Last week the co-op went on without me beautifully and creatively. Lots of people (including my kids ) were sick. But I didn’t cancel in time to stop the folks who drive for an hour to get there from leaving their homes. However, they did wonderfully without me:
C, the very calm and creative lady who co-ordinates when she has to, and always leads the circle time, came up with lots of great ways to fix our staffing trouble, she drafted a Dad to be our floor officer (the adult who unites parents and children when the child is sick, naughty or distraught, makes sure all our classes have 2 adults in them if someone has to leave, and reminds the teachers they only have 5 min left) She joked that we needed a pink sash for him, to mark his office. She moved the only toddler in nursery up to the pre-k class (all the other babies were sick) and re-assigned the adults. (The pre-K teacher offered to add him to her roster, he did so well) She shifted helping parents from classes where they were just needed for crowd control, to covering classes were they had some expertise in the topic of the missing teacher.
I would never have thought of these solutions; I’m great with time to think, but improvise gracelessly. I thank the Lord for C.
I’m looking foreward to hearing how the kids did with my instructions on studying mosses:
"My kids are all sick with a bad cold. They MAY be well tomorrow, but I
doubt it. So, I need coverage for tommorow’s nature study class. I’m
sending the lesson plan to you now, and the books with C.
Start out by greeting the kids, handing out their notebooks and pencils,
reminding them to walk quietly outside, then take them out.
Have them check the oak tree near the swings, have the buds opened
further than two weeks ago? Are those buds for leaves, or for flowers?
Are their two sorts of flower, or one?
Check the pine trees, any new growth?
Look for mosses.
Everyone draw what they see of the mosses.
Once inside, attempt to identify what sort of moss you found.
Let the kids who are intrigued with the identification books keep
looking through them, read a Thornton Burgess story to the others to
fill up the time."
I’ll find out tomorrow.