Our Journey Westward » Co-op

Competition Night

Cindy — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:37:02 +0000

Our annual competition expo at co-op is always so much fun. With three children entering projects now, we hit an all-time high for family entries – 21! Stressful, yes. Worth it, oh yes!

The photo collages are in no particular order and don’t show every single project we entered. Some projects were created by a 9th grader, some by a 6th grader and some by a PKer. (We only took part in the art, construction, sewing and cooking competitions. There were probably six other categories we could’ve entered. I’m tellin’ ya, this night is amazing!)

Co-op Class Ideas for Older Students

Cindy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:03:39 +0000

Many homeschool moms who teach co-op classes develop their own curriculum. Me, too, for the most part. However, I’ve found it a little more difficult to design a thorough, engaging curriculum for middle and high school students that doesn’t leave me studying and preparing for hours.

As a curriculum reviewer, a lot of great curriculum has come my way that doesn’t quite work within a homeschool environment, but has a very useful place in a classroom full of students. Much of it quite appropriate for older students. To keep a record for myself and hopefully help others, I’ve created a list of some of those really good co-op resources.

Of course, a lot of curriculum written directly for homeschoolers can work well in class situations, too, but I want to focus on some of the more unusual options in this post.

For Middle/High School

Don’t be fooled. Yes, Teaching Economics Using Children’s Literature utilizes some pretty elementary book selections (as well as several chapter books), but the lessons teach some super-serious economics concepts like goods and services, production resources, investment, cost opportunity and SO many more! Not to mention, many of the lesson ideas are very concrete and/or hands-on. I believe the curriculum was likely written for the upper elementary student, but I already have plans to propose using it with middle school students at my co-op next year. Couple this with the free Playdough Economics curriculum and you’ve got quite an in-depth study!

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My friends at Prufrock Press know how to develop engaging curriculum for older classrooms! Each of the studies below currently sit on my shelves just waiting to be presented to the co-op curriculum committee as they prepare for next year.

Ecopolis is an economics/government resource where each person in the class plays a part in a simulated town. Students get a chance to have jobs, make speeches, elect officials, pay taxes, compete in business and more. It’s very student-directed with the teacher playing the role of a facilitator rather than lecturer. Reproducible handouts, role cards, graphics and a posttest are ready to go for you.

Okay, I’m going to be the first to admit that this study goes a little beyond my understanding. However, I feel certain that I could follow the directions as written and likely teach this without having much prior knowledge about the subject (and maybe I need to push myself to do this.) Math in the Marketplace is a course for understanding investments, banking and the stock market. Again, the method is a simulation where your class takes on the roles of investors, bankers and stockbrokers and work together to try to make (pretend) money. Plenty of handouts, graphics and teacher talking points are included.

Order in the Court

allows you to teach the judicial system through participation! After learning about the ins and outs of each person’s role in the courtroom, all the students get to play a part in a mock trial based on the story of The Three Little Pigs. Role-playing cards, forms to write opening/closing statements and examinations/cross-examinations, rubrics to define the expectations of each role, and more are included to make the “proceedings” both easy for the teacher and clear for the students. Fun!

What’s Your Opinion? can be used as a speech, debate and/or persuasive writing course. Through various exercises, students learn how to build good arguments on debatable subjects. As with any course that is not overtly Christian in content, there may be some topics you choose to skip over or replace, but the process is very good. Each lesson builds on the next (using various activities and topics) so that, by the end, the student is able to create a thoroughly defended and convincing argument.

Mythology is a debatable topic among Christians. In our home, we have introduced our children to mythology for the simple fact that they need to know what other cultures have believed and where some of the current day religions have developed their beliefs. Teaching mythology has actually served to strengthen our Christian beliefs as we’ve discovered points at which ancient people went astray from the One True God. I consider the knowledge of mythology to be ancient apologetics of sorts.

In Mythology for Teens, each lesson begins with a little skit for your students to perform. Afterwards, discussions ensue about such things as story elements and themes, morality/immorality of the gods, and character traits. Ideas for activities include drawing, writing, comparing and contrasting, and researching. In some instances, students are asked to compare a myth to the Bible, and a good teacher will find opportunities around every corner to bring more Biblical discussions into the class.

