Co-op Carnival

Posted on November 1, 2007 by heidi

We’re not opposed to trick-or-treating, we’ve gone the last several years but we decided we didn’t want to do it this year for various reasons – the kids are old enough to notice people in scary costumes, the weather here is usually cold (last night being an exception) and windy and the kids are all so little it’s hard to keep track of them during the day, let alone at night when they’re all hopped up on candy. And Christopher’s poor teeth, despite constant brushing and flossing, are full of cavities. We don’t need more sugar for their bodies or their teeth, so we were hoping to avoid that battle.

So instead we helped set up a carnival for our co-op friends. We had a potluck dinner and we each brought treats for the kids – Chex puppy chow, cinnamon rolls, rice krispie treats, play-doh, salt dough ornaments to paint. We had carnival games – sack race, bobbing for apples, ring toss, bean bag toss. The kids all played and ran around and the adults (moms and dads) visited and supervised (and snuck candy.) At one point I noticed the kids were all standing around eating APPLES. Apples?? We didn’t have a lot of candy but there were homemade donuts and goodie bags and they were eating apples! We were so amazed.

It was a wonderful night, we were home just as the sun went down and the kids ate some treats and went to bed. Today Mo told her OT, “I got lots of candy!” and I whispered behind her back, “She got three pieces and felt that was a lot!” and her OT and I both agree how wonderful that three pieces of candy can be such a treat. Now I don’t have to figure out how to get rid of bags and bags of candy or fight with them like last year over how much they could eat a day. They had a great time with friends, with old fashioned treats and homemade goodies and carnival games – it’s one of those times I realize a little bit of something great is far better than a ton of junk.

Pictures are up in the gallery.

Charlotte Changes

Posted on September 12, 2007 by heidi

So, bit more about Charlotte Mason. As I’m reading her stuff, I’m gleaning bits here and there. There is a lot we already do or things we planned to do but this great website is offering us a more more detailed structure to follow – they have an entire 12 year outline included linked resources. Most of the texts are public domain so you can download them or read on-line. While I like some of their stuff, after reviewing their curriculum we won’t be using Ambleside because there’s too much I wouldn’t want to do (their history texts have gross inaccuracies, big focus on british history and obviously that’s less applicable to us.) But good site to explore if you have time.

Things that are new we’ll be incorporating:
– More time outside. Charlotte Mason (CM) believes kids under 6 years should be outside most of the day. Clearly she did NOT live in Texas, land of 105 degree heatwaves, bizarre backyard flooding, and fire ants. But we are trying to get more time outside in early hours, while Mom runs, after dinner, etc. When in doubt, throw them out (in the yard, that is) and we’re trying to encourage the kids to just go explore. Which means more time in the yard for Mommy, but that’s the subject of another post. We’re also planning to hit the lake at least once a week and a park, take more walks as a family, and make sure everyday we’re getting some time to bond with nature. The kids are starting nature journals and Moira’s is a hoot, I wish I could scan and share the whole thing.
– Nature science for first several years. CM believes kids need time to observe nature and form their own theories & observations as a strong science base. That’s how we become scientists, right? Observing, so give them the chance to do that personally instead of reading about it in a book. The book will come, we’re hoping to purchase The Handbook of Nature Study which is what Ambleside uses for the first six years of science, along with some bird books and such. We’ll be supplementing with our own science books we’ve picked up and our science co-op.
– Music appreciation. We’ve planned on this but their site gives a composer per term (3 per year) to study plus links and key works to listen to – I love it.
– Artists. Same as above, 3 per year and you can download beautiful images they’ve collected of the artists’ work and give ideas for how to incorporate it in your study. Combined with the amazing art history books my family has loaned us, these kids will learn more than I have yet learned about art! And we have the fun art book that has bits of background and art projects in the same style of famous ones, plus a website with more links to their work. I would link you to the book but I cannot remember the name and the book is in sleeping Mo’s room.
– “Handicrafts” since CM thinks students need to learn practical skills. The only one that comes to mind is sewing (good skill) and woodworking. Now realizing this woman was writing in the early 1900s I know these skills aren’t so necessary to life now – but I think they are enriching and worth learning. Yes, they need to learn to type to survive in this world but I know learning to crochet – another great handicraft – has really enriched my life, helped me make new friends, allowed me to make gifts for people I love, improved my fine motor skills. 🙂 I heard they advised alzheimer’s patients to do work like crocheting because it helps your brain. SO, we’re officially adding handicrafts. Which does fit in with our elaborate “Thaden Pierce Plan” but I hadn’t thought to add more artistic things to that list. It’s more practical, I think woodcarving would still be enriching.
– We’re going to learn geography more in the context of history, and we’re doing a timeline. I haven’t yet chosen a history text/curriculum because there is nothing I LOVE, but we’ll keep looking (Edit: We found something we love, we’re doing Story of the World.) I love our blackline maps and we’ve got some great atlases. I like that the classics approach says go to the books written in that time period and read various view points – don’t read a textbook, which is the biased perspective of someone else’s summary. Read the writings and get your own opinions. The Ambleside site on the other hand does list history writings that are overviews and completely and utterly biased and (as I mention at the bottom of this) utterly off the mark in at least one area. I looked up their chapter on “Mormons” in US history and it was so ridiculous and speculative that it discredited the rest of the book to me. So we’ll be looking for writings that are more source and less opinion/overview.
– Literature. CM advises NO grammar until the kids are 10. I think that’s too late, I’m more comfortable with six or seven to at least gently introduce grammar (First Language Lessons.) I think our kids need it because Christopher is asking me about the difference between nouns and pronouns and verbs and he’s happy to learn now. But CM advises reading, reading, reading all the time and letting them learn from the literature, pick up the grammar in context. I like that idea, but I like the grammar instruction, too. We’re using a lot of their free texts, like Parables of Nature and the Shakespeare stories and Oxford Children’s Book of Verse. And I’m really impressed by how the kids are engrossed in texts which I thought were too advanced.

