Homeschool Co-op Day

Last week Megan and I went to our Homeschool Co-op. It is a once a month thing but I have only made it to 2 or 3 this year as I usually work on Thursday mornings. Megan has been able to go with my sister Keren who lives nears us and has kids old enough for co-op this year.

The activity of the day was making fun foods. I was in charge of having the kids make fruit bouquets. They aren't quite professional quality yet but they were fun to do and the kids seem to enjoy eating them as well.

Some of the kids with Sara teaching made these cute little chicks.

Emily and a group of young ones made veggie insects.

Keren led this under the sea sort of dessert.

MollyBea helped some of them make little sweet sheep.

Tara made resurrection rolls with her group. This is a really fun idea. I guess the had a marshmallow that represented Jesus. They rolled it in spices and place it in some dough (the tomb) and placed it in the oven. When it baked the dough tomb popped open on its own. The Marshmallow was supposed to be completely gone but that didn't quite happen. Still it is pretty fun.

Katy led a group in making some cute decorated rice crispy bars. Altogether it was a fun morning.

Megan is always a good helped.

Eden was in our group and was a great flower fruit maker. Tavi came to join him and help out when his group had finished their project.

More helpers that came after they had already worked in their original group.

   This time of going to co-op was pretty bittersweet. It was probably my last time. Oh, I probably will visit again sometime but after 11 years of leading the group and this year of being somewhat involved I am moving on. Aaron graduates this year and Megan will be a Junior in highschool next year and will probably be doing early college (PSEO for Minnesotans) next year and is ready to be done with co-op now anyway and I am working. It is time to move on. But I will admit I have shed some tears. 

   In our homeschool co-op I have had the opportunity to learn a lot, to work with, encourage and be encouraged by some pretty wonderful people. Some great friendships have been formed and I have been very blessed. Thankfully I don't have to be in co-op to be friends and I have other opportunities to teach children. 

  Thinking about homeschool co-op prompted me to look through old pictures. Here are some that brought back some good memories of homeschool co-op...

Aaron as Lief Erickson (Or was it Eric the Red???)

Jonathan as Abraham Lincoln

Megan as Laura Ingalls.

Another year... Mara was a suffragete, Jonathan was Wilbur or Orville Wright and Megan was a nurse in WW1.

Learning about the Scandinavian roots of many Minnesotans was super fun one year.

We quilted together!

We put on a big drama. So many fun things!!!

I wanted to share a bunch more pictures but realized that I have blogged about a lot of the events in the past so if you would like to see more about our homeschool co-op years you can look through this group of posts.

I would love to hear if you have been involved in homeschool co-op and your thoughts on it.

   

 

Being Part of a Drama Production

This past week our lives have been kind of taken over by a play that the kids were a part of at our homeschool co-op.  The production was last night. It went very well and we are so thankful to God for helping us through it. The play kind of took over our homeschool co-op this year but that was okay as we had decided to have a theme this year of fine arts. There was much time spent in rehearsing and then we spent time working on props and decorations and costumes as well.


Mara as the Evil Queen Morinda
The play we did was called " The Tale of Two Kingdoms". It had a medieval setting and spoke of the battle between good and evil. 
 It was a great learning experience for our children. Mara loves drama and tried out for the part of the evil queen and she was able to get that part. She worked very hard at getting her lines memorized and really getting into her character. She also tried to encourage others in their roles. She also altered a dress that she had been loaned to make it work for the play, made herself a crown and sewed herself a cape. She also took it upon herself to write up character bios about each of the actors (she asked them for any ideas they had and then had fun adding to them) which we hung up for the audience to read along with pictures of them that she took at the dress rehearsals. She also made up a program and illustrated it (the pictures of the kingdoms). This play was a great way for Mara to use some of her creativity.






Jonathan requested the role of being the sound man and he took that job very seriously. He enjoyed working together with another young man from our co-op. My brother has been training him to run the sound at church and he really enjoyed doing it for the play as well. He put a lot of effort into making sure everybody could be heard and that everything went smoothly. I was pretty proud of him. He also was a great help in putting the backdrop together for the play.  

Aaron was the least interested in the play of our children but he did sing in the choir and was a knight in training and got to help with various prop work.

