It takes a village… Hey, I have a village!

With the first day of school comes so much excitement: new clothes, new teachers, new backpacks, and new routines. The new routine part is especially new for us this year. After much discussion and planning, a group of neighbors and I have ditched the after-school program and formed our own little co-operative after-school daycare effort.

It started with someone whining this summer about how much their kids hated going to the aftercare program. Then someone agreed. Then someone else complained that it sure was expensive, not to mention how much it sucks to spend a lot of money on something your kids complain about constantly. Then someone else agreed and before we knew it, we were each taking on a responsibility.

We either drive the kids to school in the morning, or have one day a week for which we are responsible to open up our homes, provide a snack, enforce 30 minutes of reading, and make sure homework gets done. The other four days per week, somebody else we know and respect is taking care of those things. It’s genius!

There are six kids (three boys, three girls) and seven parents among us. We are a diverse bunch: married, divorced, parents living together, parents living apart, parents who work both inside and outside the home, parents who travel for days or weeks at a time. We’re good friends, our kids are the best of friends, and well, why not give it a try? I was the lucky one and got to launch the initial effort by taking on the first day’s duties. It was a success! I hope the rest of the school year goes as well as today…