A Co-op of My Own

Today was the first day of my new AAHE Cooperative, a co-op venture I started with my friends Kelly and Lavender to help meet our needs for our homeschooled children.  The location is less than 10 minutes from my home and it is small, with a less intense teaching schedule for the twelve families involved to help lessen the load that we all are under.  Yesterday I did a combined class with the sixteen children, ages 5 to 9, on the United States of America. We started with a video that talked about our country's patriotic songs and then played the songs for the kids.  They were quiet and focused, always good.  To officially begin the class, we did a KWL chart about the US and what they knew was impressive.  What they wanted to know seemed to center around the wars our country fought, which I thought was a little odd, but hey, I asked!  We then made a list of all 50 states and I got some cute answers, but all in all, they knew what they were talking about.  We talked about the symbols such as the bald eagle and Mt. Rushmore and then we talked in depth about the American flag.  We said the pledge together, talked about the original 13 colonies and the flag at that time, colored a page that showed them the difference in the flags then and now and wrapped that up with a tagboard/construction paper model of each one.  As a treat for their hard work, we played United States bingo and each child had a chance to "win" and received a patriotic pencil for their efforts.  The parents were great, helping when needed, and by the time I had cleaned up my teaching area the church hall was back to the way it was when we arrived and we all hurried out, trying to get home to beat the storms that were coming. 

I spent the afternoon relaxing and trying to soothe a very sore back, which has been giving me trouble for more than a week.  I ordered my older son's senior pictures, watched some Ghost Hunters and got a nice treat when my friend Leigh called to say she was coming by.  We chatted and ordered Chinese, which took over an hour to arrive due to the flooding conditions (5" of rain just today!) and then my guys came home from football and had pizza and we all relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of our evening.