Glitter Shoes

Here is a craft we did in the Glass Slipper class I am teaching at our homeschool co-op.

My creative friend Michele saw these shoes at co-op being given away free and suggested I nab them for my class. I thought, "Excellent idea!" So, I went to Walmart looking for something to embellish the shoes. Found some spray-on glitter and doused the shoes with it, making them very very sparkly. I bought some stick-on gems and let the girls go to town! It seemed like all the girls enjoyed this craft and afterwards they tried walking in the heels, which was a challenge! lol
































Here's Suzy (green shirt) with her shoe.

Co-op Classes are Cool!

Homeschool co-op was Friday. We've belonged to our co-op for 4-1/2 years now; I started it back then along with a few other families. (If you want to know how to do co-op, check out my e-book. Link to the left.)

This year I am teaching a class called Glass Slipper, which focuses on multicultural Cinderella stories. This week we read The Golden Slipper, a Vietnamese version of the story. Then we did watercolor pictures of a rooster, mimicking one in the story. I had the students trace a black-and-white outline of a rooster with a grey crayon, to imitate the style of art in the story (see cover illustration). Then they were given real watercolor paints (from tubes) and encouraged to fill in their crayoned outline.

I am also teaching a class in which the students are writing and illustrating their own books. This week was taken up with summarizing what should be completed already and working on book jackets .

The Cards class teacher was absent and I volunteered to take her place and taught the students how to play Minorca. This is a crazy addictive game that my friend Vicki taught us several years ago. She is apparently the only person in the world who calls it that since googling that word comes up with nothing. Some people call it Speed or Spit and play with slightly different rules. Anyway, Maryann and I SHOWED the kids how to play - let the masters demonstrate, children! LOL

My kids enjoy co-op and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!

Sneak Peek

I got a sneak peek at the schedule-in-process for our homeschool co-op for 2008-09. Wow! Exciting! Another great group of homeschooling moms have banded together to provide bunches of interesting and hands-on classes for our kids!

By the way, I am not "in charge" this year. I'm taking a year long sabbatical from group leadership and have handed over the reins to a very competent and wonderful woman. She'll be heading it up this coming year.

It looks like I'll be teaching two classes this year. (I love to teach!)

Glass Slipper (ages 7-9) - We'll be looking at different versions of the Cinderella story and other folk tales to learn about world cultures.

Written & Illustrated By (ages 9+) - Each child will write, illustrate, and bind his or her own book.