Cooperation Is Key

Welcome to day four of the Homeschool  Review Crew's 5 Days of Back to School Blog Hop!  I hope you are enjoying all of the wonderful posts.  Try as I may I am having a hard time keeping up, so I plan on snuggling on the couch this weekend to read.  There is so much to learn from fellow homeschoolers!

So todays theme is "Outside the House".  I am going to just admit right off the bat that this is the hardest day for me to write.  I am not an outside of the house kind of gal.  I am a homebody.  I like my home and am very content to be here most days.  Days that we are out and about all day make me weary and cranky.  No one likes a weary and cranky mom, so we stay home a lot.

That being said, yes, my kid do have friends and we do get out.  Occasionally.

Here are some quick thoughts for you-

Co ops- I have a love/hate relationship with them.  There are so many out there that are just time wasters as far as I am concerned.  But, there are also some good ones.  There is one here in Omaha that impresses the socks off of me and my kids have taken some great classes there.  My advice is to look for value added.  What are your kids gaining from the experience?  Is it worth the time and trouble?  Are they meeting other kids worth hanging out with?

Field trips- Another one I have a love/hate relationship with.  (I warned you I like my home!)  When my kids were little we did the typical field trips to the bank, fire station, and bakery.  Sure, the kids had fun, but as they got older it took precious time away from our lessons at home and so we faded those things out.  I know, mean mom.  If you like them, go for it.  Just don't fall into the trap that a field trip makes a kid!

Outside Classes- in addition to co ops there are lots of opportunities for your kids to learn from others.  Go for it.  If there is a mom in your area that has a skill they want to share, yay!  I love moms like that!  We recently had a mom do dissections for a group and she is forever my hero.  Some people are just better at some things than others and hey, praise the Lord for those people.  We are also firm believers in dual crediting classes through colleges.  While my kids have only done this on line, many college campuses offer this option as well.  It allowed both of my girls the opportunity to enter college with a year already under their belts. Saved us valuable time and money.

Mommy time- OK, this one is cheating a bit, I admit, but I do want to gently remind you that you need a little girlfriend time.  Notice I said need, not deserve.  I don't believe in all that "I deserve" stuff.  But I do know we NEED friends and support.  So find a mentor or just a sweet friend or group of friends to occasionally do something with.  Whether it is for a simple cup of tea, or a deep discussion, or simply just a hug, you will hopefully come away refreshed and ready to conquer another homeschooling day!

You got this mom!

Are You Logical?

One of the blessings I had this year in homeschooling has been to work with our co-op's middle schoolers and high schoolers as their coordinator.  Luckily for me that is just a fancy word for helping decide on classes and finding teachers for those classes.  Pretty simple, actually.  I shared with you a few months ago about our etiquette class I taught, but I thought I would share our latest class with you as well- Games and Logic.

The class was my brain child, but honestly I wasn't sure what it would really look like at first.  I had a few middle school boys that needed a class, no prospects for a teacher, and no ideas.  Not sure where this idea even came from, but boy am I glad I let it grow.

I have to tell you I had such fun with this class.  Go figure.  I am not even a big games gal, and logic? No way!

But these boys rocked my world.  And entertained me.

And I am so proud of them!

There are many ways this could be run but here is what we landed on.

Each week we began with a quick warm up activity to get our brains working.  One that we really enjoyed was this simple castle puzzle.  The boys had no picture to go by, they just knew all the pieces went together to form a castle with no gaps in the pieces.  I allowed them to work together as well as individually and we even timed them to see if they could beat their times.  Another game I found at Target was IQ Fit.  It has several different levels of play and we, meaning them, took turns solving the puzzles.  We also played the old game Jenga to see how high we could get it, trying a random play and then one only pulling out middle pieces and one only pulling out outside pieces.

After that we concentrated on a main game or project.  One day we did logic games like the card game Set. Other days we worked on brain teasers and riddles.  One day we challenged each other with board games.

Rush Hour

I think the boys would say that their favorite day was a Lego challenge.  What guy doesn't like Legos, right?  That day each boy had to build a small original creation and then create the directions to build that design.  After taking it apart, another boy had to see if they could build the identical creation following the instructions.  Of course, that led to lots of building afterwards, but they did have fun!

With each activity we did, we took time to talk about how they went about solving or strategizing and comparing each of their styles.  It was fun to talk about learning styles and have them see how someone else might take on the same project differently.

And me?  Well, I just got them started and then sat back and watched.  Sometime I think we parents forget how amazingly cool our kids are.  And how fun it is to see their minds work!  I loved getting to know these boys and just watching them interact.  They formed friendships, learned some new skills, and hopefully learned a little bit about themselves as well.

I would call that a successful class!  How about you?

Linking up with friends!

Blessings,