School’s out, and the kids—Tom, Caroline, and Jackson—are home full time for the summer. Their mother, Sarah, has scheduled a week of soccer camp for Tom and Caroline, and in August, the family will travel to the beach for a vacation, but otherwise, the kids will spend most of their days at home.
In the first week or so of their summer break, the siblings are delighted to be free of classrooms, textbooks, and teachers. No longer do they have to stagger to the van in the wee hours of the morning under a book bag that weighs nearly as much as they do. No longer are they tormented by the agonies of common core math class or by the dreary minutes of sitting after supper at the kitchen table doing their homework.