Megan had 4 small parts which she very much enjoyed. She sang in the choir, was a town crier, picked flowers and was a messenger. She had 3 outfit changes and though that was pretty fun.

This was a fun opportunity for our children to use some of the gifts that God has 
given to them. It was fun seeing our whole homeschool co-op work together to put on a fairly big production.

Here are some more photos from the play:


 The town criers


 The princes and the maid.


 Getting the castle tour.


 Aaron in his little time of sword fighting.


 The Princes having a meal brought to them by Ida the Matron.


 Greeting the people that came.


 Megan my cute town crier.


Some of the actors and actresses.

Feeling Frugal

 So here is another week where I failed to get a Frugal Friday post written. I thought I would get it done this week but the company that we had over for supper last night stayed until 9 pm (which was great fun!) and then I needed to get my seed order done which took longer than I thought and then I was falling asleep at the computer and I decided that I would have to skip it yet again. Oh well.

   But as I have been having fun thinking about the various ways we have been frugal in the time since I last wrote about it I thought I would share some of those things today anyway (when I finally had time to blog after taking care of Homeschool co-op business and letting my kids have their turn on the computer working on a skit for our homeschool co-op).

~ I have had some fun with chalkboard paint recently. The chalk board paint was leftover from my door project so that didn't cost anything and all the things I painted were things we had on hand. I made:

• 10 Slates for a general store at our homeschool co-op.
• Chalkboard vases using old olive oil bottles. I painted them and put twine around their neck. I used them for decoration at the Bridal show and also sold two to a bride for her wedding.
• I make chalkboards out of some wood slices which I used for decorations at the Bridal Show and will also sell some.
• I also fixed up my little lunch box which is my flower fixing kit by painting it with chalkboard paint.

 I have really been enjoying chalkboard paint.

~I cut the boys hair (I know I say this often, but truly I am excited about how much money we have saved through the years by doing home haircuts.)

~I have been using water instead of milk a lot in recipes as it often doesn't change it much and it is much cheaper.

~I have been using beef tallow that I processed instead of oil sometimes in recipes and for frying.

 ~I made curtains for our bathroom (a much needed addition!) using fabric that I already had on hand. I had thought I had already bought a suspension rod but I haven't been able to find it (I think I must have just looked at them -not actually bought one) but I didn't want to go out and buy one in case I did have it somewhere so I cut a piece of wood (a poplar tree that Jonathan had stripped the bark off of and dried) to size and then to make it fit firmly without scratching up the window frame I cut some styrafoam from an egg carton and hot glued those circles onto the ends. It works perfectly.

~Mara needed new jeans and I was able to find some nice ones at the thrift store for 50 cents each. Score! I also found her another pair of pants that will work well when we go back packing this summer for $1 and another pair of cords for free.

~While at the thrift store I was able to pick up a few neat books and a couple (of dirty but cleanable) vases in the free section.

~I needed vases for an event I was taking flowers to and I found what I need for 50 cents each. That is much cheaper than buying from the wholesaler and you can't tell that they were used.

~The girls and I went with a friend this morning to a neighboring town to a fabric outlet. I am helping my friend to make valances for her house. She got fabric for valances for 4 windows and some beautiful heavy upholstery fabric to recover a chair for just $35. I am planning on helping her recover the chair as well which will save her tons of money. She was quoted $700 to have it done. I think maybe I should go into that business! The girls and I found some deals too. We got some pretty fabric for curtains for Mara's bedroom windows, fabric for the windows in our master bedroom (I think I ended up with over 10 yards on that bolt so I have way more than I need), fabric for my office curtains and some other remnants that I just thought looked nice to have on hand. That came to under $25. All of the flat fold fabric that you see (and some of it is pieces that are over 2 yards long) came out of the free bin. We have all sorts of fun stuff to make bags, costumes, pillows and such with. It was a fun trip. We did splurge then by eating out because some of our party (everybody but me) was very hungry.

~I have been having fun making a bunch of jump ropes for our general store using old t-shirts which I cut in strips and then braid together.

