Tell Us About . . . Thursdays: A Look Back at Thursdays

It will be very late on a Thursday where I am when I publish this, but because the theme is Thursdays, that's the day I want it to go live! What an interesting theme for Tell Us About, with a lot of directions one could go. I'm going to take a brief look back at some really great memories from the years when Thursdays were my favorite weekday.

We homeschooled our kids, and we were part of a homeschool oversight group that had an optional co-op for younger students that met for twelve weeks in the spring. You guessed it - on Thursdays. So for about ten or twelve years, I packed up the kids on Thursday mornings from February through April and we went to co-op. It was a chance for the kids to be with their friends and do some art and science and other projects that were better in a group or better taught by someone with more knowledge in that subject area than me. It was also a chance for me to connect with my friends and build relationships during that time. 

Of course, because it was a co-op, its success depended on each of the parents pitching in to teach or assist in some way. At first I stuck to being an assistant and taking my turn in the nursery, because my youngest was an infant when we started attending. But it wasn't long before I was taking a turn teaching a class when another teacher was away, and being a hands-on helper in a classroom. I wasn't really comfortable teaching those little kids, if I'm honest. Then came a year when I found myself co-teaching a unit study course about the Lewis and Clark Expedition to slightly older kids (maybe 9 and 10 years old, if I remember). I loved the subject, and felt a bit more at ease with that age group. In the next couple of years, I took on the challenge of teaching some kind of hands-on subject focused on science or history. Almost every year I'd say I didn't think I wanted to do it again the next year . . . and almost every year when it was time to start planning co-op I signed up for another go at it.

I taught an Intro to Physics class to a class of fifth and sixth grade boys that was so fun! We built catapults, model bridges, match rockets, and more. I teamed up with a friend to teach a geography and art class another year, which was another favorite. I taught one based on explorers which was science and history and geography. I even taught a class about meteorology. 

I managed to write a blog series
based on my lesson plans the 
year I taught physics.

My kids loved Thursdays because they got to be with their friends, and they had some pretty fun classes. It was a day out, sort of a break from the routine of the week, and always an adventure.

One at a time, the boys aged out of that short term co-op, and with our changing schedules it was with mixed feelings that we decided it wasn't going to be worth it for us to go any more. But an idea that had come up several times before finally got some traction - a co-op for high school classes that met year round. We'd always rejected the idea of including classes for high school kids during the twelve-week co-op session as not feasible, but with leadership from a friend with some experience running a year-round co-op, it was finally time. Not only was it time to make it happen, I was on the founding Board of Directors for it, and signed up to tutor a high school English Composition class. You guessed it - on Thursdays!

We found an Alan Jackson cut-out at the church
where we had classes and made him our "mascot"
for a couple weeks! Good advertising! LOL

So another decade or so of Thursday co-op classes began, and it was every week during the school year! I loved teaching high school kids how to write and communicate well and how to write creatively. I loved teaching a Literature class that was like an inter-generational book club. I taught History one year and during the two years my daughter took a French class, I was the assistant in that class because the instructor, a retired school teacher, was blind. 

 The creative writing class included a couple sessions where 
we watched movies to learn about story telling devices.

After my daughter graduated, I continued teaching and loved it. I had started working part-time during her high school years, but I made sure I was not scheduled to work on Thursdays, because that day belonged to my co-op students and seeing my friends.

I wrote a series on my Homeschool Coffee Break blog based
on the Writing classes I taught at the co-op

For so many years, Thursdays were the highlight of the school week, with opportunities to be with friends and to learn and be challenged with the classes. So many wonderful experiences for the kids in that early co-op, and even more for my daughter in the high school co-op. The classes were valuable for her and the friend group that she still spends her time with was formed on those Thursdays. I had a standing coffee break with a best friend on my way home from co-op, which added to the affection I had for the day. 

My last day teaching in person because of our move.
I continued to co-teach through the next year using
video call.

The experiences and the people made Thursdays so good.

*********************

Tell Us About . . . is a monthly opportunity for bloggers to showcase their creativity. Each month one of the co-hosts will choose the word to focus on. On the third Thursday of every month we'll respond to the prompt "Tell Us About ---" which could be absolutely anything. And how we respond is also wide open. It could be a blog post with our opinions or reminscences; a poem, photos, a short story or whatever takes your fancy―it could even be a mix of all these! This month's theme, chosen by Rosie at Rosie Amber, is "Thursdays" 

This post is linked at Deb's World

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