Our Week in Review

In recent years the ratio of amount of school work done for classes at home versus the amount of work done for classes elsewhere has shifted.  Our high schoolers do about half or more of their work for classes they are taking at our co-op, so they are turning in work and reporting to other teachers.  I love keeping my hands in a few choice subjects at home, but also appreciate the accountability our children must learn by being responsible to teachers other than me.

Son C is taking biology at co-op, and he had an assignment to make a cell model of any kind of cell.  He chose to make an edible eukaryotic cell.  He used marshmallows for the cell membrane, and red twizzlers for the cyto-skeleton.  Into this he poured jello (for the cytoplasm), a truffle (for the nucleus), gob-stoppers (for the vesicles and vacuoles), and gummy worms (for the mitocondria).

Believe it or not, he ate this after class! (at least parts of it!)

We took a week off our curriculum-assigned reading for history, and just read tons of library books about the Revolutionary War.  It was wonderful!  We read this gem of a book about one of the three delegates to the Second Continental Congress from Delaware, Caesar Rodney.  Are you familiar with his story?  I had not ever heard it before.  The delegates believed that the decision to break away from Britain needed to be unanimous.  That meant for the Declaration of Independence to be signed and sent to Britain, each of the 13 Colonies needed to vote in the affirmative, or abstain from voting.   Delaware was a "swing" colony, meaning that one delegate intended to vote yes, and one intended to vote no.  The third delegate was Caesar Rodney.  He was called to his home in Dover, Delaware, 80 miles away from Philadelphia, the day before the vote was to be taken.  A courier was sent after him with an urgent message to return to Philadelphia for the vote.  He set out in a small buggy from his home, with rain threatening, and rode as fast as possible toward Philadelphia.

The rain began falling and before long the roads were so muddy they prevented Rodney's buggy from traveling any further.  He left the buggy behind and continued on horseback.  He rode through a terrible rain, thunder, and lightning storm, all day and ALL NIGHT LONG, reaching Philadelphia in the afternoon of the next day, July 2, 1776.  Still wearing his riding boots and spurs, he strode into the State House just in time for the vote!  Caesar Rodney voted for independence, putting his colony of Delaware in the "yay" column.  Twelve of the colonies voted for independence, with New York abstaining (New York later cast its support behind the resolution).  It was unanimous!

One more amazing substory in the incredible history of the making of our country!

We also read about David Bushnell and the first ever submarine that he invented (used in the war, but not responsible for the sinking of any Britian warships), Polish engineers Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Casimir Pulaski who made victories at Saratoga and West Point possible with their brilliant ideas for fortifications and defenses, such as a "great chain" strung across the Hudson River to prevent British ships from sailing up it, the determined Henry Knox who transported 59 cannons 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, finally routing the entrenched British soldiers from that beleaguered city, and the brave Nathan Hale, who was captured in New York as a Patriot spy, and famously said as he was about to be hung by the British, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

These people were made of strong stuff!

It was a good week, and I am looking forward to next week's in depth look at the making of the Constitution.  So timely for my boys right now!

Jolly Roger and the Pirate Queen

Sons G and L have been in drama class this year at our co-op, and last weekend was play weekend! They performed a pirate comedy that was truly funny, and they did it well.  I know I'm biased, but I really do think it is one of the better high school productions I have seen.  Very proud of the entire cast, and particularly our boys!

Our son G has super tight curly hair that he had been growing out since Christmas just so that it would be long enough to be straightened and put in a pony tail for his character in the play.  Now that is dedication, folks!

The story revolved around a proper young woman who is loved by a respectable gentleman, but before he can propose to her he learns that she longs for adventure and has been fantasizing about a pirate in a wanted poster.  So he becomes a pirate in order to woo her.  Son G played the gentleman's butler, so at first he had to look like a proper 17th century butler, and later he had to look like a pirate.

Son L played one of the "pirates" on this gentleman's hired crew.  He added such a quirky sense of humor to his character - it was so funny!  Here are the boys with grandma after opening night.

Daughter G got to come home and see her brothers in the play, as well as a bunch of old co-op friends!  Yay! (She is in the middle, with the hat on.)

After a couple female cast members spent nearly 3 hours straightening G's hair for the first performance, he didn't want it to get curly and make them have to repeat their work, so daughter G put his hair in a couple of pony tails Saturday morning and he wore his hair like this until the performance later that evening.  Soooo funny!