Which is another big CM point. Don’t dumb things down for kids. Expose them to beautiful music and literature and they will understand far more than we imagine possible. She really stresses narration in the early years – read something to the kids and ask them to tell you what they heard. The point isn’t to get it verbatim but for them to summarize their views, what they got from it, and it’s been fascinating to do that with Christopher and Moira! CM says it’s in the teaching that we most learn so by having the kids narrate for you, it’s cementing it in their mind. Even Moira is enjoying narrating and I love hearing the different aspects they picked up on. Then as they get older we’ll have them start writing down their narration (how crucial is that skill in life? Reading, then distilling key points??) We’ve been using “First Language Lessons” which is classical but does include narration, dictation, copywork, memorization, etc. We’ll keep using that. We also will do copy work for the handwriting, like copying down scriptures or poems. Helps them with memorization and the handwriting but it’s not just copying letters that way. In addition to sight word spelling lists we’re having Christopher write down any new word in his “ABC book” – page per letter and it’s not a dictionary (no definitions) but he can figure out the first word and look it up if he forgets the spelling. He’s doing that with his spelling lists – he struggles with “twenty” but he can flip to ‘T’ and check it.

Math will remain the same, and phonics. Ambleside has no curriculum for those.

So really this means I found great resources on-line, tons of free texts (public domain) and a couple new science books we’ll be buying, a beautiful outline for art & music, great literature ideas, and a schedule that is so loose (just says here are your readings for this week) that I’m in love. I can handle that! Just get this done in this week. Just read, read, read to your kids (but it tells me what to read and in what order to make sure we’re covering topics like history & science, which I would not have come up with these texts on my own) and our kids are LOVING it. I’m really, really excited. (Update two years later – I do like Ambleside as a resource but we are NOT following their schedule.)

But, disclaimer – I don’t mean this to be a rousing endorsement of the Ambleside site. There is a lot we like, but there are also some texts that we don’t like and one in particular they use has a section on Mormons that was so blatantly false that I read it aloud to Kit and we about fell off the couch laughing. So we are picking and choosing very carefully what we’ll be using. So far I really like them for literature, artists, composers and the nature study. But even that we’ll be using for a couple years then moving on to other areas because I think chemistry and physics are crucial, too.

