Exploring alternatives

Well, since the last post, we've been exploring alternatives, back-up options, and interim housing. (This last is almost a certain necessity, for we will have to live somewhere while the Phoenix House is built, if all goes forward.) Looking hard at alternate settings (in Frederick City, and/or other acreage that might give us the opportunity to build a homeschool center without bulldozing and getting zoning permission, for instance) has only served to strongly affirm our desires to go forward with this Phoenix Project in Braddock Heights.

As we have talked realistically about negatives concerning Phoenix (the work of a large property, being out in the country, etc.), more and more positives emerge in counterpoint. We've talked at length, for instance, about the work involved. As a result, we have conceived of ways to do work-study programs, and how to organize large, periodic work days. As we talked about the fact that the homeschool center as a place for co-ops to meet would be somewhat limited (after all, class sizes are not large), we have thought of families in various stages of life that we could serve while forwarding our homeschooling vision.

We now picture a true community center, with the yard and basement of the house devoted to activities for younger kids--like, in the basement, a leggo station, a book-reading nook, a dress-up chest, mirror, and tiny theater for amateur theatrics, a craft area (over a cement floor) with a table and some easels complete with Tempra paints and smocks, etc. :D Perhaps we'd have a small space in the basement devoted to sleeping babes, with portable baby monitors that moms could take up to the verandas.

Meanwhile, the outside is shaping up in our minds, too. We're thinking of lots of old-fashioned games: horseshoe pits, shuffleboard, hopscotch, tether ball, badminton/volley ball nets, tire swings, and an amazing Victorian tree house. On the other side of the house, we envision a pergola over top of a picnic table for outside picnic lunching for moms/kids and for Lampstand Press employees.

The whole vision is that the center will be a hangout and drop in spot for young moms who want to fellowship with one another, get a vision for homeschooling, grab a shoulder to cry on, or simply change their four walls for awhile. Thus, it can be used all of the days of the week, not just co-op days, and embrace young mothers of preschoolers as well as older ones who want group classes for their kids. And separate from both of these is the vision of an experimental farm on the back 8 acres, in conjunction with the K-12 science curriculum that Scott wants to develop.

What emerges is a center that will, we hope, serve the entire community of homeschoolers and homeschool wannabes (or even, those who are just curious about home schooling). The idea is to do nothing that can't be duplicated in private homes nationwide. We hope to give Phoenix House a lovely Victorian decor, inside and out, and serve tea on the veranda many days that will refresh the spirits of busy homeschooling moms, while their kids are engaged in wholesome fun and work--physical and academic. :D

It's getting to be a lovely vision... now to see if the Lord will enable us to fulfill our daydreams!