A late morning meant a late breakfast and a late start to school. Not a problem when you home educate! This in turn led to a late lunch and very soon we were working out what time we would need to set off to Horizon Watersports Club where we had booked AJ, Esmé and Hector into a youth club at 4pm. Finally at about 3pm we started our journey, first 20 minutes by dingy to the IBA pontoon in Nidri, then a half hour walk to the watersports club at the other end of town.There we filled in forms, paid 15 Euros per child and signed them in. The kids went scuttling off with James their instructor and a bunch of other kids and suddenly Patrick and I were FREE!!! The kids headed off on kayaks with a safety boat following carrying snorkel gear and didn't return until 2 hours later with very happy and somewhat tired kids. Meanwhile Patrick and I got a beer from the hotel next door and relaxed on the beanbags on the watersports beach. We were so impressed we booked a whole day here for when the cousins come to visit as their birthday presents from us.
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| Final fun and games on their return |
Wednesday
School went well again, perhaps we are finally getting into some kind of groove, or perhaps it's that I'm a little more relaxed about it given that we're likely to be returning to the UK early and so kids will be missing far less of a bricks and mortar school. When we first started talking about coming home at Christmas and shipping Laurin back rather than wintering in Spain and sailing up the Atlantic coast next year a big part of the decision was feeling a little insecure about their schooling on board.
Not that I don't think we are providing them with a "full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude", this was one of the reasons for coming away, to provide the kids with a broader, more free range educational experience than they could possibly have at school. The kids do some intensive one to one formal work every day and then are learning in all sorts of other amazing ways for the rest of the time. We try to loosely follow the national curriculum for Maths and English (even though by law we are not required to,) but there just isn't time for the rest in between sailing, visiting museums, caves and temples. The kids read like crazy and watch documentaries while we are on passage and are constantly learning from the amazing conversations we have with the wonderful people we meet on our way. However I think most people who home school question if they're doing enough at some point during their journey, although those that have chosen this path as one they will follow for the indefinite future don't have the added stress of worrying about their children's' reintegration into traditional schooling. Despite assurances from everybody we meet that the kids will be fine, there is always a niggling doubt at the back of my mind which comes from being solely responsible for your kids education and not sharing this with the state education sector. I have to say though, that this doubt has been dwindling in size in recent days and I'm starting to feel less concerned. I love the fact that Esmé is turning into a truly independent learner, and that AJ is becoming more confident and has the most amazing ideas for inventions that he either draws, models in Lego, or just describes to us in minute detail.
After a late lunch we had our usual downtime where we all retreat to books or electronic devices in the heat of the day. On a small boat this allows for a bit of quiet "alone" time as we can all "zone out" despite the still close physical proximity. Esmé often gets bored of this first but now just requests that we put the swing up and spends the rest of the relaxation time swinging the length of the boat. As Patrick was helping her to put it up they spotted a dinghy heading towards us with kids on board. It was Lachin, Louise, Siara and Kai of AraKai, an aluminium cat they had sailed from Australia. They had heard on the grapevine that Yves was a kid boat and headed over to say hello, having got no response (Yves has a thick wooden hull meaning that if they are down below they won't hear anybody hailing them from outside,) they saw Esmé swinging and headed over. It was lovely to chat and they're hanging around for a few days to oversee a boat survey for a company they were hoping to work for so it will be nice for the kids to have fun.
Then a quick tidy up of the boat as the crew of Yves Christian were coming over for dinner then AJ and I headed over to the pool at a local hotel along with the crew of AraKai and Yves. Hotels often let us use their pools in return for buying drinks but I think we need to rotate a little as a group of 5 or 6 kids can disrupt the feel of a mainly adult hotel if we are there every day.
Back to the boat for dinner where Lotty, Sacha, Hector and Pheobe joined us for pork, potatoes and salad. They brought an amazing cake chosen by Pheobe and we all had a lovely evening.
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