Back to School Picnic

Posted on September 1, 2007 by heidi

Our co-op had a family gathering today so all the fathers could meet and we could kick off our new school year. Hopefully Katie will post pictures on her blog?? 🙂

There are nine families in this group, though we’ve lost a couple and gained a couple since it started in January. Two mothers started the group as a storytime & craft co-op for 4 to 7 year olds, rotating homes every week and meeting for two hours. But if you add in the younger siblings I think we have 22 kids? Sounds like a lot but not everyone can attend every week so it’s manageable.

When I heard about the group I was so excited because I really, really wanted to build a network of homeschool friends for Christopher and Moira (and to meet other moms for my sake!) I wasn’t sure if it would be the right fit, wasn’t sure how the group would mesh, wasn’t sure if this was exactly what we were looking for but I wanted to give it a try.

It was an answer to our prayers. As I learn more about other co-ops I’m discovering how very unusual our group is. We come from different backgrounds, different religions, different family styles & family sizes, we come to homeschooling for so many different reasons, but we have created a family. This is a group that prays together, shops together, laughs together, learns together, teases each other, the kids fight and make up, we now have a bible study group, we have mother’s time out each month. After today the fathers are already discussing setting up field trips and play dates when they can come – you could see their excitement and animation as they talked and bonded and made plans and became friends today. We have holiday parties planned, we have birthday celebrations, we have playdates in between craft days, we share curriculums and hand me down shoes and tell each other where the best deals are. This is a group that watches over each other’s kids – today I felt so safe having four kids at the playground because I KNEW we were all watching out for each other’s kids. A two year old got too close to the road and another mom called her name and snatched her up, someone snuggled Emy while I chased Bennett, the dads saw a slide was hot and blocked it off to protect the kids, one dad helped the kids fly a kite and another played soccer and another played troll under the bridge…

This was the first time the families had all been together and I was blown away. I have truly never seen such a community of support and love and sharing. A stranger walking by would not be able to match up which kid belonged to which parent, because they were all being cared for and watched over by the parents, sharing lunches & being pulled around in the wagon and held up to the drinking fountain and picked up and brushed off when they took a tumble.

There is such a sense of respect and connection. We are all very different, we have miscommunications and we don’t all agree on things. Like any family. But this really has become our homeschool family and I am so, so grateful for this group. I’m praying that we will remain strong (and all live in the same area!) for years and years to come.

Here are the kids with the “troll under the bridge” –

And our family –

Plastic Dough

Posted on August 29, 2007 by heidi

This is why craft co-ops are so cool – someone else is willing to do a very messy but very fun project with your kids in THEIR kitchen. 🙂

Moira & Xili sitting on the chest freezer mixing the dough together:

Christopher & Moira kneading the dough:

Mommy & Emy eating cake:

The dough dries and can be made into beads or sculptures, it has glue so it’s a different consistency that most playdoughs. The kids loved it.

Katie, thank you for the pictures!

Homeschoolers

Posted on August 23, 2007 by heidi

I met a group of women today and discovered as we talked, sitting around nursing our babies, carrying them in our slings, laughing about co-sleeping and mattresses on the floor of our rooms for our little ones, discussing the best places to buy bulk organic food for our growing families, sharing names of midwives and birth centers and discussing birth center vs. homebirth, that we all homeschool. Can I tell you how that made me smile? All so different in our backgrounds, education, former careers, spouses’ careers, neighborhoods, incomes… but all on the same page with some of these major lifestyle choices. It does my heart good to meet these families that are all quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) doing our part to influence society through these amazing kids. And not just homeschooling families, though that seemed to be a common thread in this group – but any set of parents that realize how they raise their kids will very much influence the world we live in down the road. So they take that responsibility very seriously, in whatever choices they make – and they are thoughtful and prayerful about those decisions. It truly gives me hope for the future to meet such passionate families.

Science Saturday

Posted on July 28, 2007 by kit

Winging this Science Saturday was still enjoyable. First Law of Motion. I was able to state my goal for these get-togethers beyond elaborate play dates. “Concepts in Context.” I’m not sure how the other kids learn, but I know for my kids, they get the ideas much more quickly when they can connect them to things they have to do with their bodies.

