Zeb made the choice last week to quit our local Life Learners (unschooling) groups. I’m sorta the leader but I didn’t worry about the logistics when my son was talking. He’s been making a lot of maturity strides and running into some walls along the way. Some of it seemed to be labels he was either locking himself in or feeling locked into. Some of it seemed to be needing to open up to new ideas. We’ve been with our group for two wonderful years. But everyone needs change, right? I feel like he needs to pull back in order to recenter and reemerge.

Another reason I wasn’t worried is that Zeb speaks in black or white. All or nothing. Very seldom an “in between”; at least not right away. He usually eases himself into the middle ground with some time and patience. Which is exactly what he did about five days after his initial decision. He told me that instead of quitting, he thinks he just needs a break. A couple weeks off. So today instead of meeting with our unschooling group, we made alternate plans.

And it was a beautiful day! We woke up slowly, instead of the usual rush to get ready for the park. Zeb came outside to help me in the yard – perlite mixed into the raised beds, the last pots filled, the seedlings outside to begin hardening off. He brought his fuzzy posters out while I finished up the one man jobs. We ate a late breakfast, colored some more fuzzy posters and got ready for a long hike.

Red Rock was wonderful today, despite some noisy crowds. We took the Calico Tanks trail all the way to the overlook with views of the whole city. We looked at the patterns the recent rainfall had made in the sand, and the patterns the wind made across the water-filled tanks. We observed the ripples the rocks made and noted the bird and dog/wild man-eating panther tracks. We wondered over the circular indentations in the rock, we climbed and laughed and sat and drew and colored and actually heard the flapping of a bird’s wings. We scrambled up the rocks and raced down them. We raced after the setting sun and outran the spooky – and cold! – Shadow Monster (Zeb ran in front because he said he was young and still had more life ahead of him!).

I don’t think this hiatus from our group is permanent by any means. For some time, he only wanted to do things with unschoolers; then with unschoolers and homeschoolers. But now he is interested in joining his Gramma’s hiking group and going on a Free Hugs expedition. He’s also shown interest in a local community garden project, among other things.

It’s so much fun to watch him grow. It’s as if things seem to crawl and drag and just when I begin to wonder, he makes a leap and a bound and suddenly he’s a different kid. His sense of humor, his thoughtfulness, his outgoing interactions with strangers, his understanding. I think I say this every couple of months but I think 9 and a half is my favorite age!