Day Two

Today was our first Park Day with our local homeschool group.  Sadly, it was not encouraging. 

Despite the rain and cold, which - let's face it - are typical for a Pacific Northwest winter, I drove the half hour to the park to meet up with the homeschool group (HSG).  This wasn't a park I had been to before, and the equipment at the playground was aimed at older kids than mine, I would guess 8-10 or so.  Of course this didn't stop my two year old from wanted to play, so he had to be watched closely on it, as he's shown a definite lack of a sense of self-preservation many times before.  I could see a group of women chatting under a tree near the playground, and I assumed this was the HG.  I managed to wrangle Punkin and Buddy up and head over there.

When I got there, no one acknowledged me in any way. I then asked, "Is this HSG?"  "Yes, it is," one person said.  I told them it was my first time visiting the group, and two of them introduced themselves.  The rest of them, perhaps six women, ignored me completely.  I talked to one woman for about two minutes before having to follow Buddy, who had gone back to the playground.  After that, there was no more interaction with them at all. 

The kids that were there were all much older than mine, and while I've been told several times there are many younger kids, none were there that day.  I  might have been able to find this out before dragging my children out in the rain to a playground that isn't suited to them if communication was better, but instead I was left feeling like a first year student who had tried to approach the older kids only to be completely ignored. 

After a little longer than a half an hour, the rain, a tired two-year-old and my complete disappointment with being unable to make any connection were topped off with Buddy falling, and so I carried my crying son to the car and left to drive the half hour home.

We salvaged the afternoon with cream cheese brownies and hot chocolate. 

Dinner was a near disaster, with rock hard beans refusing cook, but at the last moment they softened, to finish off a dinner of smoky hot anasazi beans with cornbread and coleslaw. 

So the day wasn't all bad, and Punkin had swim class tonight, which she loves. 

We will try Park Day again tomorrow, and hopefully find a connection.  I do not want our homeschooling to exist in solitude.