Cookies and Carols

Every December for the past several years I have brought my guitar into George's classroom (last December he was still attending the Montessori school part time) and have played/sung Christmas carols with him and his classmates. When the holiday season rolled around again this year and I thought about that, at first I was a tiny bit disappointed not to have a classroom to visit for this activity, but it pretty quickly dawned on me that we hardly needed a classroom to do it! So I invited the homeschool group over to our house for an afternoon of cookies and carols.

We haven't been going to playgroup this fall because of my teaching schedule, so I haven't been socializing as much with the group in recent months, and a little part of me was worried that I might feel kind of awkward. I needn't have worried. Right off the bat I was having so much fun! At first we all just hung out (in our attic-turned-awesome-man cave/family room, created almost a year ago when my husband moved in), eating cookies and snacks and chatting, while the kids were running around the house (note to self: the next time we're having so many kids over, remember to prep George on not getting everyone riled up into a chasing game!). When I announced that it was time for carols, several of the kids (most of all George) were clearly a little disappointed, and didn't look like they'd actually come over and join us for it, but I went ahead anyway. By the time we were halfway through the opening chorus of the first song, Jingle Bells, all the kids were happily sitting and enthusiastically joining in.

It went so well that we decided to take the show on the road and sing at a local nursing home next week. Plus, several of the moms suggested we get together for sing-alongs (and have any kids who play instruments bring them and join in) several times a year.

It was so much fun, and it made me so very happy. And it was a great reminder that we don't need no stinkin' school to do pretty much all of the things we want to do :-)