Club Day. The Birds of Prey version.

I was looking at the calendar last week, thinking that there wasn't too much time left before September, and that it had been awhile since our clubs had met.  My husband was going to be away this week, and I was looking at both the upside and the downside of having extra children running around the house. 

The upside? That the children would hang out with one another and enjoy one another's company.  That I would get a few more free moments to get Astrin fully moved into the room that she now shares with Jaelyn, sweep the mudroom floor and hang the laundry.  That I wouldn't stick the label of "bad mom" to my forehead as I worry about Nicholas' lack of desire to be with other children his age (as he tends to want to be alone or talk the ears off of the adults in the crowd).

The downside?  That the children would fight.  That someone would walk away angry or hurt or both.  That I would spend a lot of my energy smoothing over emotional crises. 

As you can see, the length of the reasons to have a meeting clearly outweighed the reasons to skip it for another week.  And so today there was a meeting.

We had a casual meeting - no agenda, no projects, no reviewing the Code of Conduct.  The "meeting" was just a guise to get everyone together.  And they boys did magnificent on their own.  They bantered about scorpions and insects, they compared ninjas and samauris, they did some drawing, and then did some informal drama out in the backyard.  I think they also played around with some Lego.

Which gets me to thinking about Birds of Prey Club in the fall.  The thing I loved about Birds of Prey Club last summer, and the thing I loved about it today, was that the boys had space and time to just be.  It brought out the best in them.  They imagined.  They shared factoids.  They disagreed about a lot of things, but they shared their opinions respectfully.  They followed their bodies own cues - they knew when they needed a bite to eat, when they needed to move, and when they needed to be quiet.  Could this crew of Clubbers be up for creating their own meetings, their own agendas, their own projects?  My fear is that in the dead of winter they will just want to blow off all the steam that has built up from being inside school for more than 6 hours straight.  That they will be a rowdy bunch of orangutans hanging from the light fixtures and chewing on the pillows (a bit of an exageration, perhaps).  But some ownership could bring about some pretty amazing stuff too.  Hmmm...something for my mind to work with over the next month or so.