Extracurricular Activities in the Schools

One of the advantages of being in a 'school' is being able to participate in sports and other activities. One nice thing about having the school district running the homeschooling program is that there is an agreement that homeschooled kids can play in sports and participate in clubs, as well as take up to 2 classes in the school. Up until now my kids have not taken advantage of any offerings, but Denver expressed an interest in being part of the forensics club at McNeil Canyon School, so we checked with the organizing teachers and they gave it the thumbs up.

There was no big rigmarole. Denver just had to show up. It was quite a relief. Practice on Monday was the first time Denver has been in the school with other kids around since we began homeschooling. I was curious how that went for him. As he said, "It was horrible! Everyone wanted to say hi to me!" Personally, I think that is great: they were happy to see him and just wanted to talk to him. Denver, on the other hand, had some self-consciousness and even plotted coming in a back door for future practices so people wouldn't see him. I nixed that idea and told him to just be comfortable, or at least pretend to be comfortable. The practice itself was no problem and Denver was perfectly happy. He did have to make one tough decision: to work with Bill (the 5th grade teacher) or to work with Melon (his 3rd grade teacher last year). He waffled quite a bit until Melon helped him decide that he could go with his first gut reaction, which was Bill.

So now I get to head up the hill to McNeil twice a week, and Aurora and I will get ski time while Denver perfects his speaking skills. And for those of you that know him, working on his volume will NOT be an issue!!