Stacey makes the most amazing salmon salads! This is my main takeaway from Michigan. After making lunches for Stacey, Mummy Elliott and Nate, we drove 15 minutes down the road to the church run ‘242 Community Centre’. There is nothing quite like being able to access soft play, climbing walls, basketball courts, Astroturf (complete with various balls and goals) arts and crafts sessions, with a coffee shop…all for free! It was particularly quiet the day we went, because the weather was fairly nice outside, but I can imagine in those long, cold winter months, that it is full of families enjoying the immense space. Nate managed to knock out a two year-old, with an unfortunately timed kick at goal, but immediately apologised and moved his and Elliott’s game of ‘how high can we head and kick the ball in this absolute air hanger of a space?!’ The boys enjoyed practising on the bouldering wall, before we moved into the basketball court complete with a choice of basketballs of every size. We felt very American participating!

Once the boys had had their fill of sporting activity, we drove to Round Elementary for a tour of Oliver and Beth’s new school. The office staff were incredibly laid-back and chatty (much unlike most of our UK equivalents!) and the headteacher took us on a tour herself. She was actually one of Trevor‘s teachers while he was at school and Dotty took great delight in showing us each of the classrooms, where every teacher spent time saying hello to us and asking the boys questions about our trip and school back home. They regularly proudly announce that they’re Home Ed and all the reactions we have ever received have been positive, which is great for the us. Oliver’s teacher wasn’t wearing her glasses when we arrived at their classroom door and as a result didn’t recognise Stacey. She proceeded to explain to us that they also have a boy from London in their class and ‘Give them a wave Oliver!’ He looked incredibly (and rightly so) confused at being introduced to his own mother and what followed that evening was an apologetic, yet very friendly and personal, email, which was so lovely to see and quite in contrast to the relationship I feel English parents and school teachers have.

We then visited sassy five-year-old Beth’s classroom, which (obviously) had phonics up all over Kindergarten, although for weeks Beth has been telling Mum and Dad that they do no such thing as phonics! Elliott and Nate enjoyed playing with some building blocks in her class and when Beth appeared at the door to use the toilet (sorry, restroom!) she was excited to show them her room and snap a picture together. We finished the tour as the children were leaving for the school day and watched them all pile onto the school buses. We see them in American films all the time, but when you actually make the (long) drive to the ‘local’ elementary/primary school, you realise that without them, many children probably wouldn’t attend. There is no way to walk to school from many houses in America, either due to the length of the journey, or because of the busy/unmade roads you would have to travel on.

Oliver and Beth enjoyed showing Elliott and Nate their playground, complete with amazing climbing frames and a gaga pit (think dodgeball inside a smaller wooden pitch!) where they stayed for almost an hour!

It was then home to review Oliver’s homework on his M-step tests (like Y6 SATs, but every year!) where a question asked, ‘How many cups of chocolate milk (what else?!) can you pour from a quart?’ We then discussed how life in America must be confusing, as some situations use metric but most are still stuck in the world of imperial measures. Stacey said the pool she swims at (for Triathlon training) is a 25 YARD pool, which would obviously put anyones length times out of whack, especially if they’re swimming at a decent level and need to make particular times…how do they compete at the Olympics so well?! Nate spent the evening on his kindle again! 😍 

(The answer is 4 cups! There are 4 cups in a quart, 4 quarts in a gallon…if you were wondering! 🤣)