Grand Finale!

Friday was the grand finale of our first semester of LEAD Homeschool Fellowship. It was 10 great weeks of learning for all the kids. Our Co-op was attended by over 30 families with 117 kids!
Gid loved this experience in a group school setting. He learned songs, did art, played and just enjoyed himself. Em and Rose both loved P.E., Natural Science, and an art class taught by Aunt Sarah. Joseph did all the same classes with his own age group and loved his art class with me!

Aliyah our family artist in residence had two art classes with Mom, 3-D Art  and Meet the Masters. She says her favorite art medium is wire. Though she still really enjoys clay sculpture. Leonardo Da Vinci continues to be her inspiration. Her third class was P.E.

Jolie was in her element this semester in her Choir, Drama, and Human Video classes. (Human Video is a class where they choreographed a Christian song for a music video). The final drama performance was a one act play called, "Reading, Writing, and Red Riding Hood". Her musical talents have improved wonderfully through her participation in Choir.

Jacob learned a lot in Personal Finance, Dissection, and JROTC. He spoke of his joy at dissecting eye balls and his lamentation at leaving a portion of his cow eyeball in the freezer one week. His favorite class by far was of course, JROTC. Where he learned some military history, drills and other army stuff. The retired Sergeant who ran the program has gone above and beyond the call of duty with this class. He has volunteered his time at co-op and each Thursday evening for drill instruction. He helped the kids get sponsorship through the American Legion to purchase their uniforms. And he made it possible for them to carry the colors at the head of the annual Christmas Parade this past Saturday. Jake has had the time of his life!

I had a great time teaching classes this semester too. I chose to do art because that is one subject that falls by the wayside in homeschool a lot of the time as Moms have visions too often of the mess it makes and avoid it at all costs. I wanted to make sure Aliyah got the opportunity to do what she loves.

 I forgot in all this altruistic thinking that I have a 7-9 month old teething, mommy needing, crawling baby! Luckily, my classroom was next door to the nursery and I had awesome assistants who picked up the slack when I had to go rescue the perfectly patient and wonderful Moms who manned the baby room.  

All in all, co-op this fall was a huge success and a wonderful supplement to our schooling at home.