Homeschool Co-op Day

Last week Megan and I went to our Homeschool Co-op. It is a once a month thing but I have only made it to 2 or 3 this year as I usually work on Thursday mornings. Megan has been able to go with my sister Keren who lives nears us and has kids old enough for co-op this year.

The activity of the day was making fun foods. I was in charge of having the kids make fruit bouquets. They aren't quite professional quality yet but they were fun to do and the kids seem to enjoy eating them as well.

Some of the kids with Sara teaching made these cute little chicks.

Emily and a group of young ones made veggie insects.

Keren led this under the sea sort of dessert.

MollyBea helped some of them make little sweet sheep.

Tara made resurrection rolls with her group. This is a really fun idea. I guess the had a marshmallow that represented Jesus. They rolled it in spices and place it in some dough (the tomb) and placed it in the oven. When it baked the dough tomb popped open on its own. The Marshmallow was supposed to be completely gone but that didn't quite happen. Still it is pretty fun.

Katy led a group in making some cute decorated rice crispy bars. Altogether it was a fun morning.

Megan is always a good helped.

Eden was in our group and was a great flower fruit maker. Tavi came to join him and help out when his group had finished their project.

More helpers that came after they had already worked in their original group.

   This time of going to co-op was pretty bittersweet. It was probably my last time. Oh, I probably will visit again sometime but after 11 years of leading the group and this year of being somewhat involved I am moving on. Aaron graduates this year and Megan will be a Junior in highschool next year and will probably be doing early college (PSEO for Minnesotans) next year and is ready to be done with co-op now anyway and I am working. It is time to move on. But I will admit I have shed some tears. 

   In our homeschool co-op I have had the opportunity to learn a lot, to work with, encourage and be encouraged by some pretty wonderful people. Some great friendships have been formed and I have been very blessed. Thankfully I don't have to be in co-op to be friends and I have other opportunities to teach children. 

  Thinking about homeschool co-op prompted me to look through old pictures. Here are some that brought back some good memories of homeschool co-op...

Aaron as Lief Erickson (Or was it Eric the Red???)

Jonathan as Abraham Lincoln

Megan as Laura Ingalls.

Another year... Mara was a suffragete, Jonathan was Wilbur or Orville Wright and Megan was a nurse in WW1.

Learning about the Scandinavian roots of many Minnesotans was super fun one year.

We quilted together!

We put on a big drama. So many fun things!!!

I wanted to share a bunch more pictures but realized that I have blogged about a lot of the events in the past so if you would like to see more about our homeschool co-op years you can look through this group of posts.

I would love to hear if you have been involved in homeschool co-op and your thoughts on it.

   

 

Showing Hospitality

This past weekend we were super blessed to be able to host some friends at our house when they were up here to go to a Retreat at our church. I was raised in a home where we often had guests over - either for a meal or to stay a night or so. Many of the guests were people we knew and loved but many of them were strangers to us when they first came. I loved that environment of having people come into our home and so I have tried to live that way too as much as possible.

   You may not have been raised that way but if you don't practice hospitality I would encourage you to start. You will find it to be such a blessing.

   Just so you know, your home doesn't have to be finished, it does not have to be beautiful, it doesn't have to be perfectly clean (or even clean at all - I do think that is a nice thing to try for but if that stops you from inviting others over then just invite them when it is dirty). You don't have to be a good cook and you don't have to be a great conversationalist.

   I do always like to clean before company comes and I did try to do it some but this year I was both sick and very busy shortly before our company came. So not everything got done real well and I had to rely on the kids to do a lot of things - like making the beds and cleaning the bedrooms and cooking the company supper. Though I would like to be there to make sure it is good and ready to go I couldn't be this year and it still went fine. 

   As far as entertaining goes - be a good listener and ask questions about what they say and about what they are interested in and I am guessing you can learn a lot and having a interesting conversation. As for yourself - just be real and open.

   As far as food goes - if your family eats what you cook I am sure company can too. Or if you buy pizza every night - share that with company, they will probably love it. If company offers to help you cook or clean-up- let them. It makes being hospitable so much more fun. If you are the company - do offer to help. Better conversations are often had while working anyway.

  Those are just a bunch of my opinions but I do think there is some value in them. I just really want to encourage you to reach out - to people in your church, to neighbors, to co-workers, to friends you haven't seen in a while, College students, etc. When we really get to know people (and hospitality really helps with that) we can understand them better, we can have more compassion for them and we can truly share with them the things that really matter to us. 

I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of our household at Retreat this year but I thought it was so fun to see the number difference between the males and the females at our house. As you might imagine this group can eat quite a bit. But my guests even brought stuff to help out that way so it certainly was no burden on me.

  The Bible does talk about hospitality. Here are a few verses on it....

"and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds." 1 Timothy 5:10

 "Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined." Titus 1:8

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." 1 Peter 4:8 & 9

"Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. " Romans 12:13

I would love to hear your thoughts on hospitality. Is it something you practice or is it hard for you? Do you have any tips or thoughts you would like to share?