Celosia's Latest Form - Micro School

 Guess who is back to public school today? 

Kitty. 

Racoon went back awhile ago, as soon as school reopened. I kept Kitty at Celosia, its most recent form a COVID micro-school at my mother's house, because it has been so fun and she is doing so well. I figured that we would keep going until the end of the year, then a spring day came when I heard her and her one classmate reminiscing about school. She sounded a bit wistful and I decided to look into it. I should know that some things are like a chemical reaction. Once it starts to go there is no turning back.

So here I sit in our empty classroom, wondering what exactly have I done. Kitty sat at a desk with her name on it. The minute the teacher started passing out school supplies and her friends said hello, I knew they had her heart. It is bittersweet. There are things that are better for her about our micro-school, lots of snacks since she's a grazer, an encouraging atmosphere for growth, and two wonderful, highly invested teachers (my mom and myself), if I may say so.  :) I've found some lovely materials and curriculum that I love, so I am sad to not be able to finish that out. It is very quiet.

But there is a part of me that missed the quiet. I loved the excitement of creating our micro-school and the energy we had with our students. I've loved the projects and the freedom and the fun. There have been challenges and personality quirks and hard days too. I don't quite know how to take it all in. I have to go check on Kitty at lunch, so part of me is not sure what I'll find and if this is really it. 

Seven children were part of Celosia School during this year of COVID craziness. We started out with a pod of two little girls, Bunny and Ducky, Kitty, and Racoon at my house with my mother coming there to help with pre-K, two in first, and one in fourth. Then over the summer we decided to switch to my mom's and step things up for the fall. Celosia became a second grade and fifth grade micro-school, with just Bunny coming in and out, S as Caleb's classmate, then switching things out to H and J. 

Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat, and I probably wouldn't hesitate to have slightly larger classes, maybe 3 and 3, or even 4 and 4 if the space lent itself to that many. I think a 1:2 and 1:4 ratio of teachers to children are perfect in a micro-school. Recess with mixed ages was hard. Getting started and moving through the schedule on time was hard. Watching the kids grow and bloom, that was great.

Thank you, Celosia. Until we meet again.

P.S. Apparently Microsoft Bing knows something that I don't. I switched out the banner today for more pictures of Celosia and the description from Wikipedia, along with our school motto, "Burning yet not consumed... I must go see it!" from Exodus 3:2-3. As I was searching to see what came up, this did... :0

What I will miss most

 That perhaps seems like an odd title since I have not been on here for awhile. Am I doing Celosia School? What has been happening? Why will I miss it? Let me fill you in.

When the first COVID lockdown hit Washington State in March, my kids, my husband, and I suddenly found ourselves at home. The kids' school was scrambling to find a way to do school online, and I had my own troubles with converting to online college. On top of all this, a week in, I found out that my father was dying from cancer that had spread to his brain. He had been declining for the last year or so, but he went to the hospital on March 26 for stroke-like symptoms, and then he was dead on April 6, 2020.

My whole life fell apart. 

By the end of April, my crisis peaked and I knew something had to give. I withdrew from Chemistry, keeping just Precalculus I. I asked my mom to help me school the kids and we added in two little girls, who I will call Bunny and Ducky. Racoon, now 10, and Kitty, now 7, completed my first set of 4 students. Although just for a month or so, we had a lot of fun and managed to get through a bit of learning. The highlight was visiting Bunny and Ducky's baby bunnies.

Over the summer, I saw the writing on the wall and realized that public school would not be back in session in the fall. Raccoon has been at the same school since kindergarten. Although his school did the best they could, moving to online learning for fourth grade was very stressful for him, so after much angst, I decided to pull him to homeschool for the beginning of fifth grade. Kitty has been in and out of the same public school, sometimes there and sometimes homeschooling.

My mother is the hero of this version of Celosia School, coming along side me despite her grief and newfound widowhood and the mountain of paperwork and tasks that accompany the death of a spouse. She is a teacher extraordinaire, and with her at my side, I finally had the courage to take the leap into full-time schooling again. I call it Mini-School. We added in two more students for our second group of four. Bunny came but Ducky stayed home, so we added in another boy. After Christmas, we had a third cohort, with two boys joining us instead. 

It has been beautiful and hard and good.

And now it is evolving again into the next version of Celosia school. We have been doing 5th and 2nd, but our 5th is pausing while Raccoon tries public school again, which is opening up next week. We're doing a two week trial period and then we will decide where he stays for the rest of the year. 

I will miss seeing the boys reading their books, something we were just getting into. I will miss morning Table Time, which became Couch Time, and I will miss lighting each of their candles and watching them play. I won't miss the occasional disagreements and the pressure of being on all the time.

Dear Self,

Who would have guessed we'd be here now. Again. I am curious about what the future holds. Everything you wrote about Celosia School years ago is still true, and still sparked a fire in me when I read it again. Turns out most school names are already taken, but Celosia is unique, so we remain with that name. We are about to launch into a unit on Superstar/Superhero Academy. I'm excited. Now I'd better go because reading time is over.

Love,

Yourself