Changes

I'm back at last!  August is a month for new beginnings, school-wise - so I figured it's a good time to take up blogging again as well. 

Things have changed since I last wrote here.  You may recall I was planning to start a new Classical Conversations community at a church mere minutes from my house this coming fall; alas, that is not to be.  After months of marketing and working to recruit new families, I ended up with only eight students (including my own two kids), and a facility fee that just wouldn't work for most families.  I prayed for an answer, and after meeting with my families, we decided to approach another new group that was forming only five miles away from us and see if they would be interested in merging with us.

I emailed the director, and she called me right away - turns out she had similarly low enrollment, and had also been praying for a solution.  Merging our communities seemed like the answer to both of our prayers.  I was prepared to hand over directorship to her and just be another family in the community, though I did offer to tutor either Essentials or Foundations if necessary; but I was already looking at our budget to see where I would find the money to pay for my kids' tuition and fees, an expense that would have been covered by my profits if I directed my own community.  However, the other director is so grateful for my assistance (as well as my willingness to step aside and let her lead, which I truly believe is in everyone's best interest since she has a strong relationship with the church where we will meet), that she has offered to cover my kids' costs for this year. 

This was an incredibly difficult decision, but I'm completely at peace with it now.  We had a meeting for all the families at the new (to my group) location this week, and it was just perfect.  I'm relieved that there is a place for everyone, including the two women who wanted to tutor for my group, and that it's all come together so perfectly.

Now I need to turn my attention to getting our schoolroom organized!  I've been piling books in there all summer, and I need to go through them and get everything sorted out and put away before we start school in the end of August.

My most immediate priority, however, is getting ready for my daughter's birthday - it's hard to believe, but she's going to be five years old next Friday!  We're having a tea party for her at a local tea house, and I can hardly wait.  My in-laws are already here, and my mom is arriving on Monday - we're actually going to Jekyll Island with her for a few days before the birthday party.

Maybe the week after that I can breathe, and start to get properly organized...