No Pictures - Homeschool Group Day

Friday was a much dreaded meeting of our homeschool group. It was the first meeting of our newly revamped Fine Arts Club. How many families would show up? Would there be too many kids to handle? or not enough? Would all the mom's who volunteered to help have all their supplies and know what to do? Would someone vital get sick at the last minute and throw off our carefully laid plans. I promised to not panic if the other moms wouldn't, but I was still anxious.

The morning started out well enough. I loaded up the car and told the kids to get their water bottles and snacks. Lunch would be a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. We got to the park just in time for the morning's Junior Master Gardener program.

Last spring at the last meeting of the Junior Master Gardner class, the kiddos got a bunch of plants and were told to bring them back to the first meeting in the fall. Sparkle and Glitter were one of the only families that kept some of the plants alive and remembered to bring them to the meeting. As a reward they each got a little set of gardening tools.

At lunch the kids ran around and I bribed my kids to eat by witholding the juice boxes until after the sandwiches were eaten. The moms talked about how to set up the four stations we would have: music, studio art, picture study, and dance. All the parent leaders were present and had brought all their supplies. Everyone knew what they were doing, and extra moms asked how they could help. Everyone contributed.

In the end it all worked out, as the other moms had been telling me. The kids had fun. Glitter even traveled around the stations with the other kids. She was supposed to be in the 4 and under group, but she wanted to be in the 5-7 year olds with her sister. I told her it was okay, as long as she acted like a 5 year old. Sparkle had a mini-meltdown when I was leading her group with picture study, but when she saw the other kids listening and participating, she was drawn back into the group.

I didn't get to see any of the other stations, but I could occassionally hear bursts of music from across the pavilion. When kids got to my station they were bubbling with excitment about the previous stations, especially making egg paint. Each session lasted for 30 minutes, and a timekeeper gave us 10 and 5 minute warnings, which really helped pace the sessions and keep things moving along. The kids who were getting board knew that they would do something new soon. The kids who were involved knew that they needed to wind up what they were doing.

When we got home, I told the kids if they were well behaved and let me nap, they didn't have to do anything else for the day. I lay on the sofa and when Wander called to let us know he was on his way home from work, he cheerfully volunteered to make supper. Being outside all day long is really exhausting for me.

I'm glad that's over, and I'm a bit eager to repeat the experience next month.