GL: Kids

[Raycamtal@aol.com]

I was reading Camille's log on our cruise web site today (first time in a  
long time) (_http://hometown.aol.com/raycamtal/myhomepage/ourcruise.html_ 
(http://hometown.aol.com/raycamtal/myhomepage/ourcruise.html) ),  and came across 
the last entry in her log highlights.  It was written in  Aug 2003, about 3 
months after we completed cruising, as a reply to  this group:
 
"August 20, 2003  
Palmetto, FL


(In response to a Trawler World posting from a couple  waiting for the kids 
to graduate from college to begin their Great Loop  trip.)


We cruised The Great Loop July 2002-May 2003 with our 9  year old son.  It 
was a wonderful year for all of us, and our experiences brought us even closer 
as a family.  Taylor did get lonely from time  to time...chatting with middle 
aged cruisers just isn't the same as whooping it up with kids your own 
age...but we periodically ran into  cruising families.  It would have been great if 
Taylor had had a sibling or two to giggle with, but investments in Follow me TV 
and  Gameboy helped during the slack times. 


Home school was not a problem, and we fashioned portions of  the curriculum 
around our travels.  We studied immigration and naturalization heading up the 
East Coast in preparation for Ellis Island  and the Statue of Liberty; there 
was Canadian history and geography; Lewis and Clark at St. Louis;  ecosystems at 
the  Everglades--and marine science everywhere.  Taylor moaned and groaned  
on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when his journal entries were required as  
part of home school.  (I kept telling him that it was the most important part 
of his curriculum, but he didn't  believe me.)  I was worried that Taylor 
would have problems easing  back into public school, but he's been in class for 
almost  two weeks and loving it.  So far so good.


I'm still amazed that the uniqueness (at least for  non-boaters) of our trip 
had little effect on Taylor.  It was simply life  as usual, and we happened to 
live on a boat.  Kids have a different frame of  reference from us, and the 
sights that amazed us were nothing to him compared to catching lizards in 
Alabama or jumping from the top of the  sundeck into the cool Georgian Bay.  But 
last week, instead of the usual "When are we going to go back to Chuck E 
Cheese?" or  "When are we going to go back to the big pool?" it was "When are we  
going back to New York?"  I suspect his broadened horizons from our year on  The 
Loop will shape the man he will become.


Ray and I are still suffering from post-trip blues, but the  business of job 
hunting and prepping our boat for sale are keeping us busy.  We bought a home 
in Florida, and we'll have to complete the  Loop to Virginia after our second 
retirement.


Don't wait for the kids to leave home to make the trip.  Of course we would 
have enjoyed the trip if had been just the two of us,  but nothing can compare 
to family life on a boat."
 
Take care & God Bless,
Ray Lesoine
Formally aboard "We 3"