Super Halloween

I am squeezing this post in at the last moment before the calendar flips to December, because once December hits, a switch in my brain somehow considers Halloween ancient history.

For the last few years, we've had a tradition to go to the local pumpkin patch/farm with our preschool co-op.  As October approached, it occurred to me that we're not doing a preschool co-op this year!  I asked the kids in Aubree's co-op if they would be interested, or if they were too old for such activities.  Resoundingly, they declared, "you're never too old for a pumpkin patch!" Along with some friends, and younger siblings, we had a good crew.

Since my realization came so late, there were only a couple open field trip slots still available. We ended up scheduled for October 28.  In this area, that's taking a major chance.  We braced ourselves for cold, stormy weather, but lucked out with a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

At this particular Family Farm, field trip groups are guided through six stations, with about 15 minutes at each.  Our first station was the play area.  This is always a field trip highlight for the preschool crowd because there are water stations, swings, slides, chalkboards, and wooden horses to ride.  

As you might imagine, the 11/12 year old crowd was underwhelmed.  I could see them starting to rethink their cry of, "never too old!" Thankfully, a new-this-year part of the playground area was a fabulous zipline!  Suddenly the big kids were re-invested.  I had to force Aubree to try.  She claims she didn't like it, but I think, deep down, she enjoyed it.  Bryce and Thane (and even Graham!) thought it was great.

It was interesting experiencing the farm from the perspective of an older crowd.  The corn pit was a major hit.  I was worried they might get bored, but when the fifteen minutes was up, every one of them groaned and begged to stay longer.  

Of course, they were all much too big for the little tractor race course, but that just meant the little kids in our group had a less crowded riding space (the big kids were running a hay bale obstacle course).

I loved watching the big kids squeeze into the barrels for the tractor ride.  Most of them were offered their own barrel, but many of them chose to cram in with a friend.

I'm so glad we were able to make it this year.  It's one of my favorite October traditions.

Some Halloween's I am on-the-ball, and can plan fun, creative costumes.  More often, I let the kids dig through the costume bin and pull something together.  This year, Grandma Winters sent a big box full of costume options and totally saved the day.  The kids decided they all wanted to be Super Heroes for our ward Halloween party.

In a win-win situation, Mark stayed home with Nellie (the party began at 6:30, and Nellie generally goes to bed at that time, plus Mark doesn't love the uber-crowded Halloween event), and I took the four older kids to the party.

This year the party was extra crowded because we ended up combining with another ward (due to scheduling issues).  There were so many people, that my kids weren't even that interested in trying to participate in the carnival games.  They were, however, very interested in the treats.  Like, for example, cotton candy.

Try as I might, I could not get Thane un-sticky for the rest of the night.

Oh, and doughnuts.  Can't forget the doughnuts.  Doubly sticky.

 

I stuck with Thane and Graham during the carnival portion, and Aubree and Bryce wore themselves out running around the cultural hall.  I didn't particularly appreciate their wildness, but they were getting along with each other so well that I couldn't bear to squelch their spirits.

Perhaps it was mean to not let Nellie participate in the ward party/trunk or treat, but we did at least include her on the real trick-or-treating adventures.  The kids insisted Nellie be an Ewock, even though it wasn't a Super Hero, and even though I had another costume picked out. Aubree decided last minute she'd rather be a detective (and she dressed up for school as a French Teacher), so I guess the themed costumes didn't matter too much anyway.

In typical Seattle fashion, we had light rain the whole time we were out. 

I came home early with Nellie and Graham (because they were ready for bed), and Mark stayed out a little longer with the  three bigs.  While I was putting Nellie and Graham to bed, I put the candy bowl on the porch.  By the time Mark and the kids got back a short time later, all the candy was gone.  Someone had dumped the whole bowl into their bag.  That put a damper on the evening.  So rude!  I guess we learned our lesson.

The kids love sorting their candy almost as much as eating it.

It was a Super fun Halloween season.  Especially with our adorable little pumpkin (who moves way too fast these days to let me get a reasonable picture).

All's Fair

The only thing we enjoy more than going to the Puyallup Fair as a family, is taking friends with us to experience it for their first time.  It took some persuasion, but we were able to convince our friends, the Coberly's, to join us.  When we pulled into the parking lot amidst a deluge of rain, they almost bailed, but gamely pushed on.  Our perseverance was rewarded; the rain stopped by the time we were ready to venture to the outdoor activities.

We've been enough years now that we have a pretty good system, though we never have enough time to hit all the highlights.  As a result of the bad weather when we arrived, we started indoors and checked out the collection displays.  

 

Sometimes I wonder if, by viewing these collections, we're unintentionally encouraging our kids to start hoarding.  Aubree started making plans about how many more penguin things she'd need before she could fill a display case.   Yikes!

