On playing hookie

I’m a big believer in the importance of education.  I consider my family to be extremely fortunate to be educated in French in BC.  We’re privileged enough to have small classrooms, outstanding teachers and programs that allow our kids to experience different things other than just sitting behind a desk 24/7.

This past weekend, we were chatting with friends who were telling us about their own experiences with their schools.  For instance, they were reprimanded when they took their kindergartner out of school for a week to go to India (India!)  Others are charged $200 per absence because truancy levels are so high where they live.

Personally, I think that is outrageous.  I want my kids to experience a diverse education.  If that means that I’ll pull my first grader out of school for one day to do something I think has value, I will.  If I want to give the kids the opportunity to travel somewhere exotic (or not), I’d like to do that without penalty (within reason, of course).  Granted, growing up, if we weren’t bleeding from our eyeballs, we didn’t skip school – ever.  I don’t regret that because our weekends were so wildly different from our Monday-Friday life.

All this long winded diatribe to say that it was great to pull Will out of school today to take him and Rory to hike the Chief in Squamish.  I’d been promising/threatening to take them all summer and with the weather about to turn and empty retirement days looming, I thought it would be a great time to do it.

The boys did great.  The hike was no joke and we made it to just beyond the second peak. Saved by some PB&J sandwiches in the sun, we ventured back down and had some very amusing chats about a variety of topics on our way down: Star Wars, manners, Omi, squirrels, walking sticks, burping and sore muscles to name but a few.  I’ve heard that the best way to communicate with young boys is while they are moving.  If my kids are any indication, it’s 100% true.

We didn’t make record time by any means but there was sunshine, limited whining, minimal blood and no fights.  I’ll call that a win.