Lessons with the Coppocks

For about a month now, we have been getting together our friends the Coppocks on Thursdays for a day of lessons. It has a huge motivator to both the mamas and the children! Peer pressure can be a good thing if one approves of the peers. ;)

All of the children do art together using Artistic Pursuits Book 1 and science experiments (we alternate who leads these so we can both use the science curriculum we own). The older children are doing IEW writing using SWI-A. We squeeze in some baking (our freezers are filling for after the births of our babies!), sewing and play time. Oh, and some good food, often having dinner with our hubbys too! The older children often do some independent work in the afternoons while littles naps. It's a full day but such a blessing! :) In January, we plan on starting Latin with the boys. Patricia will be able to help mentor them, as she will be done with that book by then.

One of the reasons this day has been such a blessing for our family is that it has helped me be consistent with these various subjects. :) It's really nice to have an extra set of hands for things like experiments and art (ie, clean up). The children learn from one another too.

Here are some art pictures taken over the past month (I forgot to take pictures from our nature walk- errr):






Our first science experiment involved learning about caves, specifically stalagmites and stalactites. Patrick, the Coppocks oldest, lead the experiment, though he had lots of "help" from the littles:




We were THRILLED that the experiment worked:


Our next experiment, lead by the Tullys, involved learning about blubber. We put gloves & petroleum jelly on one hand of each child, covered the jelly with another glove and then let them hold their hands in ice water to see which one would stay warmer. It turned into more of water play for the littles but the older ones especially learned from it:










I'm going to try to post more educational reports but you know how plans sometimes go! ;) I didn't do so well keeping up with the last time but I think it was the format I was trying to make myself do. (Not laziness or anything I'm sure.)
- Heather