Co-op Classes

So I guess everyone is just going to have to accept the fact that I will have a new post about every two weeks. LOL I know I was supposed to post after our first co-op class but now two have passed and I am just getting around to writing.
The classes so far have gone pretty well. We have such a wonderful group of kids and they are all so pleasent to be around and so easy to teach. As I said before, we have been learning about weather in the Kinder-1st class. The past two weeks have been about the water cycle and they have really seemed to enjoy it. I only have two more weeks of playing teacher until it is my turn to help the mom who is helping me right now. I think I am finished with the water cycle so I will have to come up with something new. Brenna mentioned learning about rainbows and I actually came across a cool science experiment involving milk, oil and food coloring. I'll have to try that one out and see what else I can come up with too.
The Mom's Chat that we have been doing at co-op has been nice. As I mentioned before, all the moms take turns and only teach for one hour out of the two. The hour that you are not teaching is spent sitting and talking about various topics with some of the other moms. As I said, it's nice BUT I think it is waaayyy too structured. There is a moderator who kinda keeps things going by following a detailed agenda typed up on a piece of paper. So that might be okay for a bunch of people sitting around who had absolutely nothing to talk about but that is definitely not a problem with our group. In fact, before we 'officially' start with the chat we are all sitting around having a great conversation that is suddenly haulted when our moderator shows up. Our last chat was about our kids and what kind of responsibilities they have around the house. The only thing we had time for (the hour goes by pretty fast) was going around the table and listening to each person say what their kid(s) does around the house. I really don't think anyone got anything useful out of the whole thing. Maybe next week I'll volunteer to be the moderator, stand up, rip up the agenda and say "Ok ladies, let's just TALK!" LOL!! Yeah right.

Anyway, we have been busy painting the outside of our house, FINALLY! When we bought our house almost four years ago the paint was pretty shabby and has done nothing but get worse. We had someone come and replace some boards, which is what was holding us up. So after that got finished I became a painting fool. We have the front pretty much finished except for a few small details. It looks soooo much better and we are very happy with it. This weekend we were supposed to start on the sides but I seriously need a break. I didn't realize how much work it is to paint a house! It's not just the painting though - it's the pressure washing, sanding and caulking that takes up so much time. I seriously went through four tubes of caulking just in the front! So next weekend we will pick up our brushes again and get to work. I will have to post some before and after pictures on here soon.

So Brenna has been doing great with her homeschooling. I have been really concentrating on her reading comprehension lately. Since she is getting so good at reading I kinda wanted to see if she was just 'going through the motions' or if she was really comprehending what she was reading. After she reads a book now I have been asking her questions about the story. Come to find out she really does pay attention to what she is reading and does a fantastic job answering my questions. I also have this booklet with short stories that have little quizzes and she does great with those as well. We've also been doing some math here and there - addition, subtraction and even touching on a little bit of multiplication. My next project I want to do is get a big map of the world and start studying where all of our food that we eat comes from. I want her to realize that food does not just come from the grocery store and that most of it comes from very far away. I thought it would be interesting to hang up the map somewhere and start labeling it with pictures and/or words of the foods we buy.

Ok, well I am off to clean my house. It's gotten pretty bad this week since I used every second of my free time to paint. I am going to send Brenna and Brendon off to play golf while I crank up my music and get my house in order again!
Hope everyone has a great week! :)

(Note - Please forgive any misspellings. For some reason the Spell Checker on here is not working)