Dissection Day!

 If you know me... you know I love teaching science class, and I love dissection day!

We are loving introducing our Coop to CrossWired Science this year.  They are truly loving science again, and learning so much along the way!  

The integrated approach combines biology/chemistry/physics into a program that teaches by concept instead of stair stepping through science.  It is full of engaging videos and hands on actives that really build a student's science knowledge while pointing them to the Creator.

Here's a couple of quick pics of our class star fish dissections - you can follow along with us on our FB Group just for upper level learners. Check it out!

We had so much fun... I can hardly wait for the shark and squid dissections!

Decade Day at Coop

 Our Coop had our first "Decade Day" - a fun chance to dress up in our favorite costumes.

Thanks to a good friend... I had a GREAT costume - straight from the '30s.

The '70s were skating circles around us...

The '50s looked nifty!

The 20's were roaring!

Marie Antoniette never looked better!

Our "Human Timeline"

Our Teaching Staff!

Don't forget our representative of today's modern culture 😂

I love my Day Job!

Really... I love that I get to homeschool my children (and other children too!)

This year I get the honor of teaching Biology in our homeschool co-op.  It's such a gift to get to introduce these highschoolers to God's amazing creation.

It was Crayfish dissection day - I may be a tad more excited than them... it's my FAVORITE!

Here are the future, world-changing, biologists:

 I can't resist showing you our handiwork (actually, God's handiwork) Simple creatures that are anything but simple... Isn't it amazing??

Seriously, homeschooling has been such a blast... who gets to spend their day doing this??

American History Smash Book

We are having fun in American History this year making our History Smashbooks!

What is a Smashbook?  Basically, you take any book or journal - we are using old Childcraft Encyclopedias and smash whatever you want into it.

That's right - no rules!  Tear out pages (breathe mamas...it's okay), add sticks or candy wrappers, write on the pages, and even let it hang off the pages...

I like to call it "rebel scrapbooking" and my history students are loving it! 

Let me show you a few examples:

 Sometimes it helps to smash them down... and it's fun!

Their assignment is to find something from the history reading for the week, and make a summary to add to their smashbook.  They are learning so much, and having fun!

I'll bring items like maps or notebooking pages they can add as well.

 We love how they are personalized for each student - and full of what they have been learning!

Try it - you'll get hooked.

Texas Floats

My world geography class has taken a few weeks to focus in on the good old USA.  For the unit project (I love to have a unit project!)  I assigned them a creative endeavor - to build a Texas Float.

Simple instructions - take a box and use it as a base.  Include landmarks, symbols and whatever else you want to make a visual representation of our state.

They blew me away...

These two really celebrated the SPIRIT of Texas - Go BIG!

I love getting to let my highly creative students shine...

 Multiple ways to approach this project made it a good fit for everyone.

 I love teaching geography!!

Autobiography Maps

I love teaching geography at Co-op!  But, not all students learn the same way, so this year I'm trying to incorporate projects for my students that provide an outlet for artistic expression too..

This was a fun project - that got them thinking and creating!  They completed a questionnaire with some "about you" questions, then took their answers and made them into a map.  The basic requirements were to include at least 5-7 answers from their questionnaire, include a key and a compass rose.

I was pleasantly surprise by the results, even from the non-creative types!! Plus, it was a great way for the students to get to know each other better too.

So easy, and memorable,  take a peek...

Peace 2019-20

Peace is the Co-op I helped launch 5 years ago.  It's a collection of like-minded families sharing this homeschool journey together.

This year, I get to teach: Biology, American History, World Geography, Writing and Literature

Here's a few snapshots of our day -

My American history class is making history Smash books this year...plan to see more soon.  Basically, we took old Childcraft encyclopedias and are rebuilding them into scrapbooks of history.

We have art lessons - thankfully, not taught my me :-)

This is my World geography class - I LOVE teaching this!  We are playing Fantasy Geopolitics this year (think Fantasy Football with the countries of the world)  and having so much fun!

This is my "World in 11 people" demo... they love getting dressed up, and I get to teach them about the world that God loves!  What could be more fun than that?

We all share the teaching... this is our Advance Biology class. We have grades 5-12th with 7 families.  The students all work very hard.  But they play hard too...

Stay tuned - I'll definitely have more adventures to share with you!  Sharing the homeschool adventure together is one of my greatest blessings.

Abel's Island

I almost forgot... our final book for my favorite co-op literature class was Abel's Island by William Steig.

I LOVED teaching these sweet girls literature this year.  I focused on building a love for reading - page-by-page.  For them, it was all about increasing the amount they could read.  We read about 15 books, and some poetry.

All I had to do to win them over was add... a craft! 

For this book, we made our very own pet mouse rocks.  Abel is a stranded mouse.

It was so easy.  I found some rocks, they painted them.

Add some details like googly eyes, yarn tail and felt ears.

I'm going to miss these sweet faces every week!