~I also made some doggy toys for Kitchi from t-shirt scraps. He has really enjoyed them. I tried to get a picture of him actually playing with one but he was terribly wiggly so they turned out blurry. :-)

~I bartered a some music lessons to a family for them to take Aaron to his air rifle/air pistol practice each week. It saves me 45 minutes each week plus gas but it isn't that far out of the way for them as they are leaving my house anyway (I teach 4 kids in that family) and so it was a win for both of us.

~I ordered seeds from Fedco Seeds last night. They are the best place I know for having good seeds that don't cost an arm and a leg. We should be amply paid back for this cost in veggies a little later this year. Also I ordered seeds for quite a lot of flowering herbs that we want to use heavily in our landscaping around the house. This saves a lot of money over buying shrubs and such.

~I used Ebates for a recent Amazon purchase so that I can earn cash back.

~Friends gave us some hand-me-downs and in them we found some jeans for Jonathan (who just keeps on growing!) and Aaron and some "new" snowpants for me (mine were getting holey). There were also not so nice pants in there that we could use to cut into strips for our rug.

~I got free holey and stained jeans at the thrift store for my rug. We had used up all we had on hand for that.

How have you saved money recently? Isn't it amazing how well God provides?

Table of the Elements Homeschool Co-op Day

 This month at our homeschool co-op we had a fun day of learning about the Elements and the Periodic table that is used to organize them. I had first thought of having this day a couple of years ago when our co-op had a science theme. We didn't end up doing it then but I had found such fun ideas that I proposed doing it this year. And it worked out. And I found out later that we did it as close as we could have (according to our monthly schedule) to National Chemistry Week. We were on top of things without even realizing it. :-)

  I remember pretty much nothing of the periodic table from my childhood and I have managed through life okay without a robust knowledge of it. But I think science is pretty cool in how over and over again it points to God our marvelous Creator and Designer. The elements are just another part of what glorifies God in our universe. And though I have no desire to be a chemist and I kind of doubt any child in our co-op will become on either I think there is value in all of us learning more about the elements and realizing that God created them all. And who knows, maybe this fun day will cause chemistry to be more fun and interesting for one of these students some day and they will appreciate this background that we gave them.

   As with all our co-op days we try to have a team of people working to prepare for the day and the same was true for this one. Elaine and Tamara made the cookies and frosting, Lyndi and I did the overall planning, teaching and organizing. Others helped out with bringing frosting bags and organizing and helping the children.

Here is what we did: This was with our children ages 3-12. The highschoolers are doing other things this year.
-Lyndi began the day with prayer and a scripture. She shared this verse: Hebrews 11:3 

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

-Lyndi also did an introduction to the elements. After that we had a few reports by children and a couple of them talked about the elements as well.

- Colored the Table of the Elements. We printed out the one we found at Layers of Learning. They also have a lot of information on their site about how the table works. My kids and I had colored a bunch of sample tables so that the kids could look at them while they colored. While they were coloring Lyndi talked about the way the groups in the table are divided up and a talked a little bit about each group.

- Then the 8-12 year olds played games of battleship using the table. I got the idea of that from Teach Beside Me. Since they needed 2 colored tables They used theirs on the bottom side (and I made little laminated "ships" to place there) and the tables that my kids and I had colored ahead of time were on top.

 -Meanwhile the younger kids were frosting cookies. We were making a periodic table out of cookies. They frosted them in the right colors/amounts for doing that. Tamara had found a neat frosting recipe that could be put on with paintbrushes. That worked quite nicely.

 -Then we had the younger kids get in a circle on the floor and I let them all open a package that was labeled with an element and the item inside was made using that element. We were able to talk a little more about the elements and God's amazing design. They all seem to really enjoy this activity. I found this pictorial table of the elements super helpful for planning this activity and it is just a really cool resource in many ways for learning about the table of the elements.

 -Meanwhile the older kids where use frosting to write the element symbol on each one. Then they started to organize them. That was taking a long time however so we left that to the adults while we went on to another game.

