Unfolding the Day

Our day began in a flurry. We were generally not looking forward to the task at hand – having a complete stranger evaluate our homeschooling progress for the year is daunting no matter how well prepared you are. We needed to drive over an hour away and bring along enough samples of each student’s work to show aptitude and sufficient progress. We’d already spent several days sorting through the year’s work to gather papers, art, poems, math books, science charts, etc. I had already written up a summary of each child’s progress in each of the required subject areas. We packed up and left the house early in the morning.

Our drive took us over a river and through a wood, quite literally, and our final turn was onto a gravel road, then onto a tiny driveway that meandered for over 1/2 mile through the woods. Fortunately, I knew the driveway would be long, though I still had to battle the idea that we were lost and would end up stuck in the middle of the forest.

The children whispered that we were meeting Maine’s version of Tasha Tudor as we pulled up to her hand built home tucked into the woods. We gathered together the bags of all the work we brought along, met our evaluator (a very kind woman who dug an old garden cart out of her garage for us to use to wheel our heavy bags), and we walked to the pond.

At the edge of the pond was a picnic table sitting in the dappled sun, and we showed our evaluator each child’s work and also each child’s play. We brought along artwork, fun stories and poems the children wrote, talked about their interests, books they’re reading – these things telling so much more about who they were and how they’re learning than a page out of a math book.

At the edge of the pond was a dock made for sitting and dangling your feet into the cool water. After finishing our evaluation, we gratefully relaxed for quite some time before deciding against returning home right away. I knew we were close to Castine, and my children couldn’t remember having been there, so we decided to go. Our hostess recommended that we visit the Wilson Museum on Perkins Street if we were looking for things to do. And with that plan, we drove to Castine.

I was very glad for her directions, because we might have missed the museum. When we arrived, we found that we were the only visitors there. The timing of our visit was perfect to see an art exhibit from local artists. The children were much more interested than I expected, and they spent time studying the works. We explored the museum for a while, and then we asked a museum staff member for a suggestion for a place for lunch.

We left the car, and walked to town, enjoying the beautiful old homes and pretty gardens on the way. We missed the sign for our destination, but found another tiny eat-in or take-out restaurant. Our feet were tired and it was an extremely warm day, so we decided to dine in. The owner was kind and asked with we had plans for the day. I explained that our decision to make the visit was last minute and we were just going to see how the day unfolded. He gave us a map of the town and told us how to get to the lighthouse and he told us which path to take behind the lighthouse (stay to the left) that would lead to steps (49 according to another visitor we met) down to water’s edge.

On our walk back to our car we stopped in to a couple of shops. We found books that sparked our interests (though we didn’t buy any), we found an art gallery with beautiful paintings (we didn’t buy any), and a tiny little shop with gifts, yarn, and kitchen ware. I was much tempted to buy some yarn, and Emma saw a beautiful knit shawl that she said she would happily wear if I made one, but for today, we didn’t buy any yarn.

We drove to the lighthouse and once again, I was very glad for the directions, because otherwise I would have thought we were trespassing behind the lighthouse. Without the directions we would have stopped short before finding the steps (keep going, stay to the left), which were exactly as described.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with Maine’s coast, it’s very important that you understand that our shores are not sandy. The lighthouse steps descended to the rocky coast, the tide was out, and we set to climbing and exploring (and not falling). The kids found all sorts of critters in the tide pools, we watched sail boats meandering along, tried to name the islands we saw, and spent a lovely time.

Our next stop was Fort Madison, to even more rickety wooden steps (much less than 49) down to water’s edge. There we found sea glass, sea pottery (my favorite), and shells. We searched for stones to skip on the water surface, found larger rocks to see how big of a splash we could make, and waded in the water. We played tag with the small waves, and lost count of how many times we had to move our shoes away from the reach of the incoming tide.

On the way home, we stopped for ice cream to cap off what turned out to be a perfect day and made plans for another outing.

At the recommendation of our school evaluator we visited a museum.
At the recommendation of a museum staff member, we found a lunch spot (though not the one suggested).
At the recommendation of the restaurant owner we explored the lighthouse and the path behind, and then the fort grounds and the path behind.
The day unfolded perfectly because of the kind and generous suggestions of strangers. It was a Very Good Day.