homeschool coop

People will ask me how we homeschool and I always have to stop and think about what I want to say before answering.  The only constant about the How is that it is always changing. I don't mean in a chaotic crazy sort of way (usually), but the tweaking, adjusting, evaluating - that happens on a regular basis.  For instance, we've belonged to three homeschool learning cooperatives (you can read about some of our experiences here) in our past. Some seasons it is what is floating us, providing an anchor to our weeks and a support system for the bigger picture.  Other seasons we find we do better going it alone, having more time to fill with our own family's flow...I also, to be honest, tend to over-commit, which eventually leads to a bit of burn-out and a need for a break.  I'm getting better at not saying yes to everything, but it seems to be in my nature.

Right now we are attending a coop once a week and it is going all right.  Actually, I really enjoy the days; it's the meetings that I have a hard time with. The kids are great!! This quarter I've started out the day with Anatomy, which Ani is in, while Eliza has Archery.

Jen taught the class and I helped come up with ideas  - mostly it was about bones! And tendons and muscles and joints...Highlights were the bone and muscle hokey-pokey and Simon Says, and Ani definitely learned the major bones.

Second hour, I helped with a micribiology class that used Microbe Hunters as its textbook.  It was taught by a grandparent who also happens to be a retired microbiology professor from Iowa State University! As it was a lecture class, I have no photos to share. Just lots of good stories about obsessed, curious people whose imaginations led them to consider for a second an invisible world and once the idea was planted, they couldn't let it go until they had proof. Hallelujah, curiosity.

Third hour I taught a Biographies class for the 6-9 crowd, of whom we have many.  I loved it. In the photos above, Ani is my guinea pig for an activity about chimpanzees and tools. Can you guess who we were studying that day?  Yes, Jane Goodall.  I imagine she was the hero for every young girl growing up in the 1970's, and I found a few charming books to share with the class, my favorite being The Watcher.  

The list of historical figures we studied was fairly diverse - Georgia O'Keefe, Jane Goodall, James Audubon, Roger Tory Peterson, Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Julia Morgan, Ester Morris, Maria Merian - but my favorites were the ones that illuminated a passion for observing the natural world. The Boy Who Drew Birds was so engaging that we spent most of our time on the book and discussion.  Our drawings had to spill over into the next week's class, they were enjoying the work so much.

Audubon used the feathery terminal bud at the end of the pawpaw branch as a paint brush for the smaller details in his paintings, so some of the kids had a go at that.

What is most interesting to me is what the kids bring to class.  One boy is obsessed with trains, and is quite adept at working trains into every conversation (for example, while reading about Walt Whitman, he raised his hand to comment on how interesting the book was, and did I possibly know whether or not Mr. Whitman ever rode on a train, and if so, if it possibly was a steam train?).  Another asked me early on if we might read about Walt Whitman.  The next week he asked if he could do a presentation on Walt Whitman as a part of class. Um, heck yeah!! So Mr. Whitman, pictured below, joined us for a class, sharing information about his life, and reading aloud one of his poems. 

Interestingly, Eliza has cooled on the weekly coop, and Ani seems to be more engaged and fired-up by her classes (anatomy, astronomy and baking).  It has everything to do with the dynamic of the group and the teachers for the particular quarter.  It is not perfect for us, but I feel like the pros outweigh the cons for now and it gets us out of our bubble for a day. 

(Ok, so the truth is that this is a super bland post because I have several beefs about the way this coop operates and the personalities involved, but I am putting my best foot forward - well, almost! - and not entertaining my whine tonight. You just get the picture, not the dirt this time.  Look at the pretty birdies! Look! Over there!)

This post is a part of my attempt to write a post every day in November. So far so good.

big heads, flowers trees and masks

One of the best things about gathering for a learning coop is meeting new and interesting people, and this spring we were fortunate to meet homeschooling dad and local artist Matt Wedel who - gasp - makes his living as a sculptor! He generously invited our group to his home and studio for a field trip a few weeks ago.  After greeting us with a wonderful talk about how he is lucky enough to get paid to do something he really loves to do (it was as much a pep talk for the grown-ups as the kids), he took us through his barn-sized studio.

Large heads awaiting painted faces

Matt works BIG. Big heads, big bodies, big "flower trees".  His studio and kilns are built to accomodate size.  Wet clay is so heavy that only a couple of inches can be added at one time, so he has several pieces in the works at any one time. 

The kids loved being in the studio; they were so careful around the fragile, unfired pieces.  Me, I would have been a wreck with 20-some young kids and their parents wandering through my works of art, but Matt embraced their enthusiasm and didn't seem to worry at all.

Gold glaze is expensive and a bit risky,
as it will disappear if left in the kiln too long

The glaze room looked like an apothocary or a wizard's potion room with its bins of minerals and compounds.