 -I divided the kids up into two groups. We were able to do boys and girls with about 20 in each group. The boys group ended up being a little bigger so a couple of moms had to help the girls. I gave each person a paper with either an element on it or a number. Both groups had the same papers. Then I had made a power point that had some items with simple chemical formulas and I would put one up and say "go" and the first team to get the correct people (with the correct elements and numbers) in line on stage would win that round. I did thinks like water, salt, aluminum foil, glass, sugar, vinegar, etc and then I ended with the formula for a human body which was a trick one because they didn't have all the high numbers that they need or the elements to accomplish that one.

 This game was my own creation and I wasn't sure how it would go but it ended up working very well and seemed to be enjoyed. The boys started out winning but the girls got the hang of it and ended up winning this one. Lyndi had brought candy as a prize.

-Then with those same groups we had a scavenger hunt. We had either hidden, or just known that they were there, various "elements" (many of them weren't pure elements but we tried as best we could). I gave each group this list:

Element Scavenger Hunt

1.   This element is often found in something round and shiny. Your dad may have given it to your mom after asking her a very important question.

2.   This element can make things go up, up and away or it may make your voice sound squeaky.

3.   This element is heavy. It can also poison you if you are around it too much. It might help you catch a fish.

4.   This element may be used in the morning so that you can eat fried eggs. It is a heavy transition metal.

5.   The element Lithium can be found in something that you might use to give energy to a toy or an alarm clock.

6.   This element is shiny and pretty and can be used to make all sorts of fancy objects.

7.   This element is also shiny and pretty but it is more often used to make practical things for the kitchen or used for campfire cooking.  It is a light, poor metal.

8.   This element is an easy to bend metal. You might find it in the plumbing in your house if it is old or you might use a bendable form to make something with beads.

9.   This element is a brown liquid. It can be used to treat some medical issues.

10.                     This element adds good flavor to our food.

    This activity went well too, they got it done in about 15 minutes. They pretty much tied on this one and we let all the boys have a prize (candy).

  This cookies were all arranged now:

 We took a group photo and then they got to eat them.

It was a fun day and I hope the kids will always think that the elements and their table are interesting and fun.

Our Hanukkah Celebration- It started with a Dreidal

At homeschool co-op this month we had an "International Christmas Party". Well for the most part it was for celebrating Christmas but we also had a segment about Israel and Hanukkah. My friend Juanita and I were in charge of decorating. We worked at having decorations to go along with the 4 highlighted countries which were Sweden, Mexico, Japan and Israel.  I saw some cute Paper Driedal decorations on Pinterest and so my girls made some for me to use at co-op. After co-op they came home and I checked out when Hanukkah was and since it was going on right then we hung them up.

  This is kind off one of those if you give a mouse a cookie sort of stories. :-) The afternoon that I hung them up was the last night of Hanukkah.

   After I hung the Driedals up I figured I should hang of the Star of David that had been a a craft at co-op.

We already had Ken's parents coming over for supper (there was a football game that the guys wanted to watch) and I had chicken out thawing. I figured I should make some traditional Hanukkah food. So I put the chicken into roast following a Jewish family recipe that I found online. It turned out delicious after being rubbed with olive oil, rosemary, thyme and garlic. I also figured we had better make Potato Latkes which my Jewish friend had said were needed for Hanukkah.  We tried this recipe which was completely delicious! I have tried them with wheat flour once and rice flour once - both were great. Then I figured we had better have the traditional cooked apples too - so we did.

 Megan said that if we were going to have a Hanukkah celebration we must have a menorah. I said: "Great, why don't you figure one out?" So she did. Jars, candles and ribbons where pressed into service.

 Then she announced that if we were going to have a menorah we would need to say a blessing while we lighted the candles. Great! Since we didn't know exactly what sort of blessing was supposed to be said at this time she said we could quote Psalm 100 together.

 Since we were celebrating Hanukkah, Ken's mom, Sharyl had fun telling us about the miracle of Hanukkah (the traditional story).

  All in all we had a great time, it was a super simple, spur of the moment celebration but one that will be remembered. The food was delicious (Sharyl also brought a salad which was wonderful if not traditional) and we had a fun time celebrating together.

  We may or may not celebrate Hanukkah again but it was fun this time. I do hope to make potato latkes many more times but not just at this time of year. Do you celebrate Hanukkah or any other Jewish holidays? I would love to hear about your celebrations.