To discuss the principles of inertia, I first invited a child to sit in a laundry basket. Most were very skeptical, but Mo knows a basket ride when she sees one, so she happily volunteered. We talked about how we were going to get Mo moving. C said, “use some force!” I had given him a bit of a preview, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t discuss the idea of force at all, so I don’t know where he picked that one up. Anyway, I applied some force to the basket and started swinging Mo all around. The kids all lit up at the display, and the parents sitting on the couch close at hand were laughing at the kids’ delight. There were no shortage of volunteers for basket rides after that. Even the little siblings under the recommended age were good to have a go in the basket. Bennett received his first basket ride today, by the way.

From basket rides, we moved to a little game of four-on-one catch. I tossed beanbags to the older kids, and they tossed them back. All at the same time. While we were tossing back and forth, I tried to reinforce the ideas of objects at rest and in motion working the act of throwing and catching specifically as the forces at work getting the beanbags to start and stop.

This took us to the kitchen table where we made domino chains. Everybody had a grand old time, but this was just another way to show the kids the conversion from rest to motion and back again.

The grand finale wasn’t as yummy as ice cream, but it was still highly entertaining.

I took the kids to the back yard and showed them a bucket full of water. I poured a little water out to show them what happens when you move the water and let it flow out with the help of gravity. “What happens when I tip the bucket?” “Water comes out!” So, with that firmly established in their heads, I asked them what would happen if I was able to move the bucket and keep the water still inside of it. What would happen if I turned the bucket upside down? Challenging them to think like scientists, I asked them what they thought the outcome of my little experiment would be. Six out of six kids agreed that if I turned the bucket upside down over my head, I would get wet. So I stepped a few feet away and spun the bucket around in a great circle over my head (perpendicular to the earth, by the way, not parallel). The kids were all shocked that I had, in fact, moved the bucket but kept the water completely still. Some mouths dropped open. Everyone was silent, watching. When I was done, Christopher believed I hadn’t done it right. I should have gotten all wet. So I did it again, and I remained dry. All were convinced and suitably impressed.

So, yeah. Concepts in context. I think the kids had fun.

Homeschool Support Groups

Posted on February 26, 2007 by heidi

We’ve known for years we were going to homeschool but I hadn’t searched too much about resources in our area until now. I am AMAZED! I was hoping to find two things – some sort of parent support group for sharing ideas, and a social group for the kids to get together and play with peers during the day. A friend invited me to attend a homeschool group at her church that meets once a month and presents talks, panels, Q&A for the parents and they have kids from newborn through college – it’s a great resource. They have an on-line group for people to ask questions and I’m learning a lot there.

While signing up with that group, I came across another homeschool group that is for DFW and has smaller groups for our little area. I signed up for both and wow – I’m stunned at the many, many field trips, playgroups, book clubs, moms’ night out, special interest groups, on and on. This week we’re joining them for the Homeschoolers’ Day at the Fort Worth Zoo. There are museum trips and book fairs and play ground days and everything you can imagine.

Within the smaller group we joined a craft & storytime group for kids 3 to 7 years old and there are 7 families involved, all in our area. Some just a couple miles away! We meet once a week at different homes for a craft, storytime & snack. I hosted today but at another person’s home (we aren’t having Bennett around other kids yet) and it’s been a blast for our kids to see the same friends every week. I love the chance to talk with other moms and learn from their experience and hear tips about fairs and sales and discounts and all kinds of things.

It’s been good for me to get out of my comfort zone and reach out to our community and make these new friends. I’m learning so much from them and I love it. So I’ve found not just one group but literally hundreds of parents also homeschooling that are happy to share their knowledge and tips.

As for the kids’ social group, our problem has become that there are too many! We’re having to pick and choose which we’ll commit to so the kids can build relationships and be with peers but not make our week too hectic. There are literally activities every day, Monday through Friday. And not activities 30 minutes away, but stuff right here in our community. It was overwhelming at first and we weren’t getting our lessons done at home because we were out so much with friends!

We’re finding our balance now and deciding how much our schedule can bear. I am very, very grateful to find these groups and these new friends. It’s recharged my excitement and passion about homeschooling and I’m learning new things every day.

ThadenPierce School

Category Archives: Co-ops