August is nigh! That’s code for “Time to start freaking out about homeschool curriculum choices and co-op classes!” I need some of Heather’s super advance planning skills, but I just can’t bring myself to think about the coming year before we’ve even finished the current one. I can’t believe it will be August tomorrow. Tomorrow! The super stores are stuffed with back to school goods and we haven’t even been to the lake yet.
Well. I’m at least planning things out before September, so that’s a plus. Here’s what we’re teaching this year at our homeschool co-op:
Discover Africa! I’m teaching this one with my 10 year old son who can, when read to from a random ordered list, locate all the countries on our world map in under 11 minutes. Holy geography-brain, batman!
After searching high and low, I couldn’t find any decent notebooking pages that would cover *all* of the African countries. Some only featured 7 or 11. What the what? So I’m making my own. I’ll offer the whole unit here when I get it finished.
Our students will embark on a journey with us, even receiving passports they get to keep. (The passport picture above was swiped from Satori Smiles; she links to the downloadable files to make your own, plus she has lots of great ideas for stickers, stamps, and dates. How fun is that?
Out of this World! There were 9 planets forever. We even know a cute song about them! Then they took away Pluto, but then they brought it back, along with 4 more dwarf planets. I’m going to teach 8 – 12 year olds the current (but ever changing) status of our home solar system. We’ll make pocket solar systems, notebook away, and launch rockets we build ourselves at the end of the semester. Woot! (And it looks like I’ll be making notebooking pages for this class too, I’ll offer them here if I do.)
Sparrow Girls Oh my, am I ever excited about this one. My little girl has been super jealous of all her brothers’ fun Cub Scout activities. She wants in on the excitement, too! With no Girl Scouts program nearby, and a mom who doesn’t want to jump through all the hoops to create one, I figured I’d just make one from scratch (I might be a little bit crazy). We’re basing it loosely on the Tiger Cubs program with a hefty dose of The Daring Book for Girls thrown in for good measure. Girls will get a sash and earn real patches and gem-snaps throughout the semester in several key areas: Health & Fitness, Handicraft, Kindness, Nature, Learning, Fun & Games, and Girl Power. Each achievement area has three sub-groups with lots of life skills activities like first aid, woodworking, manners, math, classic games, and bow & arrow shooting, just to name a few!
I’ll post more about it as I nail down all the details. It’s going to be so much fun!
What my kids are (tentatively) taking at the co-op
Obviously most of our learning is done at home, and we’re not hitting core subjects here, but the co-op is a great opportunity for our children to mingle with tons of other homeschooled kids, have a bit of a ‘classroom experience,’ and allows a little money making when we teach classes ourselves (at least enough to pay for all their other classes!) Here’s what I’m planning on signing them up for:
J. (10, turning 11)
To Be a Pioneer
(Teaching) Discover Africa!
Out of this World
Manners Matter
Beginner Improv
N. (8, turning 9 towards the end of the semester)
Eating Around the World
Discover Africa or Human Body (can’t decide)
Hullaballo (a fun classic games class)
Magic Tree House Adventure
Sons of Liberty
K. (6, turning 7)
Learning & Movement
Pioneer Too
AIM or Creative Corner
Core Kids Choir
Sparrow Girls
Are any of you involved in a homeschool cooperative? They tell me ours isn’t exactly a co-op since we charge for classes, but I don’t know what else to call it. Mom schools, maybe?
I would think if there are moms gathered together helping teach each other’s children different subject matter it is most certainly a co-operative. We put a charge on our classes, but it is only for the actual supplies. I’m sure there would be many mommas thrilled if they made over and above, but it would also alleviate several families who have a hard enough time footing the bill as it is.
I LOVE what you did for your art class last year and look forward to seeing what you create in the way of notebooking pages for “Discover Africa” and “Out of this World”. I will link them just as soon as you post them!
And yes, I’m ready for this new year, but SOOOOOO excited about our Southwest Convention & Family Conference this weekend! Speakers! Exhibit Hall! Encouragement!
