4/26/2022

We had another great year with our homeschool co-op. 

We meet on Wednesday mornings for 12 weeks in the fall and 12 weeks in the spring. 

We enjoyed an end-of-semester program to show parents and guests some of what the children were up to during this semester of co-op. 

My oldest son is in 8th grade and chose to take these classes: Engineering Challenge, Gym, Minecraft, and Stomp. Gym is always a favorite for him. This was his second semester of Minecraft. First semester, the students built a new scene from a historical time period each week (think Ancient Egyptian pyramid, Ancient Greek stadium, Viking ship, etc). Second semester, the theme was Bible-based and included things like the Garden of Eden, the parting of the Red Sea, houses built on sand and rock, a scene from Revelation's new heavens and new earth.

Stomp class was more of a musical challenge, involving drumming out rhythms with sticks, chairs, buckets, and bodies. This was fun to watch them perform at the program. 

Engineering Challenge was a good experience for my son, who has a tinkering mind. The challenge was to build a tennis ball launcher that would launch the ball 20 feet and land in a bucket, consistently. Bonus: use items you already have at home. My son rocked this challenge and his catapult won first place in the class, consistently getting 7 balls in to the bucket and 6 that hit the rim but didn't quite make it. We are proud of him! In this picture he is on the stage at the program along with his teacher and 2 classmates as they demosntrated their launchers in action.

My 8 year old daughter's class roster included: Rhythm and Sticks (a simpler version of Stomp), Drawing, American History, and Fruit of the Spirit. In this picture she's on stage with her Rhythm class as they perform a clapping/dancing song. 

My 6 year old son's classes this semester were: Frog & Toad, Dr Seuss, Gym, and Weather & Seasons. These classes do lots of reading and crafts, but they didn't perform anything at the program. 

Here he is with some of his K/1 classmates. 

And here's one of the crafts he made when talking about spring. Planted grass which grew on this funny face at home during the next week. 

And in Weather & Seasons, they got to meet some goats as they talked about spring babies.

My youngest son was in his last semester of Preschool. Here he was during the program with his classmates singing "Peace Like a River." Then he was given a graduation certificate and just like that, I have no more littles in the nursery or Preschool. 

He just loves Preschool.

The last day of co-op each semester is "dress crazy day." Here are my youngest three looking their silliest!

I helped with leadership this semester, so my schedule was flexible to just help fill in and meet needs as they arose.

 At the program, we honored our friends who are stepping down from leadership positions after this semester. Next semester will be different as I lead along with a new friend stepping into the co-director role alongside me.

We took one huge all-families group shot this semester (which we haven't done in the last 10 years). This is about 50 moms and about 150 children. Blessed by this co-op in so many ways!