04 Mar Building a Bigger Table
A little over a year ago, my family and I joined a new church. And with us still being fairly new to homeschooling, it was an added bonus that there was a thriving community of homeschool families in this congregation. I set to work meeting new moms and making new connections. Almost immediately, I met a mom who had kids similar in age to mine, and she really loved her homeschool co-op community. “Great!” I said, “I’ve been praying to find a good learning community for our family, tell me more!” Then quickly followed up with… “Well, it’s closed. We are full.”
A few months later, I ran into her again as she was hurrying off to her Friday night women’s group. She talked about how they study the word and just do life together. Oh, how I would love to find a group of moms to “do life” with during this season of raising children. When I showed interest in possibly attending future meetings, she replied, “Oh, it’s been a small, close knit group for years. We keep it that way on purpose.” Again I heard,
“It’s closed. We’re full.”
And just this week, when I sat down beside her at a community event our children were both participating in, I mentioned the possibility of putting together a car pool rotation, so us moms could share the chauffeur responsibilities of getting the kids to and from practices. Her response? “Oh, I’m already carpooling with Christie, Sara, and Jennie, and our vans are full.” Closed again.
It never gets easier being the one without a seat at the table. And, while it stung a little, I’m not even mad. Lord knows I’ve probably done my fair share of excluding others, intentional or not. We live in a world where scarcity and want are real things. One of the first games we teach our children is musical chairs, right?! The very nature of the game is always being one chair short. My pastor often uses a phrase to describe this by saying we “get all we can, can all we get, and sit on the can.” He’s not wrong.
Is Homeschool Becoming More Popular?
It would be hard not to notice the significant rise in homeschooling recently. Since Covid, homeschool registrations have increased by 85% in our county with more families making the switch every day. And while we are blessed to have several thriving homeschool communities in our area, increased demand means fewer seats at the table for newcomers.
The heart behind Legacy Homeschool Resource Center is to build a bigger table where everyone can have a seat.
- Every mom who needs a mentor can find one.
- Every child who needs a peer group can join one.
- Every family who craves community can experience it.
One of my favorite lines from the movie Forrest Gump was when young Forrest gets on the school bus for the first time and he’s searching for a seat and sweet Jenny says, “You can sit here if you want to…” His life was forever changed with those words.