Playing Around with School

Back in November I started a "Mom's Time Playgroup." The idea was for Mom's to get together and do "their crafty thing" while the kids played. During the Winter we met at my apartment's clubhouse. The group solidified with me and two other Mom's, each with two kids. A total of 4 boys and 2 girls. Slowly, we started meeting at each other's places and ditched the clubhouse. When we ditched the clubhouse, we also seemed to have ditched the crafting thing. I'd like to get back to crafting, but for now, the playgroup is an important thing too.

Since the weather's warmed up, we've been meeting at different parks and playgrounds. Today, we went to the elementary school by our house. I think I've written about Wyoming playground equipment before... Tom and I thought they'd outlawed this type of stuff! We just NEVER saw it around Arizona... metal toys... merry-go-rounds... sand pits and asphalt under the equipment...


I mean, that is a SERIOUSLLY BIG METAL SLIDE!!!

Look at Frank (at the top) and Jack (at the bottom)! They are just tiny!


We've recently added another lady to our group, so we now have six boys (2, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 5) and two girls (2 & 4) that are playing together. Here are the two we've known for several months:


George and Frank were in the Sports Camp together. I can never get over how serious George tends to be. Andrew is a lot like Jack. They are determined and a bit mischievous! It's so interesting to make friends with other ladies with two sons, about the same ages as ours. I've got two friends like this now, and it's a lot of fun to compare notes on how the two boys interact with each other and others.

So, Frank has made two friends, both two months younger than him. All three of them will be starting Kindergarten this fall. George here is going to the Elementary School where they were playing today. Jeremiah will be homeschooled, along with his sister who's been homeschooled the past two years (she'll be in second grade). I just realized that either way, public school or homeschool, Frank will have a friend in his grade... someone to do "school stuff" with and someone to "compare" against the "other" method of learning. As we get closer to the beginning of the school year, Tom and I are more and more excited about the opportunity to continue schooling the boys at home!

Whenever you talk or think about your reasons for doing things with your kids, be it school or otherwise, you usually have a whole myriad of reasons, not just one or two. In the end though, I think it boils down to "it's the right thing to do for our family / child". Right now, homeschooling Frank (and Jack) feels like the right thing for us to do, and we are excited to do it. So. Yes, we are still planning to homeschool the boys.

This question of homeschooling came up in a comment to yesterday's HUGE post. I wanted to especially thank you for your feedback about that post; especially Cricket's unique Insurance Inside Insight. It helped me truly "understand" what was going on.

Thanks, as ever, for your feedback, input, and comments. They help this blogging thing feel more "alive"! :D