End of Semester for Co-op!

Co-op is over until September! Woo and Woo and Woo and Hooooo!!! We LOVE our co-op and have so many sweet friends there, but we will enjoy having our Fridays off for a few months! We will continue doing our Home-Schoolwork, but our co-op classes are finished until fall!!

Here are a few of the projects the girls made this semester:

From Mad About Mosaics:



From Early Explorers - Christopher Columbus painting and project:

Also from Early Explorers, Cibola - the Lost City of Gold:
From Modern Art Masterpieces:


From Adventures Down Under, echidnas, didgeridoo and boomerang
I will post separately some videos of the End of Semester Program.

What a great semester we had! We're glad for the break!

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day!

"Australia Day, also known as Anniversary Day and Foundation Day[1], is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.[2]" (from Wikipedia)

We aren't Australian, but I am co-teaching a class about Australia this semester, so we are rather immersed in Australia right now. My kids were excited to learn that today was a holiday, and attempted in vain to get out of doing schoolwork for the day. :0)

The picture above is Sydney Harbour. You may recognize the Sydney Opera House, the funny looking building right on the water. It's really an amazing piece of architecture!

You Disney-ites will recognize this harbour from Finding Nemo. You know, they spend most of the movie looking for "P52 Wallaby Way, Sydney." When they get to Sydney, it is in this harbour.

Co-op Starts Tomorrow!

We are so excited! I am teaching Adventures Down Under, a class about Australia, to 1st -3rd graders and then to 4th-6th graders. I am also helping with a gymnastics class and preschool. Here's a list of what the kids are taking:

Baloo:
Auto Maintenance, Flag Football, Dance (Prom Prep), Web Design, Literature: The Hobbit

Padme:
Dance, Mosaics, Mary Englebreit crafts, Performance Ensemble (choir), Volleyball
*Note: She was supposed to take a science - how did I miss that? I generally require the kids to take a P.E. and a science each semester. She is doing Creation Science at home, though, so I guess it's okay. Can you tell this is my artsy kid?

Wendy:
Mosaics, Early Explorers, Schoolyard Games, Lego Creations, Adventures Down Under
*Note: Adventures Down Under counts as a science in my book. I'm teaching it. We're doing lots of science-y stuff.

Lil Yoda:
Mosaics, Dance, Body & Bones, Circus Fitness, Nature Journaling

Angel:
Cartwheels & More, Dance, Modern Works of Art, Lego Creations, March into Spring

Dora:
Cartwheels & More, Dance, Schoolyard Games, Lego Creations, Adventures Down Under

It's going to be a great semester!

Updated Happenings

We had our first week of co-op on Friday! We all had a great time! The kids so enjoyed getting to see all of their friends again. Our newly adopted kiddos did very well, I was a little nervous about how they would respond to all of the classes, but they actually did great! Three of their five classes were taught by me or their grandma, so they felt pretty comfortable. Plus they see me after each class, and we all eat lunch together. We are very excited about this semester, and everyone loved their classes! Yay!

We also moved last week. We only moved 25 minutes away, but we are much closer to our regular activities. The kids are loving the new house, and one of our bedrooms is big enough for all 5 girls to bunk together! I am very excited about this, as I have always wanted a "girls' room" and a "boys' room." With five girls and only one boy, this was not possible in our old house. Already I have seen the girls grow closer, in just a week, by bunking together. Thank you, Lord, for answering even our small prayers. We now have a "playroom" which is nice because they don't have to have all of their toys put away perfectly, all the time. The house isn't "custom" like our old one, nowhere near as "nice," but it is perfect for our needs and we are all loving it. We only had 3 weeks to move, so we feel very blessed that the Lord brought us such a great house so quickly!

During this same time frame, we also attempted to breed our little chihuahua with a friend's dog - we'll know in a few weeks whether it worked.

We kicked our cat out when we moved, she did not take very well to being an outside cat. So, we got 2 kittens from a friend, to keep her company. I have warned the girls that they may not make it to adulthood, what with the coyotes & hawks out here in the country. So far, so good, though. I think all little kids need to take care of a baby animal, so we really got these for the benefit of the new girls, as all the other kids have been through this already. Outside cats are really very easy, and the girls have spent every possible moment outside playing with those kitties! Once I find my camera (haven't seen it since the move) I will post pictures of our new little sweeties.

As you can see, we have been very busy! I will try to update more frequently. We are getting into a routine with all of our activities, so hopefully I will be able to do so.

Fall Co-op Schedule

We registered for our fall co-op on Saturday! We were able to get many of the classes we wanted, and we are very excited to start next week! Below are the classes the kids have chosen:

Baloo: Physics, Liberty or Death, Chess, & Whose Line Is It Anyway
Because Physics is an extra-long class, he only gets 4 classes. He is taking Spanish I at another co-op, and all the rest of his credit classes will be taken at home.

