In the fall, those of us with children are focused on a new school year. In my case, it's a homeschool year with my 12 year old son. It's busy and satisfying, our homeschool days . . . one of our blessings is a parent run school cooperative in Ann Arbor. This building bustles every Tuesday, filled with children k-12 from over 290 families who share teaching and caring!
My son has the privilege of choosing which classes he wants to take and for the most part, not surprising, he's chosen 'Wacky Science', two mythology courses and two open gyms - one which places emphasis on games and techniques and the other is a room full of boys going all out with pure 'play'!
Meanwhile, as a member of this cooperative, I assist in a high school anatomy lab where the juniors and seniors are busy disecting brain, spinal cord, fetal pig, cow eye ball, kidney and heart. We make slides and draw pictures of what we see . . . there are only four kids in this class!
Then there's my primary class, 'Bake it with Mrs. B' where five middle school girls are helping me create a cookbook while they experiment with various baking recipes. So far they've made some awesome chocolate chip cookies, personal pan pizza and yesterday, granola. Next week we'll get in to pretzils and the week after that learn how to create lemon meringue!
Meanwhile, my son is just outside our professional kitchen in gym class where I can be there if anything needs to be done for him. It's a great feeling, to participate in this program, and I'm in awe of some of these amazing parents who are here teaching our children.
For example, the biology teacher is a mom with a PhD in Neurobiology, our labs are directed by a couple surgical/med surg nurses, our gym classes by accomplished athletes, our social studies and writing by professional parents who share their 'stuff'. Plus there are wonderful, nurturing, intuitive moms & dads who love these kids and are great teachers without any degree, some of them better than all of us put together!
Yesterday I overheard one of my sophmore lab students say that her SAT score was a 27 and she was going to retake it. The junior next to her was already applying to Harvard and had the entrance scores to support her choice!
Who says homeschoolers have it bad? Geeze, these girls and boys are so polite, happy, intelligent and spiritually connected. I'm seeing it with my own eyes. The co op is in a church and some classes are opened with a Christian prayer,- but you know me, I'm a shamanic practitioner (I also embrace Christ)& a spiritual advisor - so our kids enjoy a well rounded mix!
(Public schoolers have their share of sad stories as do homeschoolers . . . this we all know, I'm sharing the other side of the coin here).
At lunch the kids eat with their families or enjoy lunch together with eachother. It's a great feeling!
What our homeschool families do on other days of the week, besides Tuesdays, is an original choice of course. My child does some school work and 1-2 field trips or social events with friends. Today we're driving off to Uncle John's Cider Mill to have some fun with other homeschool families.
Tomorrow the university has a children's science museum homeschool class which is offered once a month. This class alternates each week with the nature center homeschool class and the planetarium astronomy for homeschoolers class. This way we have a hands on class by the university for our children about once a week.
We sleep in and have a nice breakfast, we do some work and enjoy our day. It's not bad . . . in fact, wow! My senior in high school (public school) daughter is benefiting from this, too. She and her boyfriend have now begun Thursday 'cooking & eating' afternoons at our home. She's great at eggplant parmesean so far and tomorrow we're going to hone in on our sushi making skills :-)
I've mostly lived as a single mom our whole lives and the work schedule for me has been as an RN working 13 hour shifts. I'm a single mom now, but homeschooling is workable, maybe because my children are older now. I feel so thankful this morning to be able to excitedly share this with you!
As I write this, homeade granola bakes in the oven. I'm also going to mix up some of Rosie's baking mix this week! I hope you don't mind if I share that recipe Rosie.
Granola:
(Pick and choose your favorite flavors . . . use a few or all added ingredients)
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds or walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower nuts and or dried apples chopped
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamin
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
Mix together the oats, nuts & seeds, coconut and cinnamin in a bowl. In a seperate bowl mix the honey and oil together and then pour onto oat mixture and stir well. Spread onto a greased baking pan and cook on low heat (300 F degrees) for 20-30 minutes until browned. When it's golden, pour into another bowl and add raisin and or dried apples/fruit!
Great with yogurt, milk or snack alone! Yummy
Light,
Fawn