After seeing where the clay is mixed and where the sculptures are built, we saw the huge kilns that are used to fire the large sculptures.  

glaze cones for the kiln indicate the temperature

When the tour was finished, Matt gave each kid a flat round of clay and a simple form to use to make a mask.  

We pinched, rolled, and learned to reshape the rounds...

At some point in the summer they'll be fired in the kilns and returned to us, transformed!

having a field day!

We had Show & Tell for the spring quarter of classes with our homeschool coop this week, bringing to a close our weekly meetings 'till the fall.  It was such a great day! The kids all had a chance to talk about what they had spent the last 10 weeks working on: learning about plants, leatherworking, origami, Shakespeare, geography, photography, the alphabet, soccer...just to name a few.

After a summery potluck - watermelon! potato salad! deviled eggs! - we had a field day!  Sack races, three-legged relays, waterballoon tosses and an amazing slip-and-slide one of the dads created and then manned for a good hour and a half of hilarious action.

waiting...

helping...

sliding!!!

Ah, yes, and icecream in a bag. A brilliant idea.  Yes, it worked and yes, it was delicious.

the path through fear to borscht

I think I've mentioned that we are again attending a weekly homeschool coop - a day where somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 families gather to learn together.  The classes are widely varied; this quarter a sampling could include origami, storybook illustration, human evolution, the history of salt and sugar, computer programming, Ivanhoe through the world of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), and world geography.   It was this last class, geography, that brought on the anxiety for Ani earlier this winter, because on the first day the kids were asked to sign up for a country to present to the class.  A presentation being a new concept, she didn't think twice about it and was assigned Russia. Score! I lived there when I was her age, so this should be easy...

But she worried it like a hidden splinter.  I would observe her through the day every week, in her classes and at lunch, having a great time, enjoying the company of her friends and loving having babies around to entertain and help with. Then without fail at some point in the week she would declare that she was done with coop and would not be returning.  Somehow the next Tuesday would roll around and we'd make it there, only to repeat the declaration with more vehemence.  Finally she said, I know what I'm going to do for my presentation! Ah, that's what's going on.  She said, "When the teacher turns to me to say, Ani do you have something to tell us about Russia? I am just going to answer her: NO!"  She was very happy to have come up with this simple and honest way out of the deal.   I asked her if this is what she was thinking about whenever she felt frustrated about returning to coop....duh,  yes.  So, we talked about options. The other kids were choosing poster boards and facts, but that was not for her. (And let me just say that she was not the only one with this anxiety. One of the other moms said her daughter was up all night the night before her presentation and the mom had to translate her whispers to the class, she was so nervous. We would have quit before then, I think...) I finally convinced her that she could really think out of the box on this one, and do something that would be fun for her, because if she was enjoying it, chances were the other kids in the class would enjoy it too.

Finally she landed on telling a story.  Ha! Her forte!  She read through books of Russian folk tales and settled on one about Baba Yaga.  Perfect. Then she began her process of getting comfortable with the whole idea.  This is how she spent a whole morning a few weeks ago when the sun was just starting its flirtation with our world...

Yes, she is in her footie pajamas

She is clearly a little Russian girl named "Too Nice Child", out on a scary adventure to Baba Yaga's chicken hut in the woods, with her bonnet and apron and her magical helper doll tucked in her pocket. She was out there for at least an hour, then in to change clothes, and back out again, talking and figuring and acting out her story.  

I was so grateful that we had the time for her to play through her worries and find herself into a comfort zone that allowed her to meet the expectations of her class and teacher on her terms.

Fast forward to this week, the week of the presentation.  Monday was all about making borscht to share with the class ("Mom. Everyone brings food."  Never mind that most people don't know what to make of beets, she seemed confident that it was the right thing to bring, and why? Because beets are something she loves.)

Goggles in place for the stirring of the onions

Do you remember the anxiety of performing in front of your teacher and a class of students? Oh man, I do.  I feel like I always got through it fine, did well, and felt like I had accomplished something, but the worrying ahead of time was sometimes paralyzing.  It was as if once Ani had figured out her plan, the worry was all gone, and she felt confident and relaxed.  She showed the class how to write her name in the cyrillic alphabet.  She taught them how to say yes and no in Russian.  She showed them a few things we have from home that are Russian, and showed them where it is on the globe, explaining that it is a part of Europe and Asia.  Then, while they ate their borscht (yes, they all tried it, and no one was rude!),  she read her story, stopping at the end of every page to show the illustration.

She learned that she could speak in front of her class and contribute something interesting and entertaining, and I was reminded once again that play is so often the path through fear and anxiety!  And we got some beautiful borscht in the mix, which made us both happy...