One area the kids always love is a little booth where they can find a penny made in their birth year, then have it put in a special case for free.  It's a simple idea, but for whatever reason, kids think it's amazing.

Once the rain stopped, we hit some of our other favorite spots.  This was Bryce's last year getting to be a tractor-rider.  

 

Next year, he'll graduate to tractor-pusher, like Aubree.

The kids were eager to get back to the Pacific Northwest pavilion, where some of our favorite activities are housed...like fishing!

 

Bryce was chomping at the bit to try archery again, and this year, even Aubree was willing to try it out.  When she finished, she immediately decided she "loves" archery.  

This year they also had a little hay path that the kids could traverse...in snow shoes!  Fun!  Aubree and Bryce liked pretending to be jumping over this Mt. Rainier crevice.

Next, we swung over to the Pioneer Farms area.  I don't have any pictures of our time there, because Thane suddenly decided that he "definitely" wanted to try mutton busting.  Mark kept the big kids, and Nellie and I took Thane over to the mutton busting arena.  Before I signed him up, I made sure he knew exactly what he was getting into.  I was afraid his anxiety would get the best of him once it came time to get on top of the sheep.  Through it all, he insisted he wanted to try and wouldn't back out, so I signed him up.

True to his word, he stuck by his decision and was incredibly brave.  He didn't like how tight his helmet was on his chin, and of everything, that was the only thing that made him at all upset. 

As his turn drew nearer, he did squeeze my hand and admit he was "a little bit nervous, but mostly excited." Before we knew it, he was off!

He proved his tenacity, and held on almost to the end of the pen.  He took a pretty spectacular fall (losing a shoe in the process), and hopped right back up.  We were all so impressed!

Following the mutton busting excitement, each kid had a chance to ride one carnival ride.  Most of them chose the carousal.  I know our carousal-choosing days are numbered, but I love the choice of simple pleasure!

Of course, we can't go in the carnival area without getting the free face painting.  Getting everyone to stand still long enough to get a picture was WAY harder than it should've been.

As we started wrapping up our fair day, we visited a super-hero exhibit that was full of fun photo-ops.

This time around, we finished our day with, as Aubree insists, "the BEST ice-cream ever."

Darling Nellie slept not a wink the. entire. day.

By now though, that surprises us not at all.

 

See you next year, Puyallup!

Homes United Co-op

A long, long time ago, back when I was still staunchly anti-homeschool, I'd say things like, "I would never homeschool, well except maybe for middle school.  Middle School is a mess."

Now that "never" has become our reality, it was a no-brainer that Aubree would come home for her middle school years.  The only question was, what would her homeschool middle school experience look like?  

Aubree is a super social girl and she loved almost everything about her public school experience.  I was willing to bring her exclusively home, but I knew that might not be the very best way to meet her needs.  "Surely," I thought, "there's got to be a way to combine the best of homeschool with the best of public school."

As Aubree's 6th grade year drew nearer, I started talking to like-minded friends and friends of friends.  Over a year ago, we started planning our co-op in earnest.  We had a lot of ideas, but we were starting from scratch, and so we went through a lot of iterations before we settled on what we hoped would be a winning solution.  

From the beginning, I told Mark, "I feel like we are collecting a group of really wonderful parents! Their wonderful kids are just the bonus."  

The basic outline of the co-op is as follows: Classes 4 days a week, for 5 hours per day.  Parents teach and/or assist the classes.  We have Monday/Wednesday classes, and Tuesday/Thursday classes. We schedule field trips on occasional Fridays.  One family hosts the T/Th classes, another hosts the M/W classes.  Amazingly, both families set up a classroom for our kids to use!

We have 6-9 kids in each class, mostly 6th graders, but a couple 7th graders.  Each of these kids is officially homeschooled; their parents are ultimately responsible for their education.  As parents, we've just chosen to work together to provide the best educational situation possible.  Most of the other co-op kids are like Aubree, and have experience in both public school and homeschool.  A couple have always been in public school and this is their first experience with homeschool.  We ended up with a seriously fantastic group of kids.

Monday/Wednesday classes are as follows: 

Math: We are using Math U See, but the beautiful thing about the way this class is structured, is that each kids truly works and learns at their own pace.  When students gets to a new chapter, they take a pre-test.  If they do well enough on their pre-test, they move right along to the next chapter.  If they don't do well enough on the pre-test, they watch the instructional DVD and do worksheets until they feel they have a solid understanding, at which point they can take the final test.  So Aubree, for example, is already on chapter 20 of Math U See, Zeta.  

Literature: This is the class I'm teaching!  Hurrah!  I based my class off two books/curriculums - The Book Whisperer and Teaching the Classics.  My primary focus is to get the kids reading, reading, reading!  They have a 40-book challenge - reading books of their own choosing in a variety of genres.  In addition, we are learning literary analysis.  It's been such a blast so far.

