Wednesday, September 5, 2012

she had a fab 1st day[8th grade homeschool co-op]





{ok so 8th grade means i only took minimal non-embarassing pix. i only stuck around for the brief 10-15 minute teacher/class introduction. then i left my girl to her business for the day. i did good!)  

i keep mentioning that we have a lot of changes in our little homeschool this year. yesterday was the beginning of one of them. the oldest brownsugar K started 8th grade homeschool co-op! my girl had a fab 1st day, but 8th grade...kinda makes me sad!
 
without going into alot of details all 3 girls are now under the same charter (much easier on me)& are starting a new co-op this year organized (for the most part) by one of our fave teachers from our old charter.
 
this co-op is different than one we were in last year in that it is more classroom like & taught by teachers who teach/taught as a profession. our other co-op was so much fun last year & we still love it & hope to still be a part of it this year but this new co-op is more of what we needed at this age. last year K was in workshop classes at her old charter campus & this year lots of her friends, others from our homeschooling network & her old teachers are in her co-op classes again, so it's a pretty comfortable transition.
 
the classes K is signed up for are:
General Science (Apologia text & lots of hands on labs)
Literature/Writing
Photography
*Spanish
 
aside from playing soccer & her guitar, K is really into her photography. at this point, she really wants to do something along the lines of graphics design with an emphasis on photography as a career, so we are super excited about this opportunity for her.
 
the Spanish class is on a different day...our beloved beach day of course! our beach is day is super sacred to us so i'm still having trouble committing (have to by today YIKES!). living in So Cal especially, Spanish is a definite must & the girls REALLY want to learn it (& i really want to re-learn it).
i'm just really going to miss my beach days!
 
the science & writing classes are a HUGE relief to me.
even though i love science, having 3 different ability levels were starting to become more obvious at these ages. with the majority of our little classroom still in the elementary years, starting last year it was becoming clear that Ms. 8th grader was ready for more & more of a challenge.
 
the same thing with the writing & lit classes. 
with those subjects being taught i'm really only teaching (more on each of these later):
History (collectively)
Math (individually) 
a little bit of Grammar (individually for K & collectively for the younger 2 but at their own levels)
*this year is a crazy busy one, the girls also have extracurricular activities that i will also save for another post.
 
the two younger brownsugars have their 1st day of co-op next week & we all can not wait to see how it goes.


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

this {past} week

{a few little tidbits from last week...that were supposed to post on Saturday}
 
one of our fave days of the week is our coffee shop date. the brownsugars & i usually bring schoolwork or reading books to our local coffee shop, but this week we brought our art supplies.
we all really enjoyed it & trying yummy new drinks!
 
we did some fun science experiments using a new weather kit to finish up the weather unit we began at the end of last year. we started recording our weekly temps at set hours that we will graph. we also did a barometer experiment & an evaporation chamber experiment. we still have a few more experiments left. 
 
K has gotten REALLY good on her guitar. she is super passionate & equally as self motivated about her guitar playing. i LOVE LOVE LOVE listening to this girl practice & play. i'm also loving watching her artistic growth (all around) & the fact that she has enough time to pursue & develop them.
 
beach day is, of course our other favorite day of the week! we took beach study & our bible study books along for some beach schooling & family worship before going in the water. it was a perfect day for it. it was hot! after we finished with the books & our picnic, we hit the water for the rest of the evening. 
(yes! i actually had on a swimming suit!)
 
this past week was definitely an "i'm sooo happy to be homeschooling" week. i'm loving the blessing of being able to watch my brownsugars grow into themselves right before my eyes & being able to be here to facilitate if necessary. there are so many things, subtleties even, that i would have never know about each one of these girls if we were not homeschooling
& none of which i want to miss.