September 19, 2011 - Mini-Co-Op

This week we headed to my sister's house for our mini-co-op. We're slowly getting in to a routine with our new studies.

• We watched a couple of fun videos about John Adams to give us all a background. I found a neat children's series on YouTube so we'll try to hit as many as we can. We watched "History Videos for Kids: Getting to Know John Adams" and "The American Presidents: John Adams." 
• Handed out coloring sheets of John Adams - I'm using the ones found at Apples 4 the Teacher. The ones I pick have the presidents name and which number they were (1st in office, etc.)
• Read one chapter from George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster - "John Adams: Farmer boy" about Adams' youth.
• Handed out informational sheets, notebooking sheet and clipart.
• Read from the Encyclopedia of Presidents & Their Times by David Rubel
• Listened to speech that John Adams made while in office

• Moved on to Thomas Jefferson and again, watched a couple of YouTube videos. One was called "History Videos for Kids: Getting to Know Thomas Jefferson" and the other was "President Thomas Jefferson Biography." 
• Handed out coloring pages
• Read one chapter from George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster - "Thomas Jefferson and His Mountain."
• Handed out informational sheets, notebooking sheet and clipart.
• Read from the Encyclopedia of Presidents & Their Times by David Rubel
• Listened to speech that Thomas Jefferson made while in office

We then took a break and the kids began working on their cookies for their state study. We made cookies from Pennsylvania - Sour Drop Cookies. Each boy had a hand in making them and they were delicious! We even used gluten-free flour this time so Happy was able to eat some as well. 

They had a maple flavored frosting that when on them and Lego-Man made that all by  himself. The other three boys - with my sister's help - made the cookies. I took photos. Actually, once the first batch came out and a sample taken, the boys began their state study and I finished cooking and frosting cookies.

The boys learned about Pennsylvania and New Jersey today. We are learning our states in order of their admittance to the union. 

The boys are creating notebooking pages that list the state motto, have a picture of the flag, flower, bird, and animal. They also are doing mapping skills for each state as well. (And yes, I can't find my checklist so I can't get more detailed than this.)

Day #19/175 Days (note the actual day! It will be like this all week - cool!)

September 12, 2011 - Mini-Co-Op

Last year my sister & I got together a couple of times a month to do a mini-co-op with just the two of us. We focused on art and music. We did an appreciation course for both as well as learned about composers and artists and even did practical art study using videos.

This year we decided to cover the US States and Presidents. Today was our first day. We did an abbreviated study today as I had also inadvertently scheduled a "Not-Back-To-School" picnic for any area homeschoolers and needed to be there at noon.

We were able to cover one state and one president - rather quickly, however. I am teaching the presidents and my sister is teaching the states.

 For our study of George Washington we began with a video on YouTube (one of my favorite educational sites). We watched Part 1 which was about nine minutes. I didn't think the kids would sit through all 30 minutes, although, if we had time, we probably would have attempted it. Here is the link to Part 1.

I then handed out coloring sheets. Granted, this isn't one of their favorite things to do - especially my teenager - but we find it's good to have their hands occupied while they are being read to. While they colored I read two chapters from George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster (what a treasure this book is!!!). I also read a book called George Did It by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain. It was a fun look at all Washington accomplished in his life.

We ended the presidential time by creating notebook pages. I handed out a one-page informational sheet on George Washington. (I received a free download of all the pages, but I did find them on-line as well from the same site I downloaded from. You can see them HERE.) I then have a half sheet of paper printed with primary lines (I can't find where I got these from originally). It includes a short amount of data such as name, born/died, date served in office, etc. There are eight things included - just enough info for the boys to not balk too much at including. I also found a set of presidential portraits (clipart) and print out enough so that each boy can paste one on each page.

After a very short break, we then began learning about Delaware.

• Read about Delaware from the book Don't Know Much About the 50 States by Kenneth C. Davis
• Shared a large map of Delaware and allowed the boys to just check it out
• Read about Delaware in Scholastic Atlas of the 50 States by David Rubel
• Handed out an informational sheet about the state and completed two notebooking pages
• Handed out a packet of information on mapping skills using Delaware - questions answered
• Filled in a blank-line map of Delaware - just the important spots
• Tasted "Delaware Applesauce Cookies" (YUMMY!)

My sister has a great book with cookie recipes for each state. Our goal is to actually have the boys help make them, but this week - due to our time constraint - my sister made them ahead of time and we just sampled them. They were very good!

Day #14/175 Days