A Day in the Life of Co-Op

Sharing some pictures from our co-op classes today. Science was really fun! I enjoyed taking pics of both Lovely's class, and others as well. So much learning and fun together!

First things first - a group decade of the rosary to start the day (post daily Mass) - so sweet to listen to the kids. Many more kids and families came after Mass.  

While Lovely was so sweet, little Val charmed me - look at her hands. She's trying to follow along and did her hands this way all on her own and she toddled around. 

Below: Lovely's classroom of 1st through 3rd graders and 2 teachers. Their focus this week was natural distasters.  The children worked on a map and did:
Hurricanes - hurricane in a jar
Tornadoes - Where to go to be safe
Earthquakes - smashing tiles
Volcanoes - video, flip book, Coke and Mentos

Below:  The classroom I sometimes help in (I also do the nursery) of preK through K ages were doing great work about the solar system and how the earth and planets move around the sun (check out the lamp in the picture, she kept spinning the kids around in a circle while they circled the lamp to teach about day/night. So cute to watch the kids!).

Lovely and her budding close friendships: 

 Lovely's class mentos and coke volcano:

 WHOOSH!!!

 Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Mrs. C got a bit soaked but was happy with the demonstration. She was the hero of the students!

Back in class...

More of her classroom....

Class dismissed! Time for the playground! Gift hangs out....

Lovely swings (check out her missing teeth):

Little Val swings....

and slides....

Stroller parking.....
 

Swinging high in the trees....she was so happy!

It was a great day, as always :) We love co-op!

School Cafeteria

This was our lunch spot this past Friday. Don't you just love school cafeterias? ;)

Making numbers 20-40 in tens and ones

I mentioned here that Lovely LOVES math, but has hit her first struggle. For a girl who loves hands on math and visualizing, she is having trouble with grouping concepts. We are working on making numbers 20-40, grouping them into tens and ones and she struggles with both remembering the correct vocabulary (when I ask how many groups of 10 do you have...she'll say "30" which is all the blocks together - not the groups of 10) and then making the correct number together out of the tens and ones (20 tens + 7 ones ='s 27). So, this week we're walking away from the problems and just playing with the blocks and making groups of ten. We're going to work on how that feels, and how that sounds so she makes the connection on what is being asked of her.

As you can see...she likes having her animal friends around. Below is a little bird toy "helping" and the 2nd picture has her trusty horsey lovey and frog lol! Gotta love these classmates!

Any tips for me? :) As always, thanks! Chime in ANYTIME!!!

Rocky Adventures

Last Friday we took two field trips. We spent the morning at the historic home of a famous author, storyteller, and cartoonist and learned about folk tales with many members of our co-op group. I didn't get any pictures. I meant to, but I had to keep Valiant from running all over the property (I could not have a stroller).

When I saw how short that field trip was, I realized we had time to go to a Homeschool Day hosted at a local state park that had a quarry. So, we went and had a lovely picnic lunch by a grist mill and stream (SO nice to relax!!) and then checked out the old quarry. It is no longer used, but they have a great set up to talk about the process and lots of example cuts and such and studying the environment around a quarry. We had a lot of fun!

Studying the use of trains for carrying away the granite.

Lovely under the working train track bridge.

The quarry - no longer in use. So they had signposts and pictures and information!

Sitting on some old cut granite.

Valiant sleeping in class...hahah!

Lovely by some examples of granite in a rough cut, polished cut, etc.

some old stone cut for curbs....I see this in my neighborhood! 

Also a headstone cut

I enjoyed that more than I imagined I would, and Lovely really did! She loved seeing the different cuts and the whole process. It was neat to read the history and see the hard work.

Two more great field trips!!! Gorgeous weather! I love learning!

"Mom, I ate my class work!"

I've been meaning to post this, as the following happened last week, a really good week between the challenges we've had.

I finally felt better myself, and kicked whatever I had and we really dived into the lessons. Last week in history we studied the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Philistines, and started the Babylonians. One of the things we learned about was their food staples, culture, etc. Flat bread was one of the common foods. Simply talking about the bread helped tie in the crops they grew, culture, specialized labor, feast/famine (as in the story of Joseph in Egypt) and became a great hands on cross curricular project.

We first read up on the Hebrew people, the Jewish faith and ties to our faith, and read about the other groups as well (Phoenicians - where it was fun to talk about $$ too - and the other groups mentioned). Then, in an activity from Story of the World that connected history to math to science to life skills to reading - we made flat bread. Lovely did all the measuring out (math!) herself, mixed it herself, made it herself following directions (skills, reading), and while she did we talked about the cultures who needed this staple (social studies), the different ways of making it (we did the stove and the oven), talked about the science behind heat and baking or cooking the bread in an oven or the pan and the differences, made hypothesis about what would happen (science), she then cleaned up her cooking mess (life skills).

