When does school start?

This is the question I am getting at least once a day. My response is simple. We haven't stopped! 

This is new for us. Last year we started school the third week of September. This meant our home school went until the end of June this year. When we started our experiment with interest led learning this past spring I never envisioned us not taking the summer off from "learning". What I have learned through our experiment is that truly EVERY day is full of learning whether we call it a school day, holiday, weekend, or even summer break. 

I find myself paying attention to what my girls are doing throughout the day in a new way. I look at their activities and categorize it within core or elective subjects. My kids are completely unaware of what I am doing, they simply feel I am mesmerized by their activity! I do this because interest led learning is still new for us, and the certified teacher in me twitches at the thought of our relaxed approach to learning. By categorizing and taking notes I keep the twitches at bay and open up my mind a bit more to the fact that my kids will choose to learn every day. 

Today Olivia chose to:

• write for the 30 Day Writer's Challenge
• read Fault in Our Stars
• three hours of dance class

Today Natalie chose to:

• tend the garden
• research Jar Pendants and calculate the price of supplies and cost per each pendant
• two hours of dance class

Today Ella chose to:

• play Club Penguin - reading
• text friends - writing
• read messages on Facebook -read and write
• three hours of dance class 

I guess I could say we are "officially" starting back the third week of September, maybe that is a more comfortable answer for friends and family to hear.

I am counting everything we are doing this summer, over weekends, and late night research sessions that fits within a subject category as learning. "School" is not what my families learning experience looks like.

Maybe I have a hard time answering the question, "When are you starting school?"  because our experience doesn't look or feel like "school." My children and I learn and add to what we learn every day. We enjoy it. Therefore, I don't ever see us "starting" school again. Instead I see us continuing to learn.