Co-ops are great

Through our years of homeschooling so far, we've pretty much always been in some sort of co-op situation. My favorite kind is like the one we are involved in this year: not overly demanding, but consistent enough to present an outside challenge for the kids. I like the fact that the kids get to hear insights from other adults/teachers, and try projects, etc., that we wouldn't do at home.

Another positive aspect is giving the kids a chance to do things in a larger group, since they don't have that opportunity at home. For instance, this semester, our co-op takes some time each session to do a little team-building exercise in which the kids have to work together to compete in a particular challenge. (The challenge this past week was to build the biggest cantilevering structure out of toothpicks and clay!)

Giving presentations (public speaking, book reports, etc) is high on my list of skills I'd like to see developed in my kids, and a co-op provides a good setting for that kind of practice. This past week, the kids in our co-op were each assigned the task of writing and presenting a news story (since they went on a field trip to our local news station a couple of weeks ago). It was fun seeing what the kids came up with!

Strider chose to be "Johnny Anchor" and he reported a "breaking news story" about a giant purple cloth that had suddenly appeared, covering the entire top of the Bank of America building in the city. He then turned the broadcast over to "Maria Marshmallow," who interviewed a key eyewitness, "Miss Butterbottom" about her observations.

Then it was time to do the weather, as BillyBob Thunder gave the forecast for the day:

We enjoyed seeing the other kids'/families' creative presentations -- each one was very different.

There was use of technology,

multiple interviews,

dramatic stories about fire rescues...

...and even some (true) reporting of paranormal activity. Each family had a different approach, which is what makes a co-op so much fun, and beneficial!

Music education recommendation

Zeezok Publishing has created these book/CD sets, which I highly recommend. Written at a level that even young children can understand when read aloud, they portray famous composers (in the set I bought, Bach and Mozart) as real people, starting as young boys. The stories are interesting, but I think the best part is having the CD to accompany the story. Various chapters have the composer's music included, so we could play it on the computer at the appropriate part of the story. There is also a way to print out the sheet music, so any piano players in the family could play the compositions as well. And, there are coloring pages to keep kids occupied as they are read to!

I think this is a really unique and interactive way to learn about these famous composers.

Roman archways lesson

My Father's World curriculum has had some great activities for us to do. This was one of my favorite ones so far this year. We learned about how arches work! (We're studying Ancient Rome right now.)

First, we experimented with how much a straight "bridge" could hold:


before it collapsed:Then, we made a bridge with an arch under it. Look how much more it could hold... and we could have kept going!
Using our long-collected empty pudding boxes, and a little bit of sandpaper to replicate the rough textures of the stones, we then made our own arches. Even I was amazed that they stayed up with no "mortar" or anything else to hold them!

It was a fun hands-on lesson.

My friend from high school, Mindy in PA, is also using this same curriculum and they built an arch of their own -- a lot more colorful than ours:

Rome, Pennsylvania, North Carolina.... arches are impressive everywhere. :)

Good web site for games/activities

For those times when I'm trying to focus on one child, and another child needs something to do on their own, preferably educational, we have found this to be a nice solution:

Room 108

We've been exploring some of the activities on this site, and so far some of our favorites are:

http://www.netrover.com/~crose/memory/memory2.htm The old "Simon" game (memory practice)

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/tetris/tetris2.html The old "Tetris" game (spatial relations practice

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/clock/clock7hour.html For learning how to tell time

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/missing/main.htm For counting practice

http://netrover.com/~jjrose/rush/rush108.html "Rush Hour" game (spatial relations, problem solving)

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/body/body.html Body parts game

Learning, so we don't repeat it

When Pete and I first had conversations about the academic subjects* we would be teaching our kids, we tried to determine which aspects we thought were most important. Should math be a key focus? Or writing? Science? Ideally, of course, we would teach everything to our kids, but knowing there would be constraints of time, energy, etc., we wanted to see what we thought would be most significant and crucial to the development of our children as they entered adulthood. What did we most want to equip them with? (Clearly, not grammar, as I ended that question with a preposition!)

Math, we concluded, could always be aided with a calculator or Excel, spelling and writing would always have the benefit of the word-processing checkers available these days. Even the memorization of formulas and facts seemed less important with the advent of Googling and easy online research.

But what we keep coming back to is the importance of knowing HISTORY. As Strider and I read in his history book a couple weeks ago, the ancient Roman Cicero said,

"To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child."

And we concur.

So, ever since Strider was in kindergarten, the subject of history has been the main focus of our studies, and we try to weave other subjects in and around whatever time period we're looking into. One of the main benefits of this is that the younger kids can join in, to whatever extent they're able, as talk about people from different eras.

Along the way, we've discovered some really impressive books that people have written, giving us fascinating glimpses into windows of other civilizations and times. These are some of our favorites:

A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer. This was the first one I read Strider in kindergarten and it gave a great overview of, well, the history of the world. Obviously it can't be completely comprehensive, but it included a lot of the main things. :) Unfortunately, it was written so long ago that some of the more recent main events (such as World War II!) are not included.
The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. We own almost all 4 of the volumes in this series now -- and our favorite versions are the CD's. Strider loves to listen to them in his room, or in the car.

"Augustus Caesar's World" by Genevieve Foster. This is the book we're reading this semester. I was a little skeptical at first, fearing it would be rather dry and narrow in its scope. But I, as usual, was quite wrong, and we've enjoyed learning through her "horizontal" approach, as we've read about all different groups of people and events that surrounded this man. Her writing is so conversational and story-like; the people are three-dimensional to us now.

I have loved learning all about HISTORY as I teach my kids. I somehow zoned out during my own childhood and missed most of this. Hopefully we're all gaining in wisdom and insight!

*I am not including "Bible" as an academic subject here. Of course we think that book is of the highest order and should be taught in all things.

Letter Fun Days

When Strider turned 3, I knew I had to do something with this child! (A homeschooling-veteran friend of mine once said that they only year she is tempted to put a child in school is when they are THREE.) Something about the high-energy level, the inquisitiveness, and the desire for constant engagement is enough to put a mom over the edge sometimes.

Philosophically I believed that he was not ready for the regular routine of school, but I wanted just a little bit of structure -- for both of us. I decided to organize one day a week that would have a theme, giving us plenty of fun and activities therein. And the easiest themes were.... the letters of the alphabet.

So I created Letter Fun Days, which was a 26-page/day "curriculum" that I could use easily. Over the next couple of years, we ended up inviting my niece Ellie to join us sometimes, and occasionally we pulled in baby Rayna for the fun, too.

(Here they're making cards for the Grandparents on Letter G Day. Note they're also wearing Green)

Each Letter Fun Day has suggestions for:

Things to wear
Verse to memorize
Spanish word
Foods to eat
Crafts
Activities (inside and outside)
Songs to sing
Poem to memorize

And they all start with the Letter of the Day!

Plus, I made stickers, too, so first thing in the morning, we could put those on to get us all in the festive mood. :)

Now, I'm happy to be able to pull the ol' kit out again and use with the next round of preschoolers (and friends). Colsen has had a little friend from the neighborhood come over a few times, and along with her older sister, and Rayna (and sometimes Miles), we have a fun little group.

Here was Letter T Day several years ago (wearing Ties):
And here was Letter T Day this year (more tie-wearing by the next generation)

and Turtle-making:

It's been just the right amount of structure for us! The kids always love "preschool." :)