Wednesdays, lately, are our crazy days—the day where we truly live up to the description of homeschool families as "never-at-home-schoolers."
I have tried to avoid overscheduling the children; even as homeschoolers who don't spend four or five or six hours a day away from home, allowing a bit more time for structured activities without really packing our schedule, I do believe it is important for children so young to spend at least three or four days a week mostly at home. Julia takes a ballet class once a week at a local dance studio, and they attend Sunday School at our church, and otherwise we were, until recently, blissfully unscheduled.
A few weeks ago I had word of a new Wednesday-morning co-op—just getting started—at which two sweet homeschooling mamas would be offering fun French and yoga classes. I couldn't resist the French, of course, and signed Julia and Asher up for it right away; this week we added the yoga class, which I think they enjoy even more than the French class!
We meet in a beautiful renovated factory space that is almost an hour away on the bus, so we are all up and out of the house just as the sun is peeking up over the city, and we ride the bus—"one short ride and one long ride," as Julia describes it—all the way to the end of the line.
In between classes, we share a snack together, and afterward we walk back to the bus stop to ride all the way back to Buffalo, where we have a regular Wednesday-afternoon play date with some of our homeschool friends.
It makes for a full day—often at least one of us has a little nap on the return bus ride, and again later on at home while I am making dinner—and sleepy heads rest especially well on Wednesday nights...
