First day of co-op

The girls were fortunate enough to all get spots in my home school group's co-op. What that means basically is the moms all come together with their different talents (teaching) and teach each others kids. We meet every Friday at a church in town that has graciously opened up their buildings to facilitate a school-like setting for a bunch of school aged kids. There are classes of all sorts and its neat to see all these moms come together to give their knowledge to other children. Kylie and Ava are in a class together with one other girl and I think 10 other boys ("but I don't like boys"-Kylie) and Juliet is in a class with other 2 year olds and she actually gets to learn things, not just be in day care for 2 hours we are there. She is one of 2 girls in addition to 4 boys in her class. I help out in her class the first hour and the second hour I change classes and help with the babies. Last week was kinda chaotic as it was the first day back at school, but the girls enjoyed themselves and I probably annoyed other moms with my never ending questions about their home school experiences.

I hate to admit it, but I was totally shocked at the number of boys in the co-op. I just assumed most moms would send their boys to public school and home school their daughters (I don't mean siblings, I mean families of just one sex of child/ren...I don't think it is overly common for parents to home school some of their kids and send others to public/private school). I've heard over and over boys tend to "need socialization" or "they just won't listen to me" so I figured that was what most moms thought. And since girls "tend to sit still and are smarter and listen better than boys", moms would have an easier time home schooling their daughters. My friend Candace said I totally stereotyped boys and girls, and she was right. I was! These are just a few of the myths I've been hearing and chose to believe. I will say though, it was mostly the little girls sitting quietly in chairs waiting for the day to start while the boys were running and shouting and jumping and goofing off prior to school starting.

Here are the girls on our first day getting ready to head out.


Here is Juliet stacking Legos in her class. She can point out colors correctly when I ask her, but she can't name them correctly as often.


The girls did ask if they were going to a school that last all day and has a bell. I had to tell them no and that we were meeting in a church. They were disappointed at first, but they enjoyed their first day and are looking forward to going again tomorrow.