Okay, on to the actual play......  son G as the butler!

He had to hire a pirate crew for his master, and they were all so quirky and/or stupid.  Loved their characters!

Son L was, of course, the best of the bunch. :)

 Here they are after becoming pirates, to the left and right of the lead character in the middle.

The pirate butler (son G) also hired a real pirate to "train" the upstanding gentleman in how to act and talk like a pirate.  Unbeknownst to them, the "real" pirate (Captain Long John Silver) was actually a girl posing as a man in order to live a life of excitement and adventure.  She nailed her part!

This was one of the funniest moments.  At several different points in the story, the gentleman's pirate crew had to hide.  Son L's character always posed like a tree, hiding behind a tree.  When he did this the entire audience laughed!!

In the end, the woman and the gentleman, after being married by another pirate captain (Blackbeard) realize that the pirating life was not all they thought it would be, and they return to their more sedate but happy life on land.  (the below picture was the woman with her pirate crew).

 Taking their bows at the end.  Son L stayed in character even during the bowing!

 The girl in the below picture was the female lead.  She did an amazing job!  (she is also one of my students in the English class I teach at co-op - I am blessed to have had her as a student for three years!)

With some friends who came to see the play.

It was a fun, fun weekend!  I am grateful for all the opportunities my children have at our co-op!

Our Week in Review

This week we finished up our three week study of World War I.  We learned how, sadly, the peace terms at the end of World War I laid the groundwork for World War II, in spite of the fact that President Wilson had wanted it to be the war that ended all wars.  What a tragic thing war is, and what a complicated thing peace can be!

Son C, reading history while munching on popcorn.

I am being very intentional this year about including Little Man in our history studies.  Last year was so full of "life lessons" that some of his schooling, namely history, was sorely neglected.  He gleaned quite a bit from his older siblings studies' and the conversations we would have as a family, but I really want to do a better job this year of reading books and doing activities at his level that help make history come alive for him.  During these weeks that we've been learning about World War I, he and I have been reading through this book:

What a great book for elementary students!  Among other things we learned how WWI experienced so much trench warfare, and what daily life was like for soldiers in the trenches.  I have a fresh perspective on that phrase ("in the trenches") after reading about how horrible the conditions were for the soldiers who lived, slept, ate, waited, and agonized in those muddy pits.  Little Man and I made a trench warfare scene out of clay to help illustrate what we'd learned.

We learned about the front lines (closest to the enemy), the support/supply lines, and the reserve lines farthest back.  These three types of lines were connected by "communicating trenches" or by tunnels.  Food was brought forward for the men in the front lines to eat.  They had trench bakeries and kitchens, and trench hospitals.  It was usually very loud in and near the trenches from all the shelling and firing going on.  Men in the front lines had to listen to the groans of the wounded up in "no man's land" ~ the area between the facing front lines of both sides.  No wonder so many of the men who survived came home completely shell shocked. 

God gave me a fabulous idea for daughter H's history studies this year.  So much of the 20th century was about war.  And war is depressing to learn about after awhile.  Especially when you see through the lens of hind sight how man did not learn the lessons he should have learned from each conflict.  So rather than studying the wars in depth I am having daughter H read biographies of individual people that lived during each conflict, and the difference they made while living in horrific times.  Right now she is reading With Daring Faith, a biography of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India.  What an amazing, faith building story Amy's life is!  When we talk about our weekly history topics as a family, daughter H can bring a whole new perspective to our conversation.  I am so grateful for God's wisdom and faithfulness to give me insight as I planned our school year.  He is so good!

In other subjects, Little Man has started formal grammar this year.  We use a curriculum called Easy Grammar, and at the beginning of each level they have the student memorize a list of prepositions.  Prepositions are useful to know, as they are the first word in a prepositional phrase, and the subject and verb of a sentence will never be found inside of a prepositional phrase.  Little Man absolutely loves grammar.  It makes my heart sing that he is so in love with something that most other children strongly dislike (in other words, he doesn't know he is "supposed" to dislike it!).  One day each week he and son C and I play "prepositional bingo" with chocolate chips as place holders.  The first one to get bingo (or in this case, yell out "prepositions!") gets 5 extra chocolate chips and then we get to eat all the ones on our bingo sheet.  Hmmm, could this be why Little Man loves grammar so much?

 

Son C has learned well (and Little Man is just beginning to learn) how to cross out the prepositional phrases in sentences in order to find the subject and the verb.

