May 10, 2012

We spent a fun time at our church this morning. We had a rep from the Geographic Alliance come out with a very large map of the United States. Ms. Lahti used to be a local teacher and did very well with the kids. 

I had my "extra" kids today (Miss H & Mr. H) and they joined right in. We had children ranging in age from three all the way up to sixteen. It was a great hands on learning experience.

Day #150/175 Days

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

Day #112/175 Days - Co-Op

We started something new today at co-op. All children ages 10 & up started a new class with a friend of mine teaching. She is doing an ecology class for them. She used to be a public school teacher and did this class for eighth graders. I think it went well. This is the class Lego-Man will now be doing. Conductor and Happy will continue in the geography class.

This also halved the number of students we had in our geography class. I taught about the country of England today. My hubby & I had the opportunity to visit here about 12 years ago so I brought in my photo album. We discussed the facts about the country (capital, continent, currency, government, flag, etc.). I also found a great website and used it for most of my information. It's called ProjectBritian.com and it was set up by a junior school to share information from a project they did.

When we had a break and snack, the older children joined us. We enjoyed tea (of course!) and scones (so yummy!!) as well as some "biscuits" (lemon cookies & ginger cookies). I think this is the favorite time for the kids!

We finished up with a craft. They kids created a "Royal Guard" paper doll that I found at DLT Kids site.

Once this was done we sent all the kids outside to play for the last 45 minutes. I brought along a soccer ball and we had some nets set up so a few chose to do that. The rest played on the swing set. We'll start doing this more often to give them some time to burn off some energy and just have fun playing together. It also gives us a chance to clean up the classroom without rushing to get to where we need to be next - well, me anyway.

Day #109/175 Days (Co-Op Day)

The two younger boys participated in the Geography Co-Op all morning. I have been teaching a sporadic photography class for older homeschooled kids that started back in September. I started out with 12 kids and I had 3 today. Lego-Man was one of them so I spent the first hour of Co-Op teaching that.

Then I joined the Geography class. Our country today was Kenya. It was taught by one of a Mom who has been there. Our church supports a missionary family who lives there (Actually, they are coming home for good next month! They have been there over 20 years!). Mrs. L had some wonderful insight in to the country and had a lot of great hands-on activities for the kids.

She actually took them outside and built a cook fire. Then cooked chai as that is a staple in the country. It wasn't bad. It tasted like bitter chocolate to me. Then some cornmeal mush. I didn't try that one. And finally a rice dish with goat meat. I did try that one - pretty yummy actually.

Goats are pretty valuable in Kenya and used for a variety of things. The funniest thing she did was have some of the younger kids try to herd the goats from one end of the parking lot to the other. These were Mrs. L's goats - just babies. In Kenya children as young as four have the job of looking after the family goats.

Happy is trying to point this baby goat in the right direction. It just wants to get back to its "mama" (Mrs. L). She finally had EVERYONE run across the lot and the goats happily came along. 

This was a lot of fun and I wish I had seen the first half of it. Mrs. L did send home a fun project of papers for the kids to work on at home. We'll be doing that soon. 

Day #102/175 Days (Co-Op Day)

Today at Co-Op we learned about the country of Haiti. Obviously this has been in the news lately. We had to change up our schedule a bit so this past weekend we thought to do this. Our plan was to ask for donations Sunday morning at church (which we did) and then have the kids count and roll the money and make a donation. The friend that thought up the co-op concept and I help was going to teach about earthquakes and I was going to do the country facts and the craft. Unfortunately, her son ended up becoming very sick the night before so I was on my own. Another friend stepped in to do the earthquake part and we are putting off rolling money until next week. 

The kids seemed to have fun once again. We learned about the country. We learned about earthquakes and did a pretty neat hands-on visual about how they work (Take a shallow box and cut it in half. Overlap the two halves. Place sand or sugar - which is what we used - in to the box. Move the box apart to see what happens and then move it together to see what happens. The kids loved it.) We had fresh pineapple, mango, and bananas for snack. I also talked about how many Haitians have a Creole heritage and also celebrate Mardi Gras so we had to make Mardi Gras masks. The kids really loved those. I'm modeling my sample and Conductor is showing off his as well - while eating a Popsicle. He's multi-tasking. 

We will be continuing our geography study in two more weeks while traveling to Kenya. Next week we'll be counting and rolling change for our Haiti donations. Then we have a dental hygienist coming in to talk to the kiddos.

Day #98/175 Days (Co-Op day)

We've been enjoying our mini co-op and studying various countries. So far we've covered China, Slovakia, and Egypt. Today we traveled to the country of France. I was teaching so no photos.

We talked about where France is located and discussed the different aspects of the country (currency, flora, fauna, animals, language, religion, etc.). We just touch on all of these things in order to give the kids an overview of the country.

Our snack was, of course, French bread, cheese, and grape juice. The kids ate this while we watched bits and pieces of a video called "Discovering France." We spent about 30 minutes seeing various aspects of the video. It covered all the regions of France as well as the food and culture.

We ended the class with a fun art activity - at least I thought so! It was an Matisse inspired art collage. The link includes free templates making this a super easy but fun project. I highly recommend it. The kids seemed to enjoy this.

Next week: Haiti

Day #89/175 Days (Co-Op Day)

Today was our second co-op meeting.  Last week we learned about China and had about eight kids in the class. This week we focused on Slovakia and had 17 kids come! Wow!

The lady who has been putting this all together has been able to find some ladies who have actually lived in these countries to come in and talk to the kids. This week we had Miss Petra come and she had all kinds of things to bring and show to the kids.

These decorated eggs were amazing. So delicate and intricately designed. As a craft, the kids later used crayons to put designs on the eggs and then dyed them. This was, of course, the cause of much fun.

This was just a small portion of what Miss Petra had brought to share. It covered two long tables. Here you can see some traditional dolls, some corn husk dolls, traditional dress and ribbons plus lots and lots of photographs. She said that her family goes back to visit every other year.

We started the class learning stats about the country. Then Miss Petra came to talk. The kids also enjoyed some peppermint tea (or water) and some bundt cake (all traditions of Slovakia). Miss Petra did an excellent job teaching us how to say a few words (hello, goodbye, thank you) and was wonderful about sharing all of her information with the kids.

Next week we are headed to Egypt!

Day #83/175 Days (Co-Op Day)

Today we started a mini co-op at our church. We are studying various countries only. I think it was a good start to the day. Miss Amanda taught today and talked about China. We had some maps and notebooking pages for the kids to fill out. She had also arranged for a friend to come talk to the children. May lived in China when she was younger and has been in the US for 20 years.

She brought some Chinese candy for the children and shared how to say various words that they asked. She also wrote the numbers 1-5 on the white board for them to copy as well as the phrase "Happy New Year."  Conductor did very well with this:

Lego-Man did well too:

Miss Amanda talked about the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army. The children also did a craft where they wrote Chinese words on Popsicle sticks and then tied them together to simulate a bamboo book. 

For snack we served tea with rice crackers and lo mien noodles. There was also sweet and sour sauce or spicy ginger for the crackers. 

We ended by going up to the gym to play for a bit. It was a good start to the co-op I think. I know the boys had a great time. Next week we'll be looking at Slovakia.