New Routine: School to Home

These days, I pick up my oldest three kids from school on my bike, with little John in tow.  It is a dynamic moment, for everyone, the exit from school and transition to home.  Our sequence is as follows:

• burst out the school doors, 
• eyes search for family members, 
• run together to the bike rack, 
• hop quickly on bikes, 
• ride freely - wind blowing through hair, feet pedaling fast, 
• conquer the bridge, on or off the bike,
• wind through streets,
• arrive at the Big Green Ash Tree
• drop bikes, 
• breathe deeply.

As the kids gain distance from school, and zero in on home, the park gives us refuge and space to transition.  There are school stories, spastic flips on bars, flinging bodies on swings, snacks, trips to the proverbial bathrooms, pick-up soccer games, and escapes into the trees.  Overall, it is a safe place to shed stress, reunite, get space if you need it, or come together if you need that instead.  

When the older ones are nourished and ready for what's next, they hop back on their bikes and cruise home through wide fields and big trees.  I follow with the little ones.  I like to think that path gives them vision.  It's just a matter of looking up from their fast-moving feet.  But, the vision may be all mine, watching them all fly home.