Deep into the School year yet?

The first 4-week session of the Triad Catholic Co-op is over. It has been a lovely, lovely first 4 weeks. The shorter day has been a blessing for all of us. For one things, I do not get home exhausted. And that makes for a happier day for everyone.

This Friday is a "day off" and just in time for me to take my crew to a near by pumpkin patch. Nice time for a field trip.

Next week will begin our second 4 week session. Most of the classes will remain the same. I'm changing my class though to Art. Liz created some lovely home holy water fonts I'd like to make with the co-op. Followed by some garden stepping stones, corn husk dolls and (more) Shrinky Dinks ornaments. I just love Shrinky Dinks.

We are beginning to plan an Advent Activity Day for December. Then a real winter break. Good for the weather, the colds and to get in some whole weeks of school before gathering again in February.

Hope the school year is off to a good start in your home. Peace Be With You!

New Fall Schedule

Plans are in the work for next year. If you are interested providing a Catholic education for your child, at home, please leave a comment. All of us at the Triad Co-op would love to meet new friends.

As mentioned before, we are scheduling our year in 5 week blocks to allow more flexibility for our participating families and for the course offerings. Hope to hear from you!

Protecting God's Children

Good news! Triad Catholic Co-op Moms have taken an important and terrific step forward by becoming certified through the Virtus Program required in our Diocese.

It has been years since I participated in the program, but after taking the online courses to become re-certified, I am reminded how important this class is for protecting MY children (and yours too!).

Kudos to the group for stepping up to the task, and for acting on what we already know: We love our kids!

And want them to be safe.

National Poetry Month

Plans are in the making for next year's co-op. Those will be posted soon. Meanwhile, the upper elementary girls class spent some time this year studying poetry. This link arrive in my email today, so great! From Evan-Moor Publishers celebrating National Poetry Month.

Best result from the poetry class for our family is the wonderful narrative poem Anna wrote to help us all look forward to spring while appreciating the long, long winter. One her own, she spent a while writing and re-writing a "poem for Dad" because he was so ready to see Spring!

Thanks Mary for leading the class and inspiring Anna to write more!!!

Family Advent Activities

How will you keep "Jesus the reason for the season"? In particular how will you celebrate the anxious waiting for Christmas?

Visit mum2twelve for the Jesse tree readings as well as other family Advent traditions.

Happy Advent!

Catholic Homeschool Community Growing

Just 3 years ago, when I began homeschooling, I searched the web as best I could for local Catholic Homeschool groups. Few and far between. As in, there were few groups and I lived far between them each.

But today, that's a different story! What good news! Visit ARCH, (Association of Roman Catholic Homeschoolers, a ministry and support group for Roman Catholic homeschoolers in the Triad) to find various portals Catholic Home School groups available in the Triad area.

So exciting to see how much our community of homeschoolers has grown in such a short period of time!

God, continue to guide our schools to seek you, to know your Truth and Word and to find fellowship with one another!

Where has the time flown?

Already reaching the end of our first semesters activities. Tomorrow we celebrate All Saints day, much like years in the past. My favorite activity tomorrow will be the Litany of the Saints. I like that better even than singing "The Saints Go Marching In".

In other news, Bill and Michael were able to participate in a local homeschool science fair. They didn't win but learned about "how your teeth rot" and enjoyed seeing all the other projects as well.
Several families enjoyed a field trip to Apple Hill Orchard. On what turned out to be the only dry day that week!

One other activity this fall, I did not get pictures. Some of us joined in making rope rosaries in honor of the Month of The Rosary, October.

So glad to be a part of such a great community of Catholic Home School Families! Leave me a note if you stumble here. I'd love to hear from you.

Revised Fall Schedule

Final planning meeting last night. Made the adjustments needed and got details for the book lists. Things I am particularly excited about are:

• the science lab, that was so great last year
  
• Fr. Draper being kind enough to teach our Catechism class
• Art through Faith (of course I love anything Art and Faith)
• Trail Guide to US Geography, I know the boys will enjoy this
• Merchant of Venice (glad that this will support Lee's high school studies)
• PE stays! Thank you Yvonne!
  

