"in the dark Grop'd I to find them out"

Owen: "Dad, I really want to go spelunking again."

Me: "I didn't know you'd ever been spelunking. When did you do that?"

Owen: "Oh, I've been lots of times. You've taken me!"

Me: "When did we ever do spelunking? I don't know of any places to do it around here."

Owen: "We do it at the lake. Or at the bay. Or even at the pond at Nama and Papa's house."

Me: "What do you think spelunking is?"

Owen: "You know. When you throw rocks into the water. They go, 'spe-LUNK!'"

Me: "I see."

Owen: "Is that not what it's called?"

Me: "Spelunking is exploring caves. The word "spelunca" means cave in Latin."

Owen: "Oh."

Me: "Right."

Owen, muttering and walking away: "Mine's way better...."

"There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows"

 

"He's fat, and scant of breath"

Today I taught my first homeschool physical education class.

Before I explain why, I need to acknowledge that there is a special irony in the way that the academic disciplines I sneered at as a child and couldn't deign to make an effort in have become my special delights and projects as an adult.

Art? I couldn't be bothered to actually try in college. Now I draw in my notebook constantly, order special pens, and collect tips and tricks on how to work with perspective.

Handwriting? Consistently dismissed while I was in elementary school as pointless and boring. Now I'm painstaking in making neat calligraphic strokes in multiple alphabets all day long.

Piano? Don't bother me with that nonsense while I go about my real work of practicing the trumpet. Now the most musically satisfying things I do are to pick my way through Bach inventions at the keyboard. (And it isn't necessarily easy to find time at the piano, since we all have to compete with Owen for the bench.)

Girls? Disgusting, embarrassing, sure sources of cooties. Turns out that kissing them isn't so bad, though.

And, of course, Physical Education? What an absolute waste of time, energy, and academic integrity to run laps in gym shorts while I could be doing real work. And now, of course, I run every day, look up stretches for various muscle groups (largely to rehab injuries from running) and carefully examine nutritional information.

So it was with a deep bow to the irony of the universe that I acknowledged my excitement at teaching the boys a proper Phys Ed course this year.

Not that we would ever be anything other than fastidiously rule-following in our adherence to the New York State Guidelines for Homeschooling Families (section 100.1), but our previous years of "gym class" might have consisted of the instruction to "go run a couple of laps around the house" between subjects.

We're in high school with James now, and we are being extra careful to keep good records and meet all requirements for his degree. And part of that degree is a proper physical education course--games, exercises, nutrition, and anatomy. And thus I ordered the Homeschooler's Physical Education Handbook.

I think it's going to be good. I think that we can even do it with all three boys at once, which will be a nice break in their day from individual work. Today's "lesson" was to measure and weigh each boy, and then to time them running a mile.

I started with James. 

"Don't give everything that you have in the first few hundred feet," I explained "because a mile might be longer than you think. I'll run with you to help keep the pace and will keep track of everything on my phone. It will be about twice around the block plus an extra leg up to the STOP sign. Are you ready?"

"Should we stretch?"

I agreed that we should stretch.

We stretched, we lined up at the end of the driveway, and then we were off.

I've done some running with James in the past--some trail runs in the woods, and a progressive 5K that he did with Owen. It had been several years, though, and I was immediately pleased with how easy his stride looked since his most recent growth spurt. As a matter of fact, I was astounded that he didn't appear to even be breaking a sweat.

Being impressed turned into active dismay as I realized that there was no possible way that I as going to be able to stay with his pace and that he wasn't even trying particularly hard. 

"James!" I gasped

"What?"

"Take my phone. You're smoking me. I'll meet you for the last leg."

And so, gasping and out of breath, I circled back to meet him for the final sprint.

He ran his mile with no training and with no preparation in 7'59". And he absolutely left me in the dust.

We walked back together and I praised him as best as I could, and told him to make himself a big canister of seltzer. 

He wasn't even breathing hard. 

Next was Felix. We weighed and measured him, then I took him outside. I gave him the same spiel about pacing himself at the beginning, and then we were off again. 

Ever since Felix has been able to walk he's had a quirky, quintessentially Felix habit in the way that he walks in groups. He runs up to whoever is in front, gets directly ahead of them, and then deliberately slows down. He's been doing this since before he could talk.

Walking in the woods? Felix will cut you off. A busy sidewalk in Toronto full of pedestrians? Felix is going to make sure he's in front of your knees and then practically halt. Running laps around the block? Felix will run with you, until he's suddenly walking in front of you and you almost trip over him.

I don't think he does it as a joke. I think he is a born brake-checker. And that's what most of our run around the block was. He was all about running for the first 10% of the mile, and then declared that it was time for a walking break. Then he started running again, but did wild zig-zags all around the pavement.

I encouraged him to do his best to get a good time, and he promptly lost a shoe. 

Rounding the bend, he declared very Jackson Lamb-ily that "this would go a lot better if I could do it on my bike." 

