Whew! What. A. Year. (…and two months, but who’s counting?!) My sincere hope as we start rounding the corner into summer is that you’re focusing not on what you perceive as everything you “missed” but all that you did accomplish with your kids this year. It’s always remarkable when we get to the end of the year and I see unopened purchases or a partially-completed workbook and feel a little down on myself as a homeschooling parent… only to look up (and back) and see the amazing little people standing before me with confidence, poise, and an aura surrounding them that I most certainly cannot imagine myself having at their ages. Isn’t that why we’re doing this?
Here at GFT, it was no different. You may have noticed that our posts came to an abrupt halt in the fall. That was, despite our best efforts, when we decided to “call” it for a while with COVID numbers at their worst. While it was a long winter away, we are happy to share that we emerged from quarantine, masks in tow, and regrouped starting in mid-February.
Coming from our roots as a one-room schoolhouse and getting the nudge we needed to follow the nature-based education we had been discussing for years, “needing” to be 99% outside (with basically just a reprieve for one person as a time to use the restroom) to fulfill both our comfort levels and those of our host sites certainly presented it’s share of ebbs and flows as the children and staff adjusted. That said, we were thrilled to welcome back our long-standing community as well as some families that are new to homeschooling (and appear to be sticking with it!) throughout various stages of the late-winter and spring.
We always aim to over-deliver with a child and family’s experience at GFT. With so much uncertainty surrounding this past year, we wanted to make sure that our current families felt comfortable with our direction and that we would all grow into it, together. We have been creative problem-solvers all year, and it looks like all of that work is paying off.
This leads us to where we are today. Today, we are busy prepping for our first-ever GFT Summer Camp in June and July (flyer to come soon). We continue to field calls from interested parents who have found us either through referral or Facebook or super-old posts since we have not advertised since March of 2020 and offer our “drop in” day to them.
We are working on finalizing a more permanent site to have one location for the 2021-2022 school year and have two amazing options for our summer program. We are training more parents who want to get involved with the program and are interested in volunteering to help off-set some cost of tuition. Our Zoom umbrella peer-reviews kicked off last week and have been a true joy to experience. The smiles and relief of parents, both seasoned and new, sharing their successes and talking through their challenges in an open and supportive environment is all the proof we need to keep moving forward and adapting with the times.
So, if you’ve been on the sidelines for a while and are thinking about checking us out, please reach out to us here. We’d love to hear from you and share some of our thoughts on next year and maybe have your kiddo(s) out for a bit to say hello. We anticipate the the start of the 2021 school year will bring back some of our greater-community gatherings and field trips that we love and miss so much. We would love to see your smiling faces again. 😊
Thank you for sticking with us!
Gratefully in your service,
Kristin
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