NLSV's UK Tour '09: Premier Issue

It's been quiet here. Too quiet. Noah's absence is palpable.

Aengus spends his days coloring and watching TV and digging in the dirt and asking for play dates. I spend my days on the computer. Where's that Crappy Mom Award? It's my turn!

The main thing I've been doing online (since Harry Potter's over and my usual cyber activities have thus ended) is researching the UK and Ireland and how to get us there. And so, let the travel journal begin:

In February of 2007, Daniel Radcliffe starred in the London production of Equus. I will openly admit that the premise of the play freaked me out (all I think when I hear "sex with horses" is OUCH!), but the draw of a naked Daniel Radcliffe... now THAT's something to get excited about!

While discussing this delightful opportunity, my girlfriends and I decided a field trip to see the play would be a fantastic learning opportunity for our kids. OK, their kids, since my boys would not be interested. But I should chaperone, right?!

We discussed jetting off to London for a long weekend. But really, once you're there, you've got to take the opportunity to see as much of the country as you can, right? And sheesh, Ireland is right next door. We're gonna need more than a weekend. And I suppose we really should offer the husbands a seat on the plane, too; we'll need evening childcare, after all.

My girlfriends laughed along with me at the idea, then went on with their lives. Being the obsessive person I am, the idea festered in my head. What if, I thought, we really did make this a field trip? It would certainly be educational; part of being a homeschooler is seizing every opportunity to learn something, and the UK is dripping with learning opportunities. The major appeal of such a trip (to our family, anyway) is its history and culture. So much the better when we're experiencing it all with friends!

And if it's a field trip, that means we can do fundraisers to help make it happen. This was the vital leap in my thought process, because it surely can't happen without raising the money from outside sources.

Then the wheels really began to turn. Oh, the learning potential! A whirlwind of curriculum ideas swirled in my head: literature, language, history, art, architecture, culture, music, astronomy, economics, drama, math, geneology,... you name it, I can put together a study of it based on a trip to the UK and Ireland. So much we can do between now and take-off that would be considered "schoolwork"!

If I can just make it all happen...

Well, if there's one thing I've learned from being a home educator all these years, it's that if you want something to happen, do it. Just do it. Take the steps and others will follow.

So, what began as an extended Moms' Night Out became the NLSV UK Tour '09 (working title). I've researched fundraising opportunities and ideas, airfare, hostels versus B&Bs versus hotels, ground transportation, becoming a non-profit, tourist attrations and traps, bank accounts, etc., etc., etc. I've spent hours looking into all the details -- on TV, online, and in books.

I still have lots more research to do, but I think we're ready to start fundraising efforts. It will take a lot of fundraising, for sure. Many of these families have stay-at-home moms; the job is priceless but payless, unfortunately. My own family can barely pay our bills, let alone save for retirement or a rainy day or a fab-o trip to the Old World. So the only way I'm getting there is if I can raise all the funds through group efforts; I think most of our other families are in the same boat -- er, plane.

My immediate plans are to organize all my research into handy packets and hold an organizational meeting of the interested parties. It looks like we'll have 20-25 people travelling together. What fun!! But what a lot of cash that will be -- up to $75,000! I concede that the idea is intimidating. But the image of this particular gang together in England and Ireland keeps me motivated.

That, and I will see Daniel Radcliffe while we're there -- naked, if I can manage it.