Homeschool Picture Day - Eva Varga

We have never taken the ‘traditional’ school photo – whereby the kids stand on the front porch, backpacks slung over their shoulders, and dressed in their favorite new outfit.  We’ve never gone shopping for new school clothes. In fact, we’ve never registered our kids for school.

While other kids stand outside to await a yellow school bus to rumble to their stop, we are sitting down to breakfast as a family. After our meal, we wish Dad a good day at work, and then head out to a favorite serene area of wilderness.

Our Homeschool Picture Day

It is here, surrounded by the wonders of our Earth, that we capture the passage of time with our annual “Not Back-to-School” photo.  Each year, we’ve selected a new location – some new gem that we discovered earlier in the year.

We pack the usual lunches, towels, and swim suits.  We also carry along our nature study bag which includes our journals, a few field guides, pencils, watercolors, and even a water quality testing kit.

We spend the day playing – wading, swimming, exploring. We talk about our plans for the upcoming year. What books we want to read. What excursions we would like to make.

We pull out our sketch books when something captures our interest – perhaps a frog, snake, or mosquito larvae.

Generally, when selecting the location for our Not Back-to-School excursion, the kids choose a river. It is one of our favorite ecosystems – likely because it offers so much. We’ve also spent the day at a lake as well as a beach.

Do you take back to school pictures?

It’s Student Photo Week — check out other bloggers’ homeschool student photos!