Summer Co-op!

We enjoyed it.

We survived it.

We're glad it's over . . . at least I am.  The kids are praying for our next co-op to start.

I'm just trying to catch my breath from this one.

Our summer co-op is a 4-day summer-day-camp-ish experience.  With Little Princess and Nature Angel in dire need of new friends, I threw our family into this event whole hog.  I taught a class (teachers get to register their kids a day earlier than the main group, and that makes the difference between success and failure for organizing my family), and Pixie taught 4 classes.  So each day, Pixie and I packed up the Elementary 8, and we headed out the door from 9-4:15.

I taught a class for 5-9 year olds called "Kindness Begins with Me" based on a song by that name that we sing in church.  Our group is secular, so I didn't teach anything overtly religious!  I just liked the name.  Using Unselfie by Michele Borba as my base text, I organized our lessons:

Day 1:  Recognizing and acknowledging feelings in other people (and ourselves)--lots of playacting

Day 2:  Using kind words--after learning about the IKEA bullying experiment, we decorated cups with kind words and phrases and planted seeds in our cups.  Then we decorated little cards with kind phrases printed on them that we could hand out to family and friends

Day 3:  Conflict resolution--we learned about win-win strategies, I-statements, and we did a bunch of role-playing with this Mouse-Monster-Me concept.

Day 4:  Serving Others--we disinfected nursery toys for the church that is our co-op site.  Then we played.

Pixie taught:
1.  Creative Movement/Pre-Ballet for ages 2-4.  She had 3 students in that class--2 were Baymax and Lola.

2.  Beginning Ballet for ages 5-7

3.  Beginning Ballet for Tweens

4.  Strength and Stretch for ages 11+ (No one was free to take pix during this hour!  But word is that those teens were tired and sore by the end of each hour.)
 
There were 4.5 hours of classes scheduled.

Nature Angel didn't take a class the first hour--instead she acted as assistant teacher for Pre-Ballet.  Though there were only 3 littles, having an assistant was a good thing. :)  Then she took Realism for Figure drawing, Ballet for Tweens, and Realism in Nature Painting.

Little Princess took cooking for the first two hours.  The kids in that class made lunch that the co-op members could purchase.  Then she took Ballet for Tweens, and a zoo animal class in which she studied African Painted Dogs (each student was assigned a different animal to research).  Our local zoo provided free research forms and suggested lessons plans.  She quite liked the class!

She got to build a diorama habitat and model an African Painted Dog. 

The rest of the littles spent their days mostly together in classes under my supervision.  Ladybug did get to take ballet with Pixie while the other littles took a class called Little Builders.

On day 2, after listening to the story of The Three Little Pigs, the kids "built" houses out of straws (spaghetti), sticks (craft sticks), and bricks (construction paper).

And Baymax and Lola took pre-ballet while the other kids took Kindness Begins with Me.

The young ones took an awesome science class that was not about concepts--it was about experiencing reactions and making messes and generally inspiring wonder.

 Then we ended our scheduled classes with outdoor water play that not so much a class as a chance to relax with friends and water.

Win-win for the younger set.

Nature Angel's painting class lasted half and hour longer than the rest of our classes, so we cleaned up and spent time on the outdoor playground while we waited for her.

By the time we loaded everyone/everything into the van and made our way through downtown traffic to get back to our house, it was well past 4 pm each day, and most of the kids fell asleep listening to the 2nd and 3rd books of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.  I set up a Signing Time or Whistlefritz DVD for the kids to watch while I made dinner; we ate; we went to bed early.

Then we got up and did it all again for 4 straight days.

Kudos to working moms with kids in school.

I can't do it.

It's just plain too hard.

Kids are playing and reading quietly outside while I catch up on laundry and dishes (though Super Star surprised me with this when I got home on Thursday night!!

A clean kitchen!!!!

She was home alone all day on Thursday because she doesn't have an amusement park pass, but Pixie and Belle do, and they drove to co-op separately so they could meet a passel of friends for the evening.

My parents have arrived--they're moving in with my sister's family about an hour north of us.  We're all getting together for lunch and some visiting time, and maybe we can even help with unloading some storage units.

The weekend is booked solid from start to finish with baptisms, birthday parties, chores, church, work, and a dance for the teens.

And next week looks too full to breathe.

We may need to start school just to clear our schedule and relax a little!

But our chickens have begun to lay!!!!