The Things I Do for Work

Because I am a homeschooling parent, and so far no one pays homeschooling parents to educate their children, many people say I do not work. I would like to present the photo above as evidence that I do work. And I actually...uh...oh dear. I sort of pay to do it.

I should explain.

I coordinate and facilitate a home education meet up. We meet fortnightly, and there is a theme each time. The children prepare presentations on the theme if they would like, and they have a chance to present to the group. There is a craft to do, and there are colouring sheets. Families who attend contribute to the cost of using the space, but the craft supplies have to be bought by someone. That someone is usually me. So, yeah, I am paying to do this work.

But it is enjoyable work, and it is satisfying work. Another homeschool mother started this group in another venue, and it was so valuable to us as a family that I was happy to take over when she wasn't able to do it anymore. I love that I've been able to secure a space where we can meet that serves the needs of a variety of families, and that we are a friendly and welcoming bunch of people. I love that the fee that the families pay is affordable and also helps out the charity that runs the venue we use.  I love that, as a group, we've studied the seven continents, geology, and nature in the past year. And honestly? I love coming up with a craft to do. But it's sometimes a bit stressful.

Above you will see an example of one of the most stressful crafts I ever had to create. Don't let the googly eyes fool you! This was very hard! The theme for the week was geology, and I thought it would be fun (and funny!) to make pet rocks. I imagined I could walk into the garden section of a shop I often go to on Saturdays and get a bag of garden rocks. It was near enough to spring that they'd be available, surely. Except, they weren't. There was nothing resembling a rock in any shop in the two malls I visited.

I couldn't think of any other craft to do that wouldn't involve ordering something that would take too long to arrive. I needed to make the pet rock idea work. So I bought some clay, and I proceeded to stay up late two nights in a row to use that clay to make hollow little rock type objects. I figured out how to transport my rock type objects without them breaking. I figured out how to get those stupid googly eyes to stick. And then, I had to figure out how to make a version that wouldn't break if it were dropped and figure out how to get googly eyes to stick to that version. You can laugh if you like (I did), but it most certainly was work.

I look forward to continuing to do this sort of work in the future. I'm getting really excited about the new term of our home education group. We are going to be studying themes related to the human body this term, and we are starting with cells. I'm pretty sure I know what the craft will be. And it's going to have googly eyes. Of course it is.