Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Our First Day of Co-Op

I know that I was going to post some more freebies today, but we had such a great first day at our homeschool co-op today that I decided to share this instead. I'll post more freebies another day.

You may or may not remember that last year I was working on finding us the best co-op for us to be a part of, instead of going to several different ones. It was just too much running and busyness. Well, co-op started today, and I am happy to say that we definitely decided on the right co-op for us, and may I also say that it is quite obvious that God had his hand in the decision. I was supposed to be helping in a class that Nicholas is in, but I expressed my dissatisfaction of that because they had asked us what classes we wanted to help with, (with the understanding that if that class's teacher is absent for any reason, the helper will need to do the teaching), and I had not put this class as something I wanted to help with. I expressed the fact that the classes that I had listed to help with were ones that I felt that I would be comfortable and capable of teaching if the teacher couldn't be there, and that since my boys are older and have me as their teacher everyday, they don't really want me so many of their classes at co-op, (and they are both in a class I am teaching, anyway).

Well, anyway, here I am babbling again. But, it ended up that a teacher who had offered to teach a Literature class for Pre-K to K backed out, so the helper said she'd teach and I was asked to be her helper, which was a twofold blessing: first, because that is something that I am completely comfortable and capable of teaching, if need be, which I have already been asked to cover two weeks in September because the teacher will be on vacation; and second, because we didn't know that we were going to have a new child in our home that is in that age group when we had co-op registration, but because I am helping in that class, so he has to be in there with me anyway, our little foster son will be able to participate in that class!

They also have a running class that Nicholas is participating during the last time frame of the day, and a gym class that Anthony is participating in during the last time frame of the day. The gym class is for Pre-K through 12th grade. They warm up together and then break up into age groups to do activities and play some games, and our foster son is able to participate in this class as well!

I am teaching a Modern Literature class to Jr./Sr. High students. We are doing the book The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. I read this book a few months ago. You may remember that I posted about it in an older post. I was so impressed by the lesson that this book has to teach that I thought it would be fun to teach it to teens. I have a class of nine students and they seemed to enjoy the story as far as we read today. I am giving them homework assignments each week as well: vocabulary words, chapters to read, and activities or writing assignments that pertain to a particular chapter.

I've been wondering what I might offer for our winter session, because we need to submit our ideas in a couple of weeks, and one of the moms came to me today and said, "I see you're teaching a lit class on The Ultimate Gift." I said, "Yes, I am." To which she responded, "I have the next book." I didn't know what she was talking about, but she pulled a book out of her bag and handed it to me and said I could read it and then give it back to her.

Apparently Jim Stovall is making a series or at least a two book set of The Ultimate Gift and there is a second one entitled The Ultimate Life. I am so excited and pleased that this lady, who barely knows me would lend me her autographed copy of The Ultimate Life. If it's as good as the first book, I know what class I can offer for our winter session! God is so good!

The boys are excited about the classes they are taking too. Nicholas is taking a science class where they are doing a lot with a microscope; he is taking a PA history class, as well as my Modern Lit. class and the running (like track) class. Anthony is extremely excited about his Geography of Israel class; and he is taking a How to Tackle a Research Paper class as well as my Modern Lit. class and the gym class.

I hope all of you have some wonderful things to enjoy in your school year this year. We can all have enjoyable school years if we keep our eyes on Christ and keep him first in our lives. And, remember, God called you to homeschool so He will enable you to keep on keeping on:)

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