Beyond Co-op: Thomas Edison #5

Our last co-op with Thomas Edison.  We had some last minute changes due to sickness.  I love the flexibility of this group.  I love how God helps us to work out the details.  It has been a sweet thing to be a part of this group!  

 One of our teens took over the teaching responsibilities for her mom!  Isn't that neat?  She did a great job too!

 More science lessons on the atom - protons, neutrons and electrons.

 They each had different elements to work with to apply what was being taught.

 We also learned about phosphorous.  Some neat videos helped to explain things to the kids.  You can check them out here.  http://wn.com/phosphorus  We looked at 1, 2 and 14.

 The next part of the lesson was on economics - price comparisons and shopping.  They kids worked in small groups and had flyers from a couple of stores noting sales on various things.  They also had a shopping list.  They needed to determine which store had the best deals!  What a great life lesson!

 OK, this photo just made me smile.  At one point, Joshua had his plate on the counter and someone thought it was the serving plate due to the number of eggs on it!  LOL  He does enjoy the things that are "free" and those are much kinder to his body as well.

 I missed some of the explanation of this one so hopefully one of my friends will correct me if I mess this one up.  They talked about how electricity was conducted and demonstrated it by passing paper balls along a chain of kids.

 The last part of the class was a project that our sweet teen was doing for Civil Air Patrol.  She led the kids in making small cars from Styrofoam.  

 They used balloons as a means of propulsion.  They loved seeing these move along the driveway!

As always, another fun day!

Please see my other post below this one if you are local!!!  We have a play this week-end that we would love to have you attend!  It's going to be a lot of fun!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Thomas Edison #4

I'm behind on this by about two weeks so may be posting two close together.  :-)  We typically meet every other week.  This meeting we covered chapters 9-12 in the book.  We choose to focus on a couple of these lessons.

First, we talked about communication and the various forms used throughout time to communicate with one another.

 One of the aspects of the story that we found really interesting was the fascination that Tom had with the telegraph.  Below is a picture of a homemade telegraph!  (Love the inspiration of some people as I know I wouldn't ever have done this!)

 The children learned about morse code and each had a sheet identifying the code for each letter.  

 We were also incredibly blessed to find that one of the families in the group actually had several of these that we could (gently) use!Of course, they each eagerly awaited their turn to try out the telegraph!

 As a group they worked on decoding a number of words in order to get the hang of it.

 I just thought this was a fun picture taken in a mirror.

 We listened to morse code on a couple of web sites to hear what it would sound like, then the children were split into small groups.  They had a clipboard with several sheets of paper.  One with the code.  A blank piece for writing on.  A third sheet contained words that they were to type out for the others in their group.  (Each child had different words!)

 They did a great job with this and really had fun with it too!

 For snack time we focused on the garden veggies that Tom and his friend grew and sold to make money to fund his laboratory.  (I'm not wanting this to give my guys any ideas!  LOL  Yes, they have asked about having their own lab.  I'm not as trusting or nice as Mrs. Edison was though.)

 The second half of the morning we focused on advertising.  We first talked about advertising and what it was.  What forms it takes and how it affects people.  The children were again split into groups of 3 or 4.  They each chose a kitchen utensil/tool out of my bag.  They were then to make a commercial for this item.

 They spent time working on the script and practicing their commercial.  Then it was time to perform.  It was so much fun to see what they did with their time.  The first group had a "pickle grabber".

 The second group chose a steamer.

 The third group a cutting board.

 They were all creative, funny and convincing - in their own way.  It was another fun morning!

Here are a few websites that my sweet co-teacher used for those who may also be tackling some of these lessons.

http://www.philtulga.com/morse.html
http://www.edisongreen.com/kawa/rotc.wav
http://chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/pertel.htm

Hope you are finding joy in your days and peace in your heart!  God loves you!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Thomas Edison #3

This was our second formal gathering, but I'm counting it as the third since I posted about our visit to the one-room schoolhouse.  We were covering Chapters 5-8 (and one lesson from 9).  The kids first talked about  pollution and buffers.  They learned about the great job that plants do in protecting our environment and of course talked about helping to take good care of it themselves.

 Can you see what we talked about next?  Can you read the chart?  Yes, it's recognizable even without getting a close up view.  It's the periodic table of elements.  I love that this topic was covered in a fun and interesting way.  This is not something that I would have tackled in any depth at this age.  I am thankful for co-op because many topics are covered that wouldn't be otherwise - and in such great ways!

 The children were attentive and interested in the topic.  Science is such a great hands-on topic and a wonderful one to share in a group!

 We learned about the structure of an atom - specifically the protons and electrons.

Each child was given a paper with a different chemical symbol on it.

 They were then to draw the electrons.  They learned how many went in each layer around the protons.  They also learned that when the "complete number" (8) was not found in the last layer, that the cells would be attracted to other elements that would complete them and make them "happy" (with 8 electrons).

 In order to illustrate the combining of cells, each child was given the opportunity to be a cell.  They then had to find another element with which they could join in order to be "happy".

The ties on the sides of the "cells" could be used to join the cells together.

What a great way to experience science!  I love co-op and am thankful for the opportunity to be in one.  Thanks Vickie and Vivian for a wonderful day!  More soon on our next co-op adventure!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond Co-op: Thomas Edison #2

We had a impromptu field trip with our Beyond Co-op group.  This lesson just looked like too much fun to do at home, so I thought it would be fun to add a meeting for our group.  These lessons were all from Chapter 7 and we covered them all in one morning in a very hands-on way.  (This wasn't technically our second meeting, but since this one comes first in the manual, I'm posting it first.)

I contacted a local historic site and asked about the availability of using their one-room schoolhouse.  They were very open to doing a brief history of this one-room schoolhouse and the use of these schools in general. 

She then left us in the school to do our own lessons.  How neat is that!  For those that are local, this is the Hughes Academy in Hillsborough.

We started with a lesson on penmanship.  We talked about the importance of penmanship and why it was valued so highly in the time of Thomas Edison.  Each child was given a page with some quotes by Edison.  They copied the quotes using their best handwriting.

Next we had a lesson on paying attention.  Thomas Edison struggled in school because it was hard for him to stay focused on the lessons the teacher was talking on.  It really reminds me of one of my own children.  He is incredibly smart and at times incredibly distracted.  I know that he can do great things and am just trying to encourage and teach him as best I can with God's help!

For the first exercise, I split them into 2 groups and gave them a list of activities to do.  The instructions at the top of the page included "read through all of the items and then start".  There were 12 listed activities.

 Some of the activities included standing in a line from oldest to youngest, doing 5 push-ups, singing the alphabet song, name the capitol of your state and more. 

Soon after they started, I got tickled and realized that they had not followed the instructions.  I had wondered if this would "work" and was somewhat surprised that it did. 

You see the last item