A Bad Day — Or Not?
Filed Under (homeschool) by samantha on 15-04-2010
Tagged Under : co-op, errands, homeschool, orthodontist, road-side assistance, unviersity
Today started out like a typical Thursday — we rushed around this morning, trying to get out the door in time for my oldest son to get to his co-op class. There wasn’t much in the cupboards for breakfast, so we left a couple of minutes early to go by the grocery store for some donuts (the kids didn’t mind). I dropped of John, then took the other three on some errands while we he was in class.
We went to two different stores and still had enough time to go to one more. I didn’t realize where the entrance was, though, and I passed our last stop, so I just turned in at the next store. Fortunately, there was a exit behind the store onto a small road that went to the one we missed. All was clear in my lane as I was turning right, until…
A small car suddenly shot out from behind a large truck in the other lane, crossing the double yellow line. I slammed on the brakes just in time, and it squeezed through, speeding between our van and the truck without hitting anything. It was quite startling for all of us.
I tried to reassure the children. “We weren’t hit, and everyone is all right. God was certainly watching out for us.” We all caught our breath and went on with the day.
Later, in the afternoon, I went out again with my daughter Cassie for a consultation with an orthodontist. She had been looking forward to it for quite a while, as she’s ready to get her teeth straightened out. We had traveled for 20 minutes and had about 10 more to go, when we came to a stop light. As we were sitting there, our van just shut off.
I tried a few times to start it, but to no avail. We were the first ones in line at the light, so I put on the hazard lights and everyone started going around us. I wasn’t sure if I could push the van out of the way, or if my daughter (only 11) would be able to steer it off the road. I was able to reach my husband at work, but he was at least 15 minutes away.
About that time, I looked up the road in the direction from which we had come, and a saw a young lady with a large shoulder bag walking our way. She looked to be in her early 20′s, so I thought she might be walking home from a branch of the local university about a half mile away. She walked right up to us and asked us if we needed help.
“Sure,” I said. “Could you steer while I try to push the van off the road?”
“Yes,” she replied and got in the car. My daughter and I got behind the car and started pushing. To my surprise, it moved very easily, and within moments it was out of the way of traffic.
“Thank you,” I said as she got ready to leave. Before I knew it, she was walking back up the road. I watched her for a few minutes, waiting to see which house she would turn in to, as there were several between our van and the campus. But she never did. She kept walking and walking, all the way back towards the campus until she was out of sight.
When my husband arrived, we told him about the woman. “Maybe she was an angel,” he said.
“Maybe,” I had to agree. She certainly came to our aid at just the right time.
We missed the appointment, and spent the next hour arranging everything so we could get the van fixed. My daughter was quite disappointed — it had not been a good day.
“But,” I told her, “even though things didn’t go well, we still saw how God takes care of us. We didn’t crash, even though the man was speeding and driving in a crazy way. And we had help — almost from nowhere — just when we needed it. There is certainly a lot to be thankful for. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.”

In my art classes the past couple of weeks and for one of our recent co-op classes, I’ve had the students work with sculpey. Sculpey is a brand of colored polymer clay that becomes hard when baked in the oven — and the kids have been so creative with it.
This past weekend, my husband and son were out of town on a scout camping trip, so I planned out the projects to be done while they were gone. One of them was preparing for co-op on Monday. Besides the story and activity, I needed to have a snack ready — preferably one that related to Another Celebrated Dancing Bear.
Today in the K-5/First Grade co-op class, I read the story Mr. Grumpy’s Motor Car by John Burningham. The funny thing was, his name is actually Mr. GUMPY.
In my son Luke’s K-5/First Grade co-op class, we’ve been using the Five In A Row curriculum. Because our co-op meets once a week, we choose a book for the week and center the class activities around it. This week, our book was The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola.
Recently I reviewed the book Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham. This morning, as I was talking with my son John, I was reminded of a point Buckingham made. Buckingham contends that women are generally less happy now than 40 years ago because they have so many choices, and they’re afraid they’ll pick the wrong ones. While I’m not sure about the entire supposition, I think he’s right about the effect of having so many choices: it seems to naturally lead to discontentment.
This week marked our second full week of co-op. Elementary students can sign up for one morning a week of enrichment-type classes, but for middle school and high school students, the co-op follows the university model. Students choose individual classes, attend class one or two days of the week, then work on their assignments at home. So while my younger three might be doing a science experiment, art project, or PE class, John, who’s in eighth grade this year, is taking Geography and Physical Science. And it’s been a bit of a rough start.
We joined a co-op again this year for the first time in several years. Today was the first day for my oldest son, John. He had a one-hour class in geography that started at 9:00 am. He didn’t want to go; he doesn’t know many people at the co-op. “But,” I reassured him, “this is going to be good. You’ll see.”
Last week I received an email stating that the co-op we visited had enough openings for the next school year – they have a place for each of my children if we decide to join (we were actually put on the waiting list last year). The cost of the classes is minimal and they offer a variety of courses from elementary through high school. 
