End-of-the-Year Co-op Program

At the end of our co-op year, our group hosts a much-anticipated program to show off what we have been learning all year. Many classes perform (drama, improv, sign language, etc.) and other classes create displays. Here is a sampling of what my kids were involved in this past year during co-op. Not all their classes are represented here.

• David, now age 18, took Build It Break It Shoot It (a "backyard ballistics" type class), Computer Careers, American Literature, and Improv Theatre. 
• Emily, now age 15, enrolled in digital photography, a relationship-building class, American Literature, and Cooking Techniques.
• James, now age 12, had the following classes: Backyard Ballistics, Hang Loose relationship building, Duct Tape, and Sports.
• Suzy, who is 10, signed up for PE - Gym class, digital photography, Upcycling, and It's Not Magic It's Science.

Emily with her digital photography display

James with his duct tape pizza project

Suzy with her digital photography display

Suzy with her Talking Pictures project

Suzy being "artistic"  LOL

Emily with her Talking Pictures project

James in front of the duct tape display table. His huge gun is behind him.

The Talking Pictures project asked students to interview someone older and photograph them, then display a written interview along with their photographs and old photographs of the subject.

Suzy with her Upcycling class performing music with found objects.

David's computer careers class created a video entitled "Peeling Out" as an end-of-the-year project. David was the cameraman and video editor. They filmed it in one day and then David needed a couple of days to edit the clips, add the title and credits and the music. Hopefully you can see the embedded video here in this post. Take a look; it's under 4 minutes long and I think you'll find it amusing.

Suzy's science class (It's Not Magic, It's Science) also created a video for the program in which pairs of students demonstrated magic tricks.

Metamorphosis

Today's science topic was complete and incomplete metamorphosis, so I turned my current youtube obsession into a helpful tool for learning. Here's what we watched. Hope you find it interesting as well!













Oh wait, how'd that last one get in there? My bad. :-)

Finding the Babies videos

Here are a couple videos of the "finding the babies" science experiment we did last week.

Eggs in Motion (Apologia Physical Science)

Eggs, cardboard, 2 stacks of books, and a video camera were David's supplies on Monday as he did one of his first physics of motion experiments from his Apologia Physical Science textbook. He's working his way through the book independently for the most part, although I of course check his questions and tests. I also like to watch his experiments and this one promised to be quite cool.

He prepared the area and then set up the video camera on the tripod and proceeded to shoot eight short videos of his egg rolling. I've posted one here for you. (It's short!)











We didn't waste the eggs. lol

Check out JellyTelly

VeggieTales founder, creative genius, and all-around good guy Phil Vischer has launched an online children's TV network called JellyTelly. The free network, which streams programming 24/7, is aimed at kids ages 5-11.

In an introductory video to parents on the website, after noting how many hours kids spend in front of the TV -- especially the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon -- Vischer says, "Is it any wonder that our kids are growing up knowing more about Hannah Montana than about the Apostle Paul? Or that they're more emotionally engaged in the outcome of American Idol than in the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the work of the church around the world?

"JellyTelly is a way to bring the Bible to life for kids on a daily basis, to show them the work of the church around the world and the role they can play in it, to teach their faith and what it looks like to live it."

If anyone can get through to children through the means of visual media and new technologies, it's Phil Vischer. May God bless this latest endeavor.

From: Movie blog at Christianity Today

From Lisa: We watched a selection of programming at JellyTelly today. My kids enjoyed it a lot, even the almost 12 and 14 year olds. The Moody Science video that was adapted for the show was a little long and complex for my younger two, but my older ones watched the entire thing. It's short and funny (think Sesame Street mixed with Veggie Tales), but filled with good content as well. Give it a try. It's streaming video, so if you don't have high-speed internet (I feel your pain), you may have trouble getting it to work.

MUS - What a Blessing You Turned Out to Be

This may seem odd when taken in the light of yesterday's post. But I DO love Math-U-See even if one of my children has such a difficult time. But this is a very cute video! Check it out!



Then if you're like me, your children came along and watched that behind you. (Music on the computer seems to be like a bell to Pavlov's dogs - they come right away!)

But your children, like mine, may not be too familiar with the original song to that tune (Yesterday - Paul McCartney/The Beatles), so here's that song too.