Padme: Dance, Watercolor Painting, French & Italian Foods, Cheers & Cartwheels, Made by Hand (a crafts class that looks really great)

Lil Yoda: Adventures in Africa (Grandma Lori's class), Dance, Sewing, Cheers & Cartwheels, Body & Bones

Because this is Wendy, Angel & Dora's first semester at co-op and because they tend to be shy in new situations, I decided to put them in classes all together. Next semester I will probably give them a little more free rein in choosing their classes. They are taking:

Adventures in Africa (with Lil Yoda, taught by Grandma Lori), On the Ball (P.E.), Acting Out (taught by me), Math Games & Tricks (also taught by me) and Lego Creations.

This should be a fun semester at co-op! I am only teaching 2 classes, both 1st-3rd grade level. I normally like to teach high school, but wanted to back off some this semester so I can spend more time with my new family. The other 3 classes periods I will be assisting in preschool.

Galileo

We recently finished reading Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick, the same author who wrote Archimedes and the Door of Science. Both are excellent, well-written books designed to introduce children to these men's lives and ideas.

The girls also talked about Galileo in their science class at our co-op. Below are pictures of the projects they completed. Some of the gumdrops didn't survive the journey home, but you get the picture. ;-)

First Day of Co-op!

Yesterday was our first day back at co-op. Our co-op only meets once/week, and only runs 10 weeks in the spring, and 10 weeks in the fall, so we get very excited when it's time to start back up! I get to teach a Shakespeare class to 1st-3rd graders (very fun!) and high school Economics and Humanities, which I co-teach with 2 friends. I also help out in a Cake Decorating class. It is such a blast!

Baloo is taking the 2nd semester of Apologia Chemistry and the 2nd semester of my Humanities class, plus Billiards and Mythbusters.

Padme and Lil Yoda are both taking the second semesters of Extreme Weather and Traveling the American Road, both taught by Grandma Lori, and they are both taking Renaissance Relived, a history/crafts class. In addition, Padme is taking Real Science for Kids (Physics) and Thinking Things (Logic games). Lil Yoda is taking Bird's Eye View (World Geography) and Lego Creations.

They had a great day yesterday, but we were all worn out! We have to wake up extremely early to make it to Opening Assembly by 8:40!!! Thankfully I had dinner in the crockpot so the house smelled yummy when we walked in. The smell alone was soothing! Overall, a very wonderful day. We love our co-op!

End of Semester Projects

Below are some of our End of Semester projects for our co-op. We also had a program Friday night, and Baloo danced a swing number (throwing his aunt/dance partner all over the place!), Padme did a dance and cheer with her Cheers and Cartwheels class, and both girls performed in a rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream. What a fun night!

This is Lil Yoda's project on California, and her project on Canine Heroes.

These are Padme's igloo and her painting of the Sego lily, the state flower of Utah.

Co-op classes

We love our co-op. We get together with the 100 families who are our closest friends (ok so I don't know some of them) once a week and exchange teaching skills. I teach what I'm good at, and others teach what they are good at, and the kids get all the benefit. We have really developed some good friendships there, and we look so forward to our 10 weeks in the fall and 10 weeks in the spring! We are going on Week 3.

Here is a list of what my kids are taking at co-op this year:

My eldest is in 9th grade this year so he has no fun classes, only credit classes:

Chemistry (he has already taken Biology and IPC/General Science - 2-3 hours homework each week)
American Government (2-3 hours homework each week)
Precepts (this is a Bible study class with 2-3 hours of homework each week)
Humanities (multi-credit class that combines History, Lit, Art & Music Appreciation - 8-10 hours of homework each week)

Padme, 3rd grade:
Traveling the American Road (taught by her Grandma)
Shake It Up Shakespeare (taught by her sweet Momma)
Make It Medieval (a crafts class - last week she came home with a flag)
Cheers & Cartwheels
Extreme Weather (again taught by Grandma)

Lil Yoda, 2nd grade:
Traveling the American Road
Shake It Up Shakespeare
Fun With Cooking (if you knew her you would not be surprised)
Once Upon a Story
Extreme Weather

I teach Humanities with 2 other ladies, and I also teach the Shakespeare class (1st-3rd grade) and a Movies As Literature class called Thumbs Up (9th-12th grade). Plus I get to help with preschool, which is the highlight of the whole day.

All of this makes for a very fun, very exhausting day. But also fun. And exhausting.

Of course we do many other subjects at home, that are not part of co-op. We follow the Ambleside Online curriculum, although we have deviated somewhat to avoid overlap with subjects covered at co-op. Our at-home subjects include Bible, English, handwriting, math, critical thinking, character study, art, artist & composer studies, home economics, hymns, folk songs, nature study, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian and whatever else sounds really fun. We do a lot of reading around our house.

Admittedly, homeschooling is a lot of work. But it's also a lot of fun. Besides, what better things do I have to do for the next 10 years?