Greek Mythology for Teens is also available.

Have you ever wanted to teach a course on Shakespeare, but haven’t a clue where to start? Julius Caesar is one of several Advanced Placement courses on Shakespeare that Prufrock Press has available. Through performances, debates, hands-on activities, writing, speeches, art and more, your students will dive deep into understanding (and maybe even enjoying) Shakespeare. Plenty of handouts and lengthier projects are provided for homework assignments, too, if you wish.

The other Shakespeare courses available include:

Hamlet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

King Lear

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

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The following book I actually used in my home because it works well in the homeschool environment. As we were going through it, I kept thinking, “What a great course to use with a co-op or Sunday school class!” So, my last suggestion for the day…

Learning About Islam is one of the most complete, “kid-friendly”, easy to read books about Islam as it pertains to Christianity that I’ve read. It’s a super-easy read, meaning you will want to purchase one per child in your class so they can have it as reference. For you, there is not a “curriculum” to follow, per say, although several ideas for activities are sprinkled throughout the book. You will likely have to be slightly creative if you want to do more than read and discuss during your class. However, there are so many concepts, definitions, Bible tie-ins, prayer points, and charts that you will have loads of “real” talking points and can easily create quizzes or tests from the material if you choose. In the end, your students will have a thorough understanding of the history of Islam, the culture of Muslims today, current missionary work, talking points when witnessing to Muslims and so much more.

I’d love to hear about treasured curriculum you’ve used with middle and high school co-op classes!

Co-op Logic and Critical Thinking Class

Cindy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:00:49 +0000

At co-op this year, I have the privilege of teaching two logic & critical thinking classes – one for high school and one for middle school. We’re having a great time together! I promised a little look inside that class, so here goes.

I’m doing similar things for both classes – expecting more depth, harder activities, a little homework and a few tests for the high school class. We’re:

completing logic matrix puzzles,
learning about logical fallacies,
playing critical thinking games, and
solving mysteries.

Both classes began with a Biblical understanding about why it’s so important for Christians to learn to think critically and how the Bible proves that fact to us. We discussed and memorized Bible verses based on this important article by Nathaniel Bluedorn.

Each week finds us doing something different and exciting. I’m using activities and ideas from various resource books, most of which are below. You’ll notice some of the books are meant for upper elementary students. I’ve found these are a good place to start with my middle school class which consists of 5th-8th graders, most having never enjoyed logic & critical thinking before.

I’ve used this mini-unit from ABC Teach (with some additions) in my high school class, too.

At least once a month, I simply bring games that reinforce logic & critical thinking. The kids love learning new games and you can’t beat the super-fun method for learning!

Once I take more pictures, I’ll share another look-see into the class!

You might also be interested in reading my reviews of logic materials posted over at The Curriculum Choice.

Don’t forget, you can learn more about HOW to add living math (including logic) to your homeschool in Loving Living Math!

Expo Competition Night

Cindy — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:07:29 +0000

School has been out since the end of April, meaning all the school-related posts that I’ll be publishing soon are way overdue. Oh well, better late than never. Our summer vacation has been nothing short of a whirlwind so far, but I wouldn’t trade the busyness with my sweet family for anything! I’ll try to post some summer fun posts once in awhile, too.

Some of you know that our co-op hosts a yearly competition expo. We love taking part and the photos below show my children’s entries this year.

Mahayla

Chocolate Cream Pie

Honey Oatmeal Yeast Bread

Acrylic Painting

Knitted Doily

Caleb

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Acorn Forest Wood Project

Paper Craft

3-D Animal Cell

Eli

3-D Fish

Hot Rocks Painting

And my sweet parents who helped organize the art competition.

Another Field Day

Cindy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:16:12 +0000

At co-op, we have a “serious” field day with class competitions and ribbons and awards. A group of friends in our hometown also gets together for a more “casual” field day. Each of the moms prepares a simple game or two – many involving water and relays – and we just have fun together. No awards or ribbons necessary.

