Let the School Year Begin!

Yesterday we had our opening social/kick-off for our 2008-2009 home school Co-op year. Yep, homeschooling doesn't take much vacation time. We met out at Jen's in the Strawberry Valley (I don't know if that's really what it's called). It is always so beautiful out there. We met and had our discussion on the first four chapters of "The Story of the World: The Middle Ages". We kept it pretty simple this week since we wanted to have plenty of time to play.


The fun really began out at the pond. We set up our food...

Jen with the kids

...and got the fire going in the fire pit...


...and proceeded to enjoy a healthy lunch of hot dogs!




There is a wonderful, big tree next to the pond that we hung out around. It has a thick rope that most of the kids played on, swinging out over the pond and back, or running with and then swinging around to the other side of the tree.

Jake getting in touch with the Tarzan in him. He did change into his swim trunks eventually

While the kids played we moms tried to do some planning for the coming year. Since it has been a month or so since we've been together, we also did a lot of yakking and catching up--which is our version of "playing". The kids don't quite get that.

We had blankets and chairs under the shade of that big tree and had a great afternoon.

Little Lizzy wandering about under the tree

The kids had a ton of fun playing on the dock...


...and getting the courage to get into the water...


...and eventually succeeding!


Because we were by water we were always watching the children to make sure they were safe, and we kept our cameras close by for all the cute photo ops...

Jen getting shots for her blog

This year my Jake and Jen's Ellie will join our co-op. Jake, Ellie and Ben will be our high school kids and will add a new dimension to our co-op. Yesterday was great for Jake so that he could get to know Jen's kids a little better. He brought his guitar and he and Ellie sat on a blanket under the tree and he taught Ellie some guitar chords.


We were at Jen's way too long (sorry Jen!), but it really was such a fun day.

Last night Jen sent out an e-mail with her list of books for the school year. And at the end of her message she wrote this: I hope you guys had fun today and that it wasn't overwhelming for you. As you were leaving Lee found a rattlesnake right by the tree with the rope swing! He promptly killed it with a shovel. I couldn't believe it. He said it was cruising through there-not like it was just hanging out. Still I was so relieved that none of the kids encountered it. Yikes...

WOW! I would say that we were very blessed yesterday.