Back to Co-op

We went back to co-op on Monday. With all the snow we've been getting this year (and I am not complaining) we have had off for weeks now.

When we first started to go we went at 9am and Jana took 3 class' while I taught 1. (She has always been in my class' and I generally teach geography). It was insane as we are NOT morning people. I tried to conform, but, being a musician it just isn't possible at all. So I delayed out entry until 10am. At that point I was teaching two class', middle school history (the exact title was Exploring World War II with the 101st Airborne), as well as geography.

This year with my work schedule (I am working 5 nights out of the week) and being at church until 9pm on Sunday I realized 11am is the perfect time for us to go in. It also helped that I was in the dreaded boot for the 1st semester. Getting out of the door was hard.

I am teaching a World Maps class. I love geography and I love reading maps. I have a pretty good class that really seems to like geography. My daughter does as well.

After lunch Jana plays chess. She definitely understands more than me. I spend my time in the class listening and helping with discipline if need be. Usually I get to work on our lesson plans for the week or for our next class. We meet once a week on Monday but I find if I don't jump on class quickly time will get away from me.

One thing we have started to do in our regular curriculum (My Father's World) is keep a geography vocabulary box. We write the definitions on cards and keep them alphabetically in a recipe box. We found one at the dollar store that even came with dividers. It reminds me of the U.S. History book we made last year. We can always reference back to it in later years because it is organized so well.

We are still in the country of Norway and will be leaving for France. There is so much to study about France. Before we depart Norway (my daughter actually uses a passport when we "travel" to another country), we are going to experiment with some Norwegian cooking. I will post the recipes and pictures as we progress.