Tapestry of Grace Virtual Co-op and Dam Building

This morning was our daughter's first virtual co-op class. It was amazing!! We have had a blast this past week, she and I, doing her reading and discussing every day how all that she is reading ties together. Since she is a new dialectic student (dialectic refers to the age roughly equivalent to the middle school years, when students can think more abstractly and begin to make connections between different threads or streams of thought) I am walking her through the process of reading, filling out her SAP's (student activity pages) and noticing things that are similar or that happen at the same time in different parts of the world.

Tapestry is ALL that we have done for the past week (due to my hand which is now in a splint rather than the soft cast) and it has taken us a good two hours most days! Yikes! But I know that as we learn better how to learn this way, it will go faster. And the cool thing is that G has totally gotton into it and not complained at all. She has, in particular, loved having me to herself for at least an hour each day. Something which I need to keep in mind!

The class was amazing to listen to. An experienced co-op mom is leading the first two discussions so us newbies can hear how it's done. She did such a great job!! (thanks Marcie!!) I actually got tears in my eyes at a couple different points when Marcie was drawing parallels between events in two different countries that were similar, and I could see the light bulbs going on in G's head and thinking, "this is what I wanted all along when we began using Tapestry!" Now that G is old enough to benefit more from the socratic method of discussions I feel that we are finally beginning to reap more from the Tapestry way of learning. It is very exciting to be at this point.

While G was busy on the computer with her virtual class, the four boys were up in my bedroom watching a science video on dam building (thanks Uncle David!! aka "Lava Man"). They were riveted. Afterward, all on their own, they set about constructing a dam. All I had to do was provide them with a tub of some sort, popsicle sticks, and pebbles. They got some sand from the sandbox and set to work.



The video below shows our first dam test. Did it work?? Watch it and find out!