The Co-op and The Cottage School

We have been part of our co-op for about three years, and I think that it is coming to an end. We originally joined so that my kids and I could have some homeschooled friends. I have met some great ladies and have even begun to accept that a few are indeed going to be good friends. CC has met her bff who has since moved away. I have learned quite a bit about teaching by trying out different things with the kids in co-op.

I think that what we are getting out of it is far less that the energy and time that I am putting into it. I feel like I put so much energy into the co-op classes that I short change my own kids. I have started to dread co-op days, and I don't even want to read my kids a bedtime story after co-op because I just run out of energy for kids.


CC attends a wonderful cottage school one day a week. There is literature-based unit studies, project-based science, exceptional art instruction, foreign language, music, pe, and field trips.

This week, I probably had the final comparison that I needed. We had a girl scout party that included most of her friends from co-op, and it was a normal day at school which included a field trip to a local art museum. After the party, during our debriefing, she complained that she really only has one friend there and that one of the girls is annoying and how she liked everything about co-op better before her bff moved and so on. After school, she talked about how beautiful the artwork was and how she wished I had gone on the field trip so that I could have done the project with them and how she and two of her friends chatted the whole way there and back and then gave a big contented sigh. She loves her school day.

I think that when January comes, I will start volunteering in the classroom so that I can share some of this with CC. I also think that we will be dropping co-op. I just need to make sure we make play dates with our friends that we hope to keep from there.

Human Body Lesson Plan

My Human Body Lesson Plan is now a shared document. I am working on how it looks so let me know if you have problems with it. This is an outline with the activities and information coordinated. It also has some of the key information that I want the kids to know. To use this plan, each week I will review the material in the readings and gather the supplies for the activities.

I added a Lesson Plans link to the side and added my lesson plans for the unit we did on animals. I didn't find a book that I liked so I made notes in the lesson plan of information for each topic to share. I also added a link to the poetry we are using for first grade.

Weekly Report - Week 12

Zoo, Halloween at the Zoo, Zoo, Party, Holiday, Bowling, Park, Park - that was our week. I think I needed a break from schooling. I am not sure what was wrong. Everything was going smoothly, but I just wasn't inspired. This week, I purposely planned to do no actual school work.

We went to the zoo three times. The girls got to see somethings they haven't seen before - we saw mountain lions being station trained, vultures being herded into their nighttime cages, red river hogs line up to go in through their gate, a baby giraffe nursing, twin newborn marmosets riding on their mother's back, heard a large male African lion roar, and heard a tapir make a cute little noise - we had never heard a tapir before. We had some wonderful experiences.

At co-op we learned about Minoan bull jumpers, Minotaurs and the eruption of Thera. We read Storm in the Night, painted with acrylics, and talked about dialogue in stories, onomatopoeia, and fear. We also had a Halloween party. The kids were very excited to get to dress up and one of the moms painted the all of the kids' faces.

We topped the week off by going bowling then going to the park two days in a row. LB bowled with her brother's help and CC was very cute. I think they both out-bowled me. The parks were very nice and the fresh air was great for us all. Yesterday was about ten degrees warmer than today although I think that I minded more than the girls did.

Somewhere during the week, CC decided that she wants to write in her journal everyday. Last night she wrote about ten sentences describing her day. She said that her hand was tired, but if she keeps practicing it will get easier to write long stories. She is getting wise.

Last night, I found out that my brilliant plan to have BB read Beowulf at the same time as his ps friend worked out better than I could have hoped. He helped his friend write an eight page paper for his Lit. class about Beowulf. Now, if I can just figure out what his friend is reading next....

Park Day, Park Day, Wonderful Park Day

I love park days. The kids play with other kids. I get to talk to grown ups. What is not to love about park day?

This week our park had a lake complete with ducks and geese. We spent 5 hours at the park and none of us were ready to leave when it was time to go home. The girls made canals, dams and rivers. I got to talk to other homeschool moms and a couple of the dads. It was great. I love park day. Why can't every day be a park day?

We got up early, had breakfast, did math and reading, then packed lunches and loaded the car. On the way to the park, we watched a French singing video. Both of the girls really enjoyed it. They are already repeating some of the lines. We checked it out from the library, but we might have to buy this one.

Five in a Row Co-Op

Our co-op is starting in less than a month. I was planning to co-teach a Five in a Row class with a friend. But, she has decided to not do co-op this term. I am sad. I will miss her company.

Now I have to decide if I want to do the class alone or just drop it. I am leaning towards dropping it. We had planned to start with How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World. We were going to include a trip to the local apple orchard and of course apple pie. The last class would have been Cranberry Thanksgiving, since our co-op ends the week before Thanksgiving.

I think I will peruse the FIAR book this weekend and look at the activities again. Maybe I will brave it alone. I really do like the book choices and the activities. I also think its a great way to do literary analysis for the younger kids. It really gets them involved in and thinking about the stories.