The School of Life
Tom Dyson on his no-school family adventures... and a birdie each for Dusty and Miles...
West Palm Beach, Florida
Monday, October 31
That’s Dusty (14) and Miles (12) on the 16th tee at the Palm Beach Par 3 course… one of my favorite golf courses in the world.
It’s long been a dream of mine to play golf with my family and today we finally realized it. (Kate and Penny aren’t quite ready for the course yet, but they’re working hard on it at the practice range.)
We had a great day. The boys got one birdie each…
*** Greetings from West Palm Beach, Florida!
My family and I are a no-school family, which means our three children don’t go to school. Instead, they hang out with us and we try to have as much fun as possible together, doing whatever we want, like a sort of permanent vacation. We visit family and friends, we watch movies, read books, listen to music and we do a bunch of sports, activities and traveling.
We’re probably raising soft, unambitious slackers who will never leave home, and Kate and I will probably end up broke, homeless and without medical insurance, but hey-ho, at least we had a great time together for a few years.
That’ll be good enough for me.
(Oh and we got divorced part way through this experiment which added a big complication to the plan. We managed to get past that somehow and get the Endless Vacation back on the tracks, but that’s a story for another time.)
So that’s the backstory… and since Bill’s taking a couple of weeks off from writing his daily essay, Dan and Joel invited me to send you an update on our crazy no-schooling adventure.
We’re currently in South Florida, visiting Kate’s parents and staying at their home. One of the great benefits of this lifestyle is that we can visit our families for as long as we want (or, I should say, for as long as they can tolerate us.)
This time, we’re planning to stay for two months. Then we’ll drive to New York for Christmas and then return to London in the new year.
The kids study regular classroom subjects like maths, science, history and languages. And we follow certain online courses to help us with these, even as we travel. In addition to these, we also like to take what we call “unit studies.”
Unit studies are special intensives in a particular activity or life skill. For example, a couple of winters ago, we spent a few months in the Rockies learning how to ski. And last year in London, we did unit studies for learning musical instruments and cricket. Next year, we’d like to go to Mexico and spend three months learning Spanish.
And while we’re here in Florida? We’ve chosen to study golf as our unit study.
I’ve loved golf since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to share my passion for golf with Kate and the kids. Palm Beach County is the capital of the golf world. There are hundreds of golf courses around here. And since we have a public course a few minutes down the street, well, it’s time. So we’re practicing golf every day. I’ve got about six more weeks to turn us all into golfers. We’ll see.
Otherwise, not much to report. We just keep our heads down and work on our everyday studies. For me, that means hunting for useful investment ideas for my subscribers, which is my personal obsession.
Until the next time,
From,
Tom, Kate and the gang
P.S. As an old time golfer once warned me: “What’s the secret to a long and happy marriage? Don’t try to teach your wife to play golf.” Oh well.
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Enjoyed your family update I think you and Kate are doing an amazing job raising your children , thanks for sharing the journey
P.G. Wodehouse, went straight to the point, “To find a man’s true character, golf with him”. Particularly useful is to see how he handles failure and frustration. What does he do after his third tee shot in a row goes into the lake? Or he three putts from 5 feet away for a bogey after a perfect drive and approach shot to the green, expecting to birdie the hole? What about honesty? Does he "forget" to penalize himself when required or count all his strokes?
Tom, you couldn't have selected a better activity for your family! Great fun (and frustration), but they can continue with it when they have to quit other activities. My father-in-law played golf (and beat me!) well beyond his 90 years of age.