On Monday morning we were eager to jump into the morning meeting to start off the week. In fact, the young Learner who showed up for the first time during this remote cycle on Friday was so eager to engage with us that she logged in over the weekend! When we left on Friday we were pretty excited about the possibility of snow over the weekend, so Facilitator Lauren asked everyone if it snowed where they lived on Sunday and whether or not they partook in the rare snowfall. It snowed for everyone, even Facilitator Lauren who lives pretty far south in San Marcos. Some of the ways that folks experienced the snow included taking a long walk in it, letting their dog frolic in it, playing it in, throwing snowballs, getting into a snowball fight, building a snowman, just watching it from indoors, throwing a snowball at a sibling, getting into a snowball fight with neighbors. Three said their power went out during the day, and the Learner who refuses to wear pants even when it is cold outside was sure to let us know that he wore shorts when he went out to play in the snow.

Both Facilitator Ariel and I dropped into a young Learner’s Roblox that an adolescent Learner also dropped into. We said hi and had short conversations with each but we both needed to leave so that we could enjoy our first four person 7-minute workout session of our new entirely remote experience with all three Facilitators and a guardian dropping in. Unfortunately we still don’t have Learners joining but it will happen, eventually. Facilitator Ariel said he is really liking the quick daily workout at the beginning of the Abrome day.

After the 7-minute workout I moved into my daily free write on Discord. One of the adolescent Learners at Abrome drops into the offering often, working on her new book or on some other short stories. Monday was the first time that Facilitator Lauren joined in on the free write though.

Facilitator Lauren went from free write to yoga where a guardian joined her, but again, no Learners. We are continuing to find ways to hold space for the Learners, and also to keep moving while we are in this remote experience. But the offerings where we are moving around just don’t have the same appeal as the gaming offerings do.

It was a busy day for Facilitators Ariel and Lauren, and they both moved into the lamb stew offering which was essentially Facilitator Ariel making lamb stew and allowing people to watch him do so while chatting with him, or making food in their own kitchen at the same time. Facilitator Ariel was taking the offering very seriously, and had laid out all the ingredients in his kitchen and had the instructions for the stew set up and shared in the zoom room.

Even though Facilitator Lauren is not a meat eater (nearly half of our community does not eat meat) she was impressed with how the stew came along. I must say that it looked pretty yummy myself, minus the lamb.

Unfortunately for me, my internet went down halfway through the day so I missed out on some of the offerings that the other Facilitators were hosting. I did log on with my phone for our bi-weekly discussion of Akilah S. Richards’ Raising Free People. Because we canceled a conversation late last week, we covered four chapters on Monday. We discussed the many ways that deschooling and unschooling mindsets can liberate not only kids, but their families and Facilitators, as well.

During the day the Facilitators had multiple conversations with various Learners. One had a conversation with a Learner while he was playing Rogue Lineage, which was perhaps the best way to connect with him. He said that he was really looking forward to his 1-on-1 check-in scheduled for later in the week. Another Learners said the same about his check-in. A third Learner expressed looking forward to making a tie-dye shirt with natural dyes later in the week with Facilitator Lauren.

At the afternoon roundup Facilitator Ariel asked everyone what their favorite wintertime dessert was, perhaps inspired by talk of the snow at the morning meeting. Warmth and chocolate seemed to be the runaway winners: hot chocolate and hot desserty bread (e.g., banana), hot chocolate, chocolate brownie with toasted marshmallow, hot chocolate, ice cream, pecan pie, hot chocolate, cookies and hot cocoa with marshmallows, hot chocolate chip cookie with vanilla icing and chocolate syrup. We reflected on our busy day, and then one of the older Learners let us know that she had submitted her third job application. The conversation over which job she should take if she got multiple offers then moved to Discord.