This year, we brought potluck food for lunch and our wonderful hostess opened up her pool after the festivities. My children always look forward to this fun day, but the pool made it extra-special!

Little ones enjoyed their own pool while the big kids played games.

Field Day

Cindy — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:12:29 +0000

Field Day at our co-op is always such a fun day! In their class rotations, the kids go around to seven different activities.

Tug-of-war
Long Jump
Softball Throw
50 Yard Dash
Three-legged Race
Sack Race
Obstacle Course

The moms sign up to either work a station or escort classes from station to station. Those who escort also keep records of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place so ribbons can be given out at the end of the day. Everyone gets a participation ribbon so they don’t feel left out if they don’t place in any of the events. The escort also gets to decide who receives special awards at the end of the day for things like Most Enthusiastic, Most Encouraging, Most Christ-like Attitude and a few others.

We have a little awards ceremony and snack celebration to finish the day. It’s a long co-op day, but very much worth it!

Co-op Talent Expo

Cindy — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:22:07 +0000

This past weekend was time once again for our co-op’s talent expo. It’s such a fun time of sharing talents and competing for ribbons in the areas of art, music, drama, spelling, Bible memorization, cooking, woodworking, science fair and/or sewing.

This year’s projects for Caleb included two art projects, a *huge* birdhouse and a derby pie. The pictures of the art projects didn’t turn out, but you can see the other two below.

Two of Mahayla’s art project pictures also didn’t turn out, but her photography entry did. You can also see her knitting entry and hummingbird cake.

We’ll find out in a couple of weeks how/if they placed at a little awards ceremony. This is always one of our favorite co-op events!

Night at the Museum Party

Cindy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:39:31 +0000

The smaller of the two homeschool groups I’m a part of met this week for a Night at the Museum party. What fun it was!

Each child was supposed to choose either an historical character from the movie or a character based on one of the time periods covered in the movie. They were asked to dress like their character and bring some sort of food representing their era. There was a place to display projects they completed about their character/time period and we gave them each a few minutes to share what they’d learned.

After lunch from the food brought and sharing of projects, all the kids nestled in to watch the movie. What a great time!

Do you have any other ideas for academic themed parties like this?

Expo Comptetions

Cindy — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:19:00 +0000

I know, you’re tired of hearing how wonderful our co-op is! But seriously, it is. Friday night was our annual competition night. The children choose from all sorts of competitions to enter – music, art, cooking, Bible memorization, science fair, construction, knitting/crochet/sewing, spelling bee – and maybe even more.

Here are a few pictures from the night. Mahayla entered knitting, science fair, cooking – pies, and art – painting, crafts and printing. Caleb entered wood construction, cooking – cakes, and art – printing and crafts. We’ll have a fun ceremony in a couple of weeks where the kids will find out if they placed. Pretty ribbons and certificates are given to all winners and participants. They make for a nice addition to a yearly portfolio.

CM Scheduling

Cindy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:10:00 +0000

How do you schedule a Charlotte Mason-style day?

Short answer: Any way you want! LOL

Longer answer: If we’re talking a true CM day, it will be characterized by the following:

short bookwork lessons (10-30 minutes depending on the age of the child and the subject)

daily lessons in Bible, copywork, math, language arts, foreign language

weekly or more lessons in science, history

bookwork finished in the morning hours

afternoons spent outdoors with free play or nature study, handicrafts, reading, etc.

time scheduled throughout the week for nature study, artist/composer study

I’m not a CM “purist”, but our day usually goes something like this:

Chores – aka Life Skills

Bible

Bookwork – which isn’t necessarily workbooks. This includes everything from math to language to unit study.

Lunch

Family Reading – sometimes quiet time reading

Art/Nature/Handicrafts – sometimes guided, sometimes free

FREE Time

Here are some sample schedules from Simply Charlotte Mason.

I realize this post is fairly vague. Since I don’t do CM education to a “T”, I don’t want to mislead anyone. Also, my opinion as you’ve heard my say 1,000 times, is that your homeschool should be your homeschool. Incorporate what you want to incorporate in a way that really works for your family. A Charlotte Mason-style education is a wonderful path to take with your children, though, I can’t deny that!

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