Homeschool Out of the Box Fall Semester Kick-off Party

Today we had a lovely party at our co-op to celebrate going back to school, one day a week, with awesome classes, good friends, and a loving family atmosphere. I don't have time for a proper post before I get the children into the tub, but I do have time for three pictures and three observations:

1. The Chess Table



2. The Drum Circle



3. The Food Table



1. I love the other moms at our co-op. I feel so lucky to have actual friends in a place where my children have fun and learn. These are people I would choose to hang out with even if our children didn't coincide. Nobody in our circle resembes the SNL caricature of the homeschool mom enough to prevent me from laughing at the skit.

2. When homeschoolers bring food, they bring food. The table was groaning under incredible offerings -- homemade baklava, glorious brownies, loads of veggies and tubs of melon, complex and subtle salsa, literate hummus, I mean it was ridiculous. We all ate all afternoon and there were mad leftovers. I have been in several "pot luck" situations in the last couple of weeks and no one, I mean no one, delivered anything like the homeschoolers.

3. Homeschooled children are delightful. I love how they're so earnest and interested in everything, how they're so full of vocabulary, how they joyously rush around, making up games to play, frowning over chess, giggling in stair wells. They play across gender lines, across age lines, they're funny and I LIKE THEM. I'm glad my children have these peers.

That is all. :)