Miscellany

Friday Fave 5

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. (G.K. Chesterton)

It’s extremely quiet here. The girls are in their respective rooms, doing quiet things (apparently). I am on the couch, tapping on this keyboard. Other than that it’s just birds and the occasional car.

This quietness is something I’ve missed. It comes on Friday afternoons, after we come home from our homeschool co-op and finish lunch and an abbreviated math lesson. We’re tired — good tired — and we feel a sense of accomplishment.

We loved co-op, but it changed a few years ago into an endeavor involving more commitment — longer days, and lasting longer into the summer — than we felt we could handle. I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of Fridays without commitments. But I’ve missed the interaction with other homeschool families. We can say, “We’ll just have to do more playdates,” but it doesn’t happen.

Co-op has evolved back into the perfect scenario for us: music, art and gym on Friday mornings, for two semesters. We started today. The girls will have a group of kids to move up through school with. I’ll have the weekly reminder that there are many other crazies out there doing what we’re doing: homeschooling our kids.  This group includes 40 families, 120 kids, and that’s just a fraction of the homeschool community around here. It’s impossible to describe the source of encouragement and pleasure it is to gather with these folks again.

I’m thankful for co-op. I’m thankful that although there was a mistake and our name was overlooked on the waiting list for this year, the steering team made a place for us and welcomed us in. I’m thankful that my daughters will be regularly with friends, learning and growing, a part of a community. And I’m thankful for myself, as well — that I will be with friends, part of a community, linked into something larger than our household, benefiting from the humor and compassion and experience of other home educators on a weekly basis.

That’s my biggest fave of this week. But here are four more, just to round things out:

I’m thankful for the completion of our first week back in school. We achieved everything we set out to do, and the girls had good attitudes. I end the week with more energy than when I began.

I’m thankful that our sick bunny is getting better. A sick dog is enough; a lethargic, non-eating bunny was just a little more than I knew what to do with. He’s getting back to his normal self today, so it appears he’s healing.

wh

I’m thankful that all of our missing homeschool materials have now arrived — even our Noeo Chemistry, about which I’m quite excited!

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I’m thankful for a beautiful walk in the woods yesterday. Our nature walks have taken a back seat to equestrian endeavors this summer, and it felt wonderful to get out and enjoy the sights and smells of early autumn.

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Here is one bonus, a sixth blessing: a good book to read. I’m taking my time and finding lots to nourish and challenge me in Philip Yancey’s Soul Survivor.

I won’t be linking to the official Fave 5 roundup because I don’t think I’d be able to visit all the other posts, but for my own health and sanity I wanted to do a write-up. Let the record show: good things have happened this week.

2 Comments

  • DebD

    so glad your co-op is working out for your family this year. It is nice to meet together. But, boy! that is a big co-op. We never got up to 50 in ours. MD has a fragmented homeschooling community. Unless you’re involved at a large church with a hsing community, you’re kind of on your own. We’ve only got one or two lasting friendships from the 20yrs I homeschooled.

  • Barbara H.

    I’m glad the co-op is working out so well this year. We only homeschooled for four years, when we lived outside Atlanta, and there was a wonderful homeschool support organization there. They didn’t have a co-op, but they had a lot of regular activities and field trips, and they were all good, but it was hard to know sometimes the best balance between using them yet getting our own things done, especially if using a particular curriculum, as we did, with requirements that didn’t allow for a full day “off” to do some of these other things.

    Glad Bunny is doing better!