My Co op

Tuesday is co op day.  This is our first year for our homeschool group to have a co op.  Our group started when son was in first grade.

When we first started homeshool, I really wanted to connect with other homeschoolers but the only group I could find in our area at that time was a co op.  It just seemed too much for kindergarten.  I thought maybe later.  When first grade came the co op was teaching ancient history and I wanted to teach American history.  The whole reason we homeschool is teach our children the way we want to teach them.

I met another mom and we started getting together with two other families.  All their boys were older than mine.  They let him play but he was always the little kid tagging along.  He didn't like that.  He always wanted to hang with the older guys. (I'm so proud of him now when I see him including the younger guys in football and other things at co op.)  The other mom and my husband got the idea to start another group. We didn't want to compete with the existing co op but we wanted a group where homeschoolers who didn't want that commitment could get together.  Wonderful Idea!

We started out meeting at night with a speaker for the parents once a month and someone to watch the kids.  It went well at first but started to slack off at the end.  It seemed like I was the only one who could line up a speaker and organize things.  It became my group. The next year we decided it would be better to meet in the day at the park.  We did that for years and it worked wonderfully.  We made great friends and some fun activities.

About 4 years ago another mom had the idea to meet at a church and have some fun but educational classes once a month.  That worked well too.  But last year the older kids let us know that if they were going to do classes, they wanted serious classes.  You can't do serious classes once a month so we went to a weekly co op.  The high school students are taking Biology, Communications and doing some Junior Achievement programs.  We also have a Chemistry Club.  It's only half a day.  The kids love it and they are learning.

I teach the communications class for the high schoolers.  We have been looking at ways to write persuasive speeches.  Today they read speeches they wrote on Why Homeschool is the Best Way to Learn.  They all did so good and I was so proud.  I also divided them up into teams had had them write a commercial for a product.  Next week we will start story telling and after that we will do some informal debate.  They can't wait for that.  They all want a chance to get a good argument going!

Lesson Plans

Every week I sit down and make up our lesson plans for the week.  I look back over the past week to make sure everything is going well.  If it is, we move along.  If not, we stop and review.  I don't like to make lesson plans to far in advance because I hate changing them if something comes up.

I've tried several web sites for planning and keeping track of our school.  Homeschool Tracker worked well.  But it only works on PC and we are now Mac people.  All the others that I have tried are too labor intensive.  I want the system to work for me.  I don't want to work for the system.  So we went back to pen and paper.  I sit down at the dining room table and write out what their lessons are for each week.  We check them off as they are done and record any grades that need recording.  At the end of each year we start a new notebook.  Until someone can come up with a better way, that's how we are going to do it!

So Far It's Been a Wonderful Day

Between work and Jury Duty, I have not had a day at home all week until today.  It was nice to get up and not have to worry about rushing off some where.  The kids both have colds so we took it easy but we still managed to be productive.  School work was done, including a history test, biology test and a lesson on geometry proofs.  I haven't done a geometry proof in 30 years and our Saxon math book doesn't really explain how it all works.  But I did find a good web site that explained the thought process behind it.

I also did some much needed house work, cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms and swept really good.  The kids are supposed to sweep every day but they miss a lot.  Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide make a good cleaner for the bathtub.  Just mix the two to make a paste a spread on the tub.  Wait 10 minutes and scrub.  It's not harsh like store bought cleaners and works very well.