It was really fun, and really tasty!!! I think our favorite bread came from the pan (not that they used pans lol, but we could compare heat uses), but we loved the oven made bread (and some we cooked longer and made crackers!). Lovely then ate her bread with honey (a previous connection back to her bee study).

They turned out flat - but they could have been bigger and more flat with more attention to the flattening part....but Lovely did a good job on her own! Above she shared her bread with friends next door! It seemed to get great reviews. Forget the dog eating your homework - I found the kids eating the classwork - and that was the best part!!

Other Challenges

Sorry I've been MIA. I was hit with another week of low energy. I'm starting to see an improvement in myself with extra rest and more attention to healthy foods - but I'm still wiped everyday past 1pm. But, it doesn't damper my enthusiasm for our school day - even when it is a rough day. It still amazes me how excited I get seeing the learning happen  in person.

We had some more rough days after a really good week, mostly over motivation. Our learning time with core work started to lengthen again, and I was finding myself being a constant cheerleader rather than seeing her be more independent. It was/is mostly over phonics/grammar work. I always let her pick how our day goes (do we start with Math, or Language Arts after prayer/pledge/calendar time?). She always picks L.A. and starts with MCP (her phonics book) which is the only two pager book work (not a lot of "playing around" or doing hands on with this unless I decided to go method learning for this, which I have not jumped to yet - I need more time to research). I think she picks it because she wants to get the hardest/least favorite out of the way. But OH, those two pages can go on and on and on....!

Anyways, just this Tuesday it hit me (it only took me 2 months) - "Let's start with her easiest core work!". So, she did...and it made everything fly! Since she started with things that came easily (I picked spelling, then moved up from there) her phonics flew!  She finished LA in about an hour (that's in total - all areas) usually it's over 1 hour and a half or more...not including any real reading for fun or out of her core books. She stalls, gets water, talks to me, drops her pencil on the floor...). By the end of our core work in total (all subjects) we were at 2.5 hours. I'll have to see if we repeat that tomorrow (Today we did enrichment and other projects) to further test the hypothesis. 2.5 hours gave me PLENTY of time to do more reading practice with her, cuddling up with books, more hands on applications, cooking and measuring, etc. More of the the "stuff" that gets her turned on to learning.

Keep in mind, she still seems to love home school and tells me so, and we are not fighting over things - things just dragged, and could make our talk "testy" during Language Arts. Motivation is just a constant work in progress. Task persistence is not one of her strong points (also noted by her teacher last year), and I want to stay positive and figure out how best to help her and preserve our relationship.  

Now, in math (her favorite!) we've hit a topic she's struggling with - seeing how to make numbers from tens and ones. She can name the place values - but is struggling with MAKING them and counting out tens from a large group of objects and telling me how many tens she has grouped and then ones left over (For example, two groups of 10 and 7 ones makes 27) . Singapore Math presents things fast, and she obviously needs more practice and repetition hands on before she does more mental math so we are just practicing with lots of manipulatives and putting things in groups before moving on to the next step (adding/subtracting the groups). If I failed to write any of that clearly, my next post will have pictures.

Aside from these two bumps in the road...we also had a great week last week. I'll post that separately too.

One step at a time, my friends!!! One step at a time...and I'm being taught too!

Yo! Yo! It's a Go?

Successes? Really? Hmmm, maybe I can drum some up. :) 

1. I was honest. I haven't been feeling well, and it has shown up at home. As a wife, mom, and homeschooler - it has shown. But, I've tried, and I admitted it, and honesty helps me. It's not a big deal, but I'm vain with myself. I love being there for others, but to be the person who needs the listening ear? HARD!

2. Lovely has been learning things in NEAT ways, and when it tumbles forth and I see WHAT she's learned or mastered, it is the greatest THRILL for me!!! Her success, but my joy!

3. I learning to embrace an educational mess. LOL! Our "classroom" does not look as "cute" as when I first started this blog. HAHA. Most days when we leave that room, things are everywhere. YES, Lovely puts things up, and yes, I do my part, but still books, or toys, or sketch books can end up out and about with the baby and the toddler to chase around. I'm accepting that learning in the home is REAL. We're really living....and that is ok.  (Shhh, don't tell Maria Montessori! I swear the educational stuff IS put back!! lol).

So....you out there, what's shaken bacon? 

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...

1. better health.

2. my son's smiles.

3. Lovely's love of learning.

4. Lovely's ability to forgive me.

5. my husband.

6. the joy little Val bring the world.

7. the freedom to homeschool.

8. the voices in me to remember to think of how all children learn and how I still need to fight for changes for ALL kids. One step at a time....

Blessings!!