Our children ALWAYS amaze me !

Every Friday for the last 3 months, 12 beautiful homeschooled children have gotten together to study the American Revolution and how our government was formed. These children range in age from 6 - 11. Yes, you read that correct - there is a five year age gap in our group. Every week as we gather, these children AMAZE me. They have such a good understanding of the topics we have taught them and a PASSION for learning more ! They have done art projects, put on skits, made dioramas, created timelines, created lapbooks, and are working on a living wax musuem. All the children work to their level, helping one another if needed. During this coop, we have had some amazing field trips: 1776 Exhibit at the American History Smithsonian, 1776 the Musical, the National Archives and we will be going to Gunston Plantation and Philadelphia.

Today we were at the National Archives. The children were going to view the documents that we have studied: The Magna Carta, The Declaration, The Constitution, the Bill of Rights .... And one of the moms (our fearless leader for this coop !) was leading a discussion with the kids reviewing what people were involved, why this change our country forever etc. If you stood back, you could see 12 amazingly engaged children soaking up the knowledge and sharing in the conversation. They listened to one another, commented on each others comments and questioned one another if appropriate.

Two particular incidents at the museum reminded me how lucky we are to have the opportunity to share our knowledge with our children and expect the best out of them (and get it).

1. A young adult male - (let's say 18 - 20 years old) stood behind us as we were waiting to go into the rotunda in the archives his mouth fully opened and dropped low. He appeared to be listening intensely. The look in his eye caught my attention. Once we were in the rotunda, he turned to an older adult and said "These kids have a better understanding of why these documents were created than I do !.... That is amazing !"

2. Upstairs in the hands on area - a lady walked up to another adult in our group and questioned the age of our group. One of the mothers responded. Maybe less than 10 minutes later, she pointed towards me and my daughter and said to the woman she was with, "They are part of the group I was telling you about. Those kids WANT to learn."

In both these incidents it reminded me that because we hold our kids to unusal high standards they ALMOST ALWAYS reach those standards. We have a 6 year old in the group who can give you details about WHY the revolution was fought and we have two 11 year olds that can go into detail about the revolution, our government and how this has effected our life. I consider all these kids in our "coop" "OUR CHILDREN" and yes, they all amaze me !