Pros and Cons

When my Mom put up a post requesting writing prompts, we received quite a few wonderful ideas. Hopefully I will eventually answer all the questions we received. The prompt that inspired me today was: What are the top ten things you like about living on Sila, and the top ten things you dislike? I changed this a little and decided to pick a couple of situations and write what I like and dislike about them.

One: School. School generally consists of one to two hours of work in a class with Mama, Daddy, or Rosetta Stone per day. We also do 1-2 hours of work on our own or with a little help every day. Classes with Daddy include Math, and we will do Science. Mama teaches us Writing, Grammar, History, and she oversees our Reading and Spanish, which we do on a computer program called Rosetta Stone. We do one or sometimes two different classes per day.

The positives about school are we only do about three hours each day. We can work at our own pace. I never feel rushed or bored except in classes when Jack and I do exactly the same lesson but that is only because I'm working at a sixth grade level while he's doing fourth. When we are sailing I get sea sick while doing class so I can't work while underway. We normally get a break when we are on a long passage.

The negatives are we don't get weekends. School is every day. Our parents are our teachers. It stinks to have your Mom and Dad teaching you everything. I liked it more when I was around different people throughout the day. Plus they are allowed to beat you, unlike most teachers. They don't actually but its common grounds for joking! In such a small space it is very hard to get enough room to work in peace and quiet.

Two: Climate. The climate here is at first easy to describe as miserable and hot. After being here for a few days my opinion changed. Delightful, if a little on the hot side, became a more common description.

The awful part about this is how much sunscreen we have to wear. Sometimes I wonder why we don't go for a swim in sunscreen before getting in the water. At night I grow restless in bed and can't fall asleep as easily as I do when it is cool. Another problem with the heat is there's no skiing. I can't believe people would want to skip skiing in their lives. I'll bet nobody here has enjoyed stepping inside a warm house to a mug of hot chocolate after an hour of sledding.

The great part about the heat is the relief. The wonderful feeling of cooling off is so nice that it makes you want to get hot again. There really is nothing like jumping into the water and instantly cooling off or setting sail and sticking your head into the breeze, maybe accompanied by a cool soda from the bottom of the ice box. Tossing out a fishing line, landing a small tuna, and having some home caught sushi while letting the awesome breeze from sailing cool you off is also hard to beat.

These are only two of the wonderful things that I love about life on Sila. I will include more in another post. – Porter