Rounding the next corner he said that seltzer water wasn't a very good reward for running a mile and that he'd rather have ice cream. We walked most of the rest of the way. He finished in about 17 minutes.

Owen was the final run.

"What was James' time?" he asked.

"James has way longer legs than you, so don't you worry about comparing yourself to James."

"Yeah, but what was his time?"

"7 minutes, 59 seconds."

"So really, 8 minutes. He didn't really do it in 7 minutes."

Owen needed and received the most encouragement. I kept him apprised of his progress through 10%, 20%, 25%, etc., and each time he put on an extra burst of speed. He had to stop and walk twice, but he absolutely strained his hardest as we rounded the final tenth of a mile and finished at a more than respectable 10ish-plus minutes. 

"If my legs were as long as James', I'm pretty sure I would have been faster than him."

He probably will be. We crossed a frontier today where one of my kids is officially way better at something athletic than I am, and I couldn't be more delighted. They each ran their miles very much according to their own particular...gifts. It will be quite the year of physical education around here.

"Thou still hast been the father of good news"

 

"How chances it they travel?"

 

Flying from Washington to Athens

Waiting for the ferry from the port of Piraeus to take us to Naxos

The ferry, which was an enormous catamaran-style diesel boat that made quick time (5ish hours) of the journey with several stops along the way

Possibly the island of Syros?

How I got my only look at the Parthenon

Taking in the Mediterranean. Without a hat on, because it was incredibly windy.

Nearing sunset

Mykonos

Travel-weary, almost there

First glimpses of Old Town, Naxos

Poolside at the hotel after the first day at the beach

Out for dinner in Agios Prokopios

Beating the crowds (there was regularly a line around the block for this place) by eating at 5:30

Appetizer sampler, the best thing on the table was the stewed beans

Some complimentary tsipouri

Agios Prokopios sunset

Agia Anna, I think

Some of the colors near our hotel

Doesn't do justice to the blue of the water at the beach

A long and dusty walk up to Old Town, Naxos. (We usually took a bus)

Heading part the harbor up to the Portara

The iconic image of Naxos--the arch of the Temple of Apollo

The full Mediterranean stretching out 

It was very windy

The only proper waves we saw were on this northern part of the island

J had to hold her hat to keep it from blowing off

The closest we came to eating indoors. (It was a place overlooking the harbor, kind of like an open tent)

Eating fish with the head still on/octopus/langoustines

Some of the elaborate breakfast we had every morning by the pool

Cooking class day

For some reason these pictures are out of order. This was at the very end, when we learned a bunch of traditional Greek dances

Debris on the driveway is from smashing plates

Some of the final product from the cooking class

The presentation at the communal table once everything was done

Part of the view as we climbed out of Mesi Potamia

A bit of Venetian tower (The Kokko Tower?) that has become a historical site

All the stone was Naxian marble

Part of the farm

Making the tzatziki 

Stuffing peppers and tomatoes

Wine, lemonade, and snacks while we worked

Preparing the rooster legs

We used so much olive oil

Olives (not ready yet) on the vine

Estimated age for most of the thicker-trunked olives: 2,000-3,000 years old

On our way to gather vegetables

Selecting our produce from the farm

New shoots from an ancient tree

Bunches of grapes--all the wine we drank was made in house

Prep stations

    

Lunch on the beach

Mid-afternoon snacks

Trying again to capture the color of the water...

Up towards the far northern end of the area where we swam

A cooler, slightly less windy day overall

Sea-view dinner

Fishermen's Pasta

And a Naxian salad

Spot the kittens?

Watching the sun set from the rooftop tables

Another day down

The next day's breakfast

Watching the waves roll in while waiting for the bus

Some of the shops in Filoti

A hidden gem up in the mountains

Part of the descent from Mt. Zas

Felt like we were almost done, because we'd reached a proper path. We actually had another hour of walking.

The Cave of Zeus

We covered a lot of elevation in one morning

Another angle on the summit

Looking at the entire island with Froggy from the very top

The summit

In the direction of Turkey

The trail was fairly well blazed, but there were enormous cairns to guide you when the marks weren't clear

Panoramic view of the valley on the ascent side

Very scrubby climbing. (There were some nicked ankles and shins)

Water break on the ascent

These little family-sized white chapels were everywhere on the island

Where the bus let us off

A Nutella wrap that we've tried to recreate for the boys. (They would have loved them)

Didn't get souvlaki until 6-7 days in. It was worth the wait.

More of Old Town Naxos

Exploring a kitchen shop

"Leisure is the mother of philosophy"

Our umbrella slowly dying on the final day

Final dinner out

Same restaurant where we saw the kittens

Some of the sunbeds. 40-50 euro a day, which was why we made due with the umbrella.

Sea bream, fried zucchini

Grilled octopus

The last Agios Prokopios sunset

And a final beach walk