first day of co-op

You know its a big day when you send your child off for the first time to their first class without you there. Well, that day for Lydia was today.

Recently, a lady in our homeschool group posted about a montessori-style co-op. It is 1 1/2 hours every Monday for 7 weeks, and kids as young as Kindy age can take the class. So, I signed up my girls for the co-op, just Melissa and Lydia. The lady teaching has a rule of parents can help but not if they have younger children to care for at the same time (those parents, which I fall in that group, drop their kids off for the class) It is an outdoor survival-type co-op, and today was the first class.

We signed up to do the 12:30-2:00pm classes because it just works better with my schedule. We had a list of things we needed for them: a water bottle, notebook, pencil, sweatshirt, hat, and hair tied back with supplies in a backpack for easy carrying. So I prepared two backpacks this morning with the big kids' help to be sure they had everything (they searched for their item that I said to go get and then they put it in their individual backpack) and right after our lunch we headed out. This is the first time we've ever participated in a co-op, so this is a totally new experience for us. I signed them up because I'm not too good at this kind of stuff, and I knew that they would enjoy it.

When we got there, Lydia hesitated at first, but once we got her to sit down on the blanket with the other 6 kids (big class huh? lol) and she started participating, I knew she was sucked in and would do great. So, I took the little kids with me to run a couple errands that we needed to do (library trip, gas for van, just piddly stuff I never get to with all 4 kids normally) while they were in co-op. The little girls both fell asleep while we were running errands, so I was really limited to just doing the errands that I didn't have to get anyone out for (yes, our library is awesome and has a drive-up window to check out reserved books with drop slots for returning books and movies right next to it so that makes library runs AMAZINGLY simple if I remember to log on and reserve books a few days ahead of time) But I got everything done before we had to be back to pick up the kids, so I even had a chance to call my mom and chat for about 20 minutes.

When I went to pick the big girls up, I got there about 10 minutes early like I always do for stuff (I'm either 10 minutes early or 20 minutes late for everything LOL) I chatted with the host mom for this week (first week only is being done at her home, the other 6 weeks will be at the nature preserve) and the little kids wandered off to play with her 3 1/2 year old girl. When the kids were done with class (about 20 minutes AFTER she said it would be over lol but I don't mind) they were just chattering up a storm about all the neat stuff they learned in co-op.

This is a full list of what they talked about in co-op this afternoon:

first aid in the woods without a traditional kit (using a safety pin and bandana)
edible flowers
ticks and Lyme Disease
venomous spiders in our area (black widow and brown recluse)

Yep, major topics for kids their ages, but man they got a KICK out of it. They can't wait to go back to class next week, and they've already done today's part of their homework (spend 20min daily outside observing nature, taking notes or drawing pictures or gluing plants and such into their notebook, also they need to create a small basic first-aid kit that is the right size for their backpacks for the next class and we're supposed to talk about different ways we can use a bandana and/or safety pin for emergency first aid) They truly LOVED co-op today, and I feel great about choosing to sign them up for it.

Future topics that I'm aware of right this moment for the co-op (I have a very basic syllabus the teacher e-mailed me, she said she'll add more in class and see where it leads but will for sure cover these topics) include building a shelter, starting a fire without matches (emphasizing the need for an adult at ALL times when trying to do a fire), further instruction on first aid, basic knots (Lydia won't do too well at that one with her motor delays), and animal tracking and behavior. Hopefully, this co-op series will give the girls a love of nature and maybe I'll get little girls who want to spend their free weekends camping and hiking as they get older.

And to top it all off, I'm getting some badly-needed recharging time each week while they get the chance to learn to interact with authority figures other than their parents, and they are getting around other kids as well. Oh, and they are telling and showing me all the stuff they are learning, and I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from them over the course of this class as they tell me all about what they are learning.