Vacation and School

So all 6 of us Sullivans are on vacation this week. We're at Smuggler's Notch in Vermont (America's Family Resort, they call it.) and -- despite rain today -- are having a great time.

After a year of typical parent and family craziness --arranging and re-arranging multiple schedules, school projects, work demands, kids' sports, more homework than ever -- vacation is providing a really unique insight into a year of school progress and growth. It seems that having this more quiet time provides the necessary perspective to assess how all that craziness went. Hard to make that kind of assessment in real-time between Little League games and bedtimes and school projects.

The good news is that things seem solid. We came here last year, too, so it's fun to compare what the kids were comfortable with last year and what they want to do now. A desire for more independence (for the older kids) seems to be the theme this year. And I suppose that's a good thing.

Of course, they also aced the "are you ready" quizzes that we have here on the site. So I guess I can head to the pool guilt-free for the rest of the weekend.

Happy 4th all.