok, so I have a new theory. It's not that George is overworked--it's that he's overscheduled. A good bit of that is, unfortunately, very difficult to avoid; I have a job (as a professor), so I have to schedule things for him for those times when I can't be with him. There are days when I work from home, and back when we were part-time homeschooling, those were our unschool days. We'd stay at home mostly; I'd work on my things and he'd work on his, and I'd take little breaks throughout the day to have lunch or a snack with him, or to hear all about the book he was reading, or tour his museum exhibit in his room, or read his latest literary creation, etc. But the way our schedule has developed, we don't have days like that anymore, and I'm thinking that we need to fix that.

It's funny, because I think some friends and family have this idea that homeschooling must be rather lonely for George--they seem to imagine the two of us locked away in the house all day long, deprived or starved of contact with other human beings, especially other kids. Little could be further from the truth! He goes to classes or playgroups with other homeschoolers almost every day: Shakespeare on Mondays, playgroup on Wednesdays (after his recorder lesson), group activities of various kinds on Thursdays (art/drama/chess club/etc.), and on Fridays, Spanish class in the morning and a social studies class (civil rights/gov't/etc.) in the afternoon. That leaves Tuesdays free, but Tuesdays are a busy teaching day for me, so George is with a sitter in the morning and spends the afternoon on campus with his dad (my ex, who is also a professor). George loves each and every one of these activities, and he also loves each of his sitters/caregivers (he currently has three) that help me shuttle him around and oversee his other work. But I think he really is missing having more time to hang out at home, to just be creative and/or see what develops. (Weekends are generally quite packed, and the house is usually abuzz with activity and kids, including my two stepchildren.)

Fortunately, my semester is about to end, and the work that I'll have to do between now and next fall can be done almost entirely from home. So, George will still have his activities almost every day, but Tuesdays will be gloriously open. Maybe we'll even designate them as PJ day. Or bathing suit day, since we're about to open the pool. Sounds good to me!