Some of my friends came up with a plan to trade kids one afternoon a month. The boys go to one house, the girls go to one house, and one mom gets the afternoon off. Due to sickness and schedules it ended up that the September get together was last week and the October get together was today. We won't meet again for this until the middle of November. We will take off December and I hope to do this rotation again beginning in January. Each mom can plan the afternoon however they want-either do an activity with them or just let them play together. It is not meant that it has to be an educational activity. It is meant to give the kids time to play together, especially for the other two families that have just one boy in each family.
For September I had the girls at my house. I was thrilled to be able to do girly activities for a whole afternoon. I will blog about our tea party in another post. There are 4 girls.
I was the mom that had October off. After our recent crazy schedule it was wonderful to relax for an entire afternoon. Since Lamb 2 was born I occasionally get a babysitter to run errands or in MN to get stuff done at home without being interrupted by the Lambs. But I have never had an afternoon at home without the Lambs until today.
I will have the boys at my house for November. I'm not sure what I will do for the boys, but it seems much easier to host boys here than girls. If all else fails I can just let them play Legos all afternoon. There are 5 boys.
One of the reasons we came up with this rotation was we thought as moms it would be wonderful to have one afternoon off every three months. After hosting the girls last month I can see that this is going to be very beneficial for our children too. One of the girls complained that one of their friends they met at VBS wasn't able to attend with them. It wasn't until that comment that the girls realized that all 3 of our families homeschool. We wouldn't be able to do this if they weren't homeschooled! I think it is great for the kids to get together with other kids the same sex. It is a small reward for the homeschooled kids to take an afternoon to play together after working hard on school work all month.
It was a little crazy to do this two weeks in a row. That was not planned but our plans had to change and it only worked if we did it this way. We will all be happy to do this again in November after a long break.
The other two families live close together and can walk to the other house. I am the one that lives 4 miles away. I will gladly drive over there to participate in this.
When I first had this idea I had no idea this was going to be so difficult to arrange with three different family schedules. We eventually found dates that worked for all of us and some months were better dates than other months. I do think this is important for both moms and kids so I will make it work even if the time isn't the best for us some months. It is really difficult with all Lamb 2's therapy and the other activities we are involved in to find a good day for this.
Tonight the Lambs were a little disappointed that after two weeks they won't see the other boys for awhile. It makes me happy that all the children enjoy this as much as the moms. The moms may be tired (especially after having the boys at our house!) but it is worth it for every one.
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