Again, I hope you can click on the picture to see the schedule in a larger view. If you are interested in joining this coop, we are always glad to welcome newcomers. Leave a comment so I can reply with more information. Or you can just come to visit for a day and see for yourself.

First day is September 9th, we meet for 11 weeks in the fall and then start again January.

Fall 2009

Summer has flown by and we will have our final planning meeting this week. Some of the highlights of the upcoming year include:

• the return of Latin for elementary through middle school
  
• a Christmas program about the Saints
• the middle school book club was a hit, so we are continuing this for the MS
• Sewing!
  

Can you click on this picture to see it larger? I hope so.

A few changes need to be made, Melissa, fearless PE leader has moved. We will definitely miss you! Who else will be brave enough to referee kick ball with the 3-MS group? And if you look closely at the schedule, there are still a few question marks remaining.

It will all come together later this week. I know I am looking forward to our next co-op year!

Celebrate! May the month of Mary

Mary, We love you!
My favorite part of the whole year: May Crowning!

Fr. Draper led the group in song while the children placed flowers for Mary at the statue outside St. Francis. (Not all the families arrived in time for the procession, but that's ok. I got their pictures later :-)

Bill and Andrew take their turn.

All the students line up before the processin begins.

The Elementary Class - Continents
Everyone brought show and tell for this class and Mrs. Jean brought really delicious Amish bread to share too, yum!

Ready to share.

The boys Catholic Mosaic class

My second favorite part of the year: Art Class!

The children really enjoyed watercolors today. I learned as the weeks passed that it is totally acceptable to encourage the kids to "use as much color as possible". They really made some colorful pictures today, and worked for the entire class time.

Even the boys took their time to create something unique!

Not letting any dust gather, we meet to begin planning next year's lessons soon. We all agreed the group science class was a good idea to continue next year. The book club was a lot of fun for the Middle School students too. Other ideas up for discussion include: Latin, Biology lab for High School, and A Uniquely Catholic Christmas Program.

Thank you to everyone for such a great year! We have so enjoyed our time at St. Francis. Especially to Fr. Draper for saying Mass each week.

Happy Summer!

Knitpicky

The girls had a great field trip recently. Mrs. Olive took them to Knit Picky in Winston Salem. What a great yarn shop! The items they had were so beautiful and handmade, the yarn so soft and luxurious. Mrs. Olive showed the girls different types of yarn, some hand made and some hand dyed. The trip was the start of their spring project. Fun!

Co-op Snow Day

Nothing like getting together with like minded individuals for an educational snow day!

The weather was just right for this moment to happen. The Middle School boys built a small army of snowmen. Shortly after, the Elementary School boys attacked! What a great lunch break.

(Ellen and Mary, all I can say is "When the cat's away...")

North America

The Kindergarten Class with NORTH AMERICA. The map is bigger than the children! In addition to making this map, the students worked on eight Saint cards to learn about martyrs from N. America. The cards are attached to a ring and will be added to as they learn about more continents.

The 1st-4th grade boys are working on this too. Bill had fun, was impressed by the size of the map and how much blue it took to color the ocean!

Book Club

Our middle school students are reading and reading. Here's what on their list for this semester:

• Holes
• Hatchet
• Kit's Wilderness
• The life of Pi

Thanks Christi for leading the book club!

Great Idea!

Snow really, really is a great part of God's creation. We see it so rarely around here, I am extra thankful for this particular Great Idea of God's.

To continue our month of Snow in Art Class, we are painting with SNOW tomorrow. I found this idea on the web, ummmm, somewhere.