Oh I don’t know that any of the classes are huge money makers because most of it goes to supplies and maybe paying for your own child’s classes if you’re lucky. Most of the moms do trades too, a class for a class or accept payment in food, fresh baked bread, lunches, house cleaning etc. so that it’s attainable for all.
Thank you! They’re coming along nicely!
Is that a homeschool conference? I keep meaning to go to the Utah one as it is HUGE but I can’t ever get my act together in time to plan it out (surprised? ha ha).
Then it sounds like you guys do the same thing we do. And yes, I’d call that a co-operative (especially if someone is bartering baked goods for classes … how much more cooperative can one get??)!
Oh Jessica, if you make it to even one of the homeschool conferences you will not miss another. The workshop speakers are such an encouragement at the beginning of the year and I don’t buy much in the Exhibit Hall, but I love perusing it!
That’s what I think! I mean, that’s the very definition of ‘co-operative’ right? I will now break into a Sesame cooperation song…
I went and looked it up (my mom used to go all the time, of course) it was in June, of course. Shoot. http://www.uhea.org/uhea-convention The curriculum fair is enormous, fills an entire, massive convention hall ballroom. I really need to go next year… it would be so nice to handle things in person rather than trying to sort out what would be a good fit online.
I LOVE your Sparrow Girls idea and I can’t wait to read more about it. Good luck getting ready for the upcoming school year! I don’t homeschool, but I really enjoy reading about your homeschooling adventures and curriculum choices. I’m looking forward to learning more about your plans for the year as they shape up.
We’re so excited! I think it’s just going to be an absolute blast. I’ll definitely post our little handbook and line up when I get everything organized and settled.
We are doing astronomy this year as well. I’d love to see or hear about your note booking ideas. We did a little note booking last year but I plan to really step it up this year!
We haven’t done much notebooking either… I mean, officially. We’ve kept a lot of notebooks in the Charlotte Mason way, but these have been really fun to design. They’re just taking forever since I’m such a perfectionist and have to design every last thing. I need five of me!
Our Homeschooling association’s rent went up so they will not be offering classes this fall/ winter. They are still looking for a venue.
Ours almost moved to my tiny town instead of the big town ‘next door,’ I would have loved that! But the drive isn’t too terrible. I hope yours finds a place soon!
I recognize some of those patches! A group of friends and I started a girls’ scout troupe called GEMS. Growing in Excellence Mastering Skills. We didn’t want to jump through all the hoops of something official, so we design it ourselves. We are each in charge of two things a year. It can be a skill or a field trip or a party. We meet twice a month, for eight months a year. Another nice thing is that we are all homeschoolers, so we can meet during the day. It has been wonderful. I think that one key is to find like minded families to do it with. We have 5 moms (8 girls) and they all do such a nice job when it is their turn. Good luck with it! My blog isn’t fancy like yours, but if you want to see some of our stuff, you can search GEMS at my blog ohio12.blogspot.com.
Oh I love it! Your sashes are exactly what I’m envisioning — love the floral print to make them more girly. I’ll have to see what I can find at the fabric store once I know how many girls are signing up.
Those patches are larger than I thought! Do you have other sources for patches? I’m kind of trying to build our achievement areas around what I can find patch-wise… though of course I have great plans for custom patches I design myself, but that’ll have to be later if I turn this into a regular thing.
So fun, love what you have done! And I’m laughing that you think my blog is fancy. I’ll have to put that in my tagline somewhere :o)
The patches may look big because the sashes were kind of small. We just retired the floral sashes (they were full, front and back) and we made the new ones wider and longer. (you can see the new blue ones on the Pentecost post verses the smaller ones full of patches at the roller skating event) Our main sources for patches are snappylogos.com and patchsales.com.
I think this co-op sounds incredible! I wish we had something like this here in Hawaii, but we don’t have enough people interested. Not even one family. ugh! I’m just browsing around looking for homeschooling inspirtaion. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your classes!
Thanks Sally! It’s a tough row to hoe (etc.) when you’re the lone reed. Hope you can find the inspiration you are looking for.
LOVE the Sparrow Girls idea! Please share more details, my daughter would love this!
I’m planning on it ;o)