Fun and Learning at Co-Op

I know that last year I told you about the Co-Op that we are lucky enough to be a part of but I thought I would share some photos of what the kids are doing this year. If you do not already know, a co-op is a cooperative group of parents working together to teach their children. Our co-op has approximately 30 families and is only about 7 minutes from our house. We meet every other Tuesday and my kids just love it. It was a draw to me as a new home schooler who was terrified that I was going to be harming my children if they were not "socialized" (know I know how crazy a worry that was!) It was also a draw to get to know other moms who are doing what I do. The kids LOVE co-op. They get to take classes that I would not otherwise do with them (like Gym). Here are the classes that my girls are taking this semester:


Sissy (5th grade)


Life Skills (pet care, first aid, cooking, etc)


Gym


Kinex Levers and Gears


0-Einstein (science experiments)

Peanut (2nd grade)

Recorder (learning to play the recorder)

Gym

Great Artists (art history/creating art)

Kinex Levers and Gears

Sweet Baby

Kinder Art

Gym

Circle Time

Lapbooking

I have a few pictures from some of Peanut and Sweet Baby's classes that I thought I would share.

Here is the Kinder Art class working on a project they started a few weeks ago using primary paint colors.

Sweet Baby showing off the "bugs" she created with her paint blotches. The kids had 5x5 pieces of white paper that they chose 2 primary colors to put blobs on each side. Then they folded the paper and let the paint smear. They then cut the "bugs" out and decorated them.

This week they talked about neutral colors and were supposed to use neutral colored paint to paint an animal. I had to laugh as I looked over and saw Sweet Baby plugging her nose. She said that the paint stunk. Now, for the record, we have used paint at our house before! She has smelled paint before this day...trust me!



Here is Peanut in her Kinex class. This has been a class that all the kids have really enjoyed. They are using Kinex to learn about levers and gears. On this day they built a balance.

When they had finished the balance, they were shown what happens when you move the "buckets/tires" along the arm and change the weight on each. Previously they built an old fashioned egg beater to watch the gears move to make the beaters move, a ferris wheel (talking about axles) and a wishing well (to see how pulley's work).



If you are a home schooling parent and do not belong to a co-op in your area, I highly suggest you try to find one or better yet, start one yourself!