Manchester and Columbia co-ops

This spring, we participated in two homeschool co-op groups - the parents teach classes for the kids, and they have a chance to socialize and make friends. They were both 7 weeks long in March and April, and we just had a park day yesterday.

On Mondays, we went to the Lutz Children's Museum for Monday Homeschool Classes. Sunny had an hour of playing board games, and an hour of PE games outside. The rest of my girls played with all the exhibits and just hung out. I put together a preschool story time going through the letters of the alphabet, and gave the kids coloring sheets to trace the letters and practice learning to write. Of the 3 co-ops we've attended so far since coming to Connecticut (Greenspring in Middletown last fall, Manchester, and Columbia), this is actually the one I've wanted to get into because it's so close to home! It's only 4 miles away.

On Tuesdays, we've been driving down to Columbia - it's about 15 miles and takes about a half hour to get there because it's all back roads and minor highways. Again, Sunny was in classes and the other girls were not - this one, because it's under a 4-H umbrella so the kids have to be at least the age of 7 to participate. Sunny had another outside PE games group, a drama class, and an American Girls class where they read through the Caroline series (the War of 1812) and did crafts to go with the stories. The younger girls and I spent a lot of time at the Columbia library, which is conveniently located right across the parking lot.

The girls enjoyed getting out of the house regularly and from what I could tell, did start making friends. They still play mostly with only each other, regardless of the other kids around them. I'm figuring if we continue to attend, they'll start recognizing other kids and playing with them more. I haven't been able to talk to very many of the other parents yet - I have to keep pretty close tabs on my own kids because they're still so small. But again - that just takes time and we'll get there. This year was a good start to that end.