Co-op Classes

We have had such a good semester in our homeschool co-op group!  I have mostly been in class with the younger kids-- Ellie and Reagan's class.  Friend Amy hosted us for the first part of the semester, and now we are back at Friend Starr's house.

Ellie and Sunshine, making joyful noises!

Showing off an art project, state of Tennessee string art

Both classes have covered so much material: basic government, fun facts about Tennessee, several historical figures, a small unit study with the novel, Stone Fox, and a Bible study on the book of Jonah for the older class while the youngers have studied the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.

Flipping a coin as part of our meekness lesson...
What does that have to do with meekness, you ask?
You'd just have to be there!

 We have brought a fruit every week to go along with the fruit of the Spirit study.  We tried to pick fruits that were symbolic of the trait we studied that day, but that didn't always work out.  We used strawberries for love because they're nearly heart-shaped; bananas for joy because they're shaped like a smile; a piece of watermelon for peace- a play on words there; lemons for patience because you have to eat a lemon s-l-o-w-l-y; peaches for gentleness because you must be careful not to bruise a peach; kiwis for faith because they have such little seeds and we reworded Jesus' words to be "faith the size of a kiwi seed"; pears for goodness and oranges for meekness, but I forget why.  I'll have to get back to you on that!

More joyful noise!

The younger class is winding up these last couple of weeks of the semester with a short study about the sun.  Here is a neat craft we did to start off with: we cut out large circles of white cardstock and put yellow, red, and orange paint on them.  Then we covered them with plastic wrap and the kids squished the paint around to cover the circle.  The result is kind of a tie-dye look.  Very cool.

Precious friends

We hope this Friday will be sunny and we can try some neat experiments like melting chocolate chips with the sun and a magnifying glass, making rainbows with a prism, or even making a solar oven!  We just never know where we might end up!