Co-op & Fairy Tales Class

Little Red Riding Hood

The Seven Dwarfs

The Princess and The Pea

I've been reading a fairy tale and doing a class w/primarily preschoolers during co-op this session.  Here's some pictures of the crafts we've done.  I got all the ideas from a book: Crafts from Your Favorite Fairy Tales by Kathy Ross.  Excellent Book!

Alliteration Poem #2

Baby Elie bites back when bullies attack her

Grimm's Fairy Tales

In our homeschool co-op, I've been doing a class with some of the kids.  I read them a fairy tale and then we do a craft project based on the story.  I like using the original stories, which are sometimes different from the Disney version they are used too.  Here is a great website that has the original Grimm brother's stories on it.

More Science

Friends of ours gave us a microscope kit and the boys had a great time looking at the slides that came with it and examining anything else they could find that would fit.  Leaves, money, drawings, etc.  I don't have any pictures as I was feeling rather punkish w/a huge headache which has evolved into full blown cold.

They are also building a wooden car kit, which I will take pictures of once it's finished.  The good thing about homeschooling.  Even if the teacher is sick, the kids can find educational stuff to do!

Science Updates

This week the kids & I made applesauce together & they helped me make chili.  Doesn't get more practical than that!

Niles is still really enjoying his chemistry class in Chapel Hill.  It's interesting because both he & Nate are taking a chemistry class right now.  I can tell that they are both age appropriate and challenging.  I signed Niles up for the second session which starts just a week after the first session closes.  And I think Niles likes that he is taking the same class as Nate.  It's been great to see him in a setting where he knows no one and still flourish and participate.

Teaching Moments

One of the cool things about homeschooling is that Niles can pursue, to a certain degree, his interests in all things military.  For example, we are studying the Revolutionary War, as I've said before, so he's been learning lots of interesting facts about the soldiers.  I got a free copy of a dvd series on America that was done by the History channel, from the founding of the country to modern times.  So he & Luca were sitting and watching the section on the American Revolution the other day.  I like the History Channel stuff because it does reenactments and puts names to people in historic events.  For example, they were talking about the minutemen and read a letter from one of them to their wife. Anyhow, during this segment, Niles starts filling Luca in on all the details of the Minutemen, why their uniforms were different from the Red Coats, etc.  During the portion on the ride of Paul Revere, Niles also starts talking about the poem by Longfellow he'd just read.  It was really cool for me to just sit back and listen to Niles as he took this time to really explain and teach more information to Luca without even realizing he was doing it.