Equal parts flour, salt and water. (I will use 1 cup each)
food coloring
blue or black construction paper
small Dixie cups
cotton swabs
plastic spoons

This is a finger painting project. The spoons and cotton swabs are to help the children along. Once you mix the paint, separate it into the small cups. Stir in a few drops of food coloring. Then let the children use the spoons to scoop up a little onto their paper. Use the cotton swabs and fingers to spread the paint into shapes.

Once this drys, it is very white, sparkly and a little puffy.

Save a Tree?

Well, not sure about that but the kids in Science learned about the many different ways people use plants. One of those ways is my favorite: PAPER. Kathy H. was brave enough to lead this group in actually making recycled paper! Thank goodness she had an extra pair of hands to help with all the mixing and pouring. Laura K. also guided the little ones in this very exciting class. Even the babies were captivated by the mixer whirring.

This activity is certainly one to do with a crowd. If you go to the trouble of tearing the paper and mixing the slurry, you might as well make as much as you can. Thanks Kathy and Laura for all the prep work, the memorable lesson and the speedy clean up!

(If I had to choose between all the activities the kids have done for "the one with the most potential to make a HUGE mess", making paper might tie with last semester's "panty hose digestive system". Fortunately both Kathy and Katie were well prepared to maximize the learning and minimize the mess.)

Homeschool Art!

Art is back and I am so happy to be able to participate this time, leading a class. On our agenda for Art this semester is "God's Great Creation". We will explore all the great things about earth through Art.

For January we will learn about SNOW! You can too, here! We may attempt some really cool paper snowflakes, but will defnitely learn about snow all month long.

Anna and I enjoyed a day or two of snowflake making this week. Especially since we aren't likely to see any real ones!

New Year, New Schedule

Can the Spring Semester really be here already? The other teachers are on the job sending out assignments and posting syllabus (or is that syllabi?) for courses about to begin. Here's the new schedule for spring:

Look forward to seeing everyone again!

Other Greater thoughts about St. Nick

If you read my post on St. Nick, you really must read this. Karen Edmisten's post is sooo much more meaningful. I'll have to add her to my favorites! Not to mention she quotes C.S. Lewis! Who can top him?

Happy Epiphany today!

Yes, There is a Santa Claus

His real name is St. Nicholas.

Boy, do I wish someone had said that to me when my FIRST child was born. Navigating the tricky waters of Faith and Advertising during the month of December is an no little ol' boat ride.

Especially since we began homeschooling. Homeschoolers are a mixed bag when it comes to St. Nick. Some go all out, others tow a tighter line. Here are a few thoughts I have distilled and have tried to communicate consistently to my children to help make sense of what they see on TV and what they hear in Church or around our Jesse tree.

1. Is there a Santa? Yes, There is a Santa Claus. His name is St. Nicholas. He lived in Greece around 300 AD
2. Does he live at the North Pole? Now he is a Saint in Heaven with Jesus. Much farther North than even the North Pole!
3. St. Nicholas loved Jesus so much that he made many miracles happen.
4. Those miracles are still happening today.
5. Does Santa come down the chimney? Santa probably doesn't come down the chimney. Some people don't understand miracles, so they write stories to explain how they think a miracle could happen. Just like a reindeer with a red glowing nose. I love that movie, don't you? It is one way people try to explain Christmas Miracles.
6. How can those presents show up? It's a miracle, isn't it?
7. Do you believe in Santa? Yes, I believe.
8. How can Santa get presents all around the world in one night? It's a miracle, isn't it?

They ask some pretty tricky questions don't they? In the beginning I tried answer with the explanations given in stories like "Twas the Night Before Christmas" but that got more confusing to me over the last several years.

St. Nicholas is real, he does make Christmas Miracles come true. I know that too! Much better to focus on him. We love the video "Nicholas, the boy who became Santa". A beautiful tale of St. Nicholas' life, and very compelling to remember Jesus this season.

Teaching our children to believe in Miracles is extremely important because of course, one happens every day at Mass! But knowing the difference between the Real Power of God and say the not so real power of Superman is equally important.

Merry Christmas, may your children experience a few miracles this season too!