Night at the Museum Party

Posted by Cindy on February 19, 2009

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?

A Bittersweet Ending

Posted by Cindy on May 12, 2008

Even my husband doesn’t give me flowers!  But the sweet and wonderful ladies of co-op gave me a send-off after our last mom’s room meeting that included not only these lovely flowers, but a shower of cards and gifts, too.  And this weekend at our Spring Program, Cathy gave me a lovely gift, but more importantly, lovely parting words.  Oh, how I’ve loved this group of ladies!  Oh, how I’ve loved the mom’s room ministry!  God couldn’t have placed a more perfect situation in front of me and because of that, I went to every meeting full of excitement and thankfulness.

Why did I step away from it you ask?  After all, I’ve known for years that God was preparing my heart for women’s ministry.  I’ve prayed for years that He would open wide the doors for me to use my talents.  I was given the opportunity to not only be in a unique sort of women’s ministry, but was able to teach about teaching (my passion) and encourage homeschoolers (another passion) at the same time.

Why?  Well, God and I haven’t gotten to the full answer to that question yet.  But, one thing I know for sure, He has never failed me yet and I don’t expect He will this time either.  If asking me to leave a ministry like the mom’s room means He has even more perfect work for me to do, then I will go forth gladly.  Gladly, but still with a heavy heart.  At least for now.  I love my friends from co-op as much as I love the job I had at co-op.  If nothing else, it’s simply hard to walk away from something that’s been a wonderful part of your life for five years.

But, I go knowing that the Lord’s work is more important than my wants.  I go knowing that friends can still be friends even if I don’t see them every week.  I go knowing that the doors won’t be locked if I need to go back.  I go knowing that the Lord will soon enough reveal to me the answer of “Why?”

To hopefully lighten up the tone of this post, here are some pictures from our Spring Program.  It’s a wonderful night of performances, pictures and food. 

Expo Comptetions

Posted by Cindy on April 19, 2008

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

Posted by Cindy on April 18, 2008

And finally, post #4 of 4 from our Question Box topic week at co-op.

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.

Here’s another sample from Deborah Taylor-Hough.

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!

The Mother’s Banquet

Posted by Cindy on March 19, 2008

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m part of a WONDERFUL co-op.  Our leader, Cathy, is celebrating her 10th anniversary since starting the group.

I’ve been incredibly blessed this year to help Cathy out by leading the Mom’s Room.  The best way I can describe the Mom’s Room is in a series of words and phrases: prayer, devotions, homeschool information, homeschool workshops, marriage support, parenting support, homemaking support, friendships, encouragement……

Every year, we’ve always held a banquet (similar to a mother/duaghter banquet you might have a church) to honor the mothers.  It was a hard act to follow to organize the banquet myself after so many years of being pampered and uplifted by Cathy!  But, I pray that everyone was blessed and encouraged by our day Monday.  I went home exhausted, but incredibly blessed, too.

Nancy Carter was our speaker for the day, and let me tell you, her message on grace was perfect!  She spoke about the importance of remembering God’s grace as we strive to be great moms, wives, and homeschoolers.  And reminded us to show the same grace to our families in good or not-so-good moments.

Two thoughts really stood out in my mind from her talk:

-DON’T compare yourself to others, whether it’s as a mom or a homeschooler or whatever.  If God had intended for your children to have different parents, He would have given them different parents.

-Treat your family with grace whether they “deserve” it or not.

Not only did Nancy, and her lovely friend Candace, drive nearly 3 1/2 hours to be with us – they came bearing gifts as well!    Nancy brought The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for each of the ladies and Candace’s husband donated a copy of his The Star Spangled State Book and Workbook for a door prize! 

I promised to share the lyrics to a song our 5/6th grade choir sang.  The author is Zac G. and the original words can be found here.

Song

“We Are the Homeschool Kids Who Can’t Do Anything” – sung to the tune of the Veggie Tales “Pirates” song.

Chorus

We are the homeschool kids who can’t do anything

We just stay at home and do our work

And if you ask us to do anything

We’ll just tell you we can’t do anything!

Well we can’t pass notes in math class

and we’ve never bought a school lunch

and we’ve never had our homework eaten by the family dog

and we’ve never had a hall pass

and we’ve never owned a locker

and we’ve never had detention after school

Chorus

Well we’ve never been suspended

and we’ve never missed the school bus

and we’ve never got a fat lip from the bully down the hall

and we’ve never seen the school nurse

and we’ve never slapped erasers

and we’ve never had detention after school

Chorus

Well we’ve never changed for P.E.

and we’ve never had a swirlie

and we’ve never had a teacher that we didn’t like at all

and we’ve never had supply lists

and we’ve never answered roll call

and we’ve never had detention after school

Chorus

But we’ve often taken field trips

and we go to school in pj’s

and we often do our work while sitting on our favorite couch

and we finish school by lunchtime

and we find our books on ebay

and we don’t have any homework after school

Chorus

Here are links to the poems that were read.

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

Mother

Raising Boys

Dear Lord, It’s Been a Hectic Day

It was a wonderful day!   I can’t end this without a big THANK YOU to Brooke & Mike and Nancy, Gerald & Kelsey!!