We had our first day of co-op this past week, too!  Our first class is at 9:30 a.m., and our last class ends at 5:00 p.m., with various hours off for each of the children throughout the day.  This picture was taken after we got home and everyone was tired from the long day, but we did have a great first day!  The children loved most of their classes, and I absolutely loved the two that I am teaching, especially high school English.  Even though it will be a lot of work to prepare for each week, it will be a wonderful outlet for me and another way to use my God-given gift of teaching.  I am so thankful!

A Day at Co-op

Here is a sampling of a few of our co-op classes on a random Tuesday in January....


Daughters G and H in watercolor class.  Some of the students are doing amazing work in here!

 

Little Man in his science class.  They were learning some physics principle but I'm not sure what it was!

Son C in lego club.  He gets a new building challenge each week, builds the given item at home, takes it to class for "show and tell", and then they take a picture of his structure each week and compile the pictures into a notebook.  Notes on each structure include what it is and how many hours it took to build.  Son C has been in his *element* for this class!

Daughter G spent hours and hours during Christmas break working on a narrative for Spanish 2.  She and a partner had to write an English dialogue, translate it into Spanish, memorize it, and share it in class.  Her portion of the conversation was all about our family vacation last summer!

Teacher is standing to the left, evaluating their dialogue as they speak.  The boy in orange really looks excited, doesn't he??

 Here is a portion of her speech:

First Day Back to School ~ 2013

Our first day back went well!

I am so very thankful.

Getting back in to the school rhythm is nearly always challenging after a break, and this time we were adding another student into the mix.  More people means more distractions, so I was a little nervous about how the day would go for all of us.

I prayed, planned, prepared, prayed.  And God answered!  We had a great first day back!

In history this week we are learning about the Oregon Trail and the Gold Rush.  Fun, fascinating topics.  Tomorrow is our first day back to co-op...everyone is really looking forward to that.  Daughter G has been practicing a narrative in Spanish about our family vacation this past summer which she wrote and will present in Spanish class tomorrow.  She and my hubby, who had Spanish years ago in high school, were practicing it together this evening and I have to say.... it was rolling off her tongue pretty impressively!

Really looking forward to seeing friends and getting back into a rhythm with our co-op classes.  God is good!

First Day of our New Co-op!

What a great first day!

I am so impressed with this co-op ~ how it is organized and administered, the caliber of teachers, and the class offerings.  We even made new friends on our very first day!

Daughter G has Apologia chemistry with labs, spanish 2, and a watercolor art class.

Son G has Apologia physical science, inventors and inventions, and a class about persecuted Christian children in other countries (today they sat in a dark storage room to simulate being in prison, while eating rice pudding from Vietnam).

Son L has Apologia general science, a class studying the book Pilgrim's Progress in depth, and the same class about persecuted Christians.

Son C is in the same inventors and inventions class as his brother G, and the same class about persecuted Christians.  He is also in a lego class, where they have a building challenge each week and learn to manipulate the pieces in new ways, a self defense class (basically beginning karate), and a chess class.  He is THRILLED with his schedule!

Little Man is also in the persecuted Christians class, a beginning science class, a Five in a Row literature class, and the self defense class with his brother C.

I am the chemistry class helper, so I spent two hours today helping supervise a couple of experiments (non bunsen burner, so no flames yet), learning the names of the 14 high schoolers in the class, and trying to remember how to convert metric measurements.  I am doing the reading each week along with our daughter, and having to brush up on my algebra.  This class will definitely stretch me!

We have in between hours at co-op, that can be used for getting other work done.  So we packed our backpacks last night with math and history books, and I stayed up late making lunches for everyone.  How do you building school parents do this every night????  (and how do your poor kids not have back aches every day?!)

Thankful.  Very tired (note to local friends ~ don't expect me to answer calls or be able to do much on Tuesday evenings).  But overwhelmingly thankful!

Co-op Fun

Last Friday we did our annual "baking and making" day with our co-op ~ we baked sugar cookies and made some Christmas crafts. So much fun!!

There was time for some spontaneous games!


We made foam door hangars (thanks to my mom for sending the kits!) and decorated gift bags.







Is this a fun looking table, or what??!



While Marsha and Sally were busy supervising the crafts, I supervised the baking.


So many sprinkles were used! I have swept twice since then and am still finding them on the floor. :-)











A fun time was had by all! How we love and appreciate our co-op friends!