Lunch/Cooking: This is one of Aubree's favorite parts of co-op!  Her cooking teacher is so great about stepping back and really letting the kids do the work.  They are primarily following this cooking curriculum, but adjust as they prefer (for example, on their birthdays, each kid gets to decide which treat they all make). I will do another post with more of the details of some of the amazing things they've made in cooking.

Ancient History: For history, we are following the same schedule as public school (ancient), but we are using History Odyssey - Ancients, Level 2. I think the students find this curriculum rather dry, so maybe we will look at switching it up for next year.

Art/Art History: Where the history curriculum might be dry, the art history projects are out of this world!  We are less than three months into the school year, but the kids have already done some phenomenal projects, mostly ones that were researched, planned, and put together by the teacher to align closely with what the kids are learning in Ancient History.  Aubree adores her art class!

Tuesday/Thursday classes include:

Earth Science: Again, we are following the public school schedule and doing earth science, but we are not using the public school textbook (which is titled ISSUES and earth science).  We are using Earth Science and Astronomy for the Logic Stage. We also have a certified science teacher who is teaching this course for our kids.  This teacher is passionate about science and it's so great to have her leading the class!

Writing: Yes, we separated out Literature and Writing, and I think it's working out quite well!  Our writing teacher is a poet by training, and brings her love of writing to the forefront of all her teaching.  It's a great fit for my aspiring-author Aubree (and the other  kids as well).  Among other pursuits, the students are participating in November's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  

Speech/Debate/Logic: As we considered different class ideas for this co-op, some were introduced and discarded, but I felt very strongly that a speech/debate/logic class be mandatory. What better skills could a pre-teen/teen learn than the ability to think and express themselves clearly?!  And once again, our teacher has experience and passion for this subject and the kids are excelling and loving the things they are learning.  It's impressive!

Twin Day

Lunch/Service Learning: The service learning component of our co-op is another of my favorite elements.  In this class, the kids plan and carry-out service projects, big and small.  I'll probably talk more about some of these in another blog, but they've already done things like volunteer at NorthWest Harvest, run a food-drive for our local food bank, and put together Operation Christmas Shoebox boxes.  When they're not planning or doing service, this is also the time of the day when they have birthday and holiday celebrations.  PARTY!!

Rotating Electives: Here's another fun, fun part of our co-op - all the "extra" things the kids wanted to do/learn we put in this rotating electives class.  Their first elective was "Introduction to Construction."  They learned how to use tools (including power tools), and built a chicken run.  Then they made personal signs (and used wood burning tools to decorate their signs). Now they are in the middle of learning to crochet.  Coming up the have a series of engineering classes, some student-led classes, a drama unit, a PE/Health class, and maybe even an amateur HAM radio course.

Both of the hosting families have homes on property, which means that between classes (there are built-in breaks) the kids have a chance to get outside and run around (another major difference from what they'd experience in public school middle school).  Aubree recently told me about how they were playing Hide and Seek Tag, which evolved into Graveyard tag, and I thought, "I am so glad these kids can still be kids."

If that's not enough, the T/Th home is a mini-farm; they have 8 alpacas, 1 llama, 2 pet pigs, dogs, chickens... you get the idea.  So, when they're not climbing trees, or playing in the leaves, Aubree and her friends are out playing with the animals.

My biggest concern planning and committing to this co-op was how it would affect my other kids.  I had accepted the fact that it would end up being a sacrifice for them, and felt bad that they'd be dragged along to their big sister's "thing." 

Through a miraculous and blessed turn of events, this co-op has ended up being one of the highlights of my boys' school year.  On Mondays and Wednesdays (the days I teach), we arrive at 9:30.  While another mom assists with the co-op math class, I watch her kids and my kids (she has a 7-year old, a 4- year old, and a 2-year old).  During this hour, our big kids work diligently on their school work.  They are diligent because they know if they finish their work first hour, the next hour (while I'm teaching literature), they get to PLAY!

Most of the time, when co-op math class is done, the boys go home with the other mom and have time to play with their new friends.  They LOVE this part of their week.  What a relief!

Now, Nellie is another story.  She's a bit of a nightmare at co-op.  I had dreams of her taking a morning nap while I taught, but you all know exactly how well that worked, right?!  I tried setting up a pack-and-play for her to stay in and play while I taught.  Another flop.  Now she just walks around getting into stuff and generally creating a ruckus. 

Of course, as with any big endeavor, there have been hiccups and changes and adjustments.  Overall though, it has (literally) been a dream come true.  The first day of classes, I really and truly wept with joy to see our labors come to fruition.  

Aubree loves her co-op, and so do all of her friends, and so do my boys, and so do I!

PS You better believe I'm already planning to do something very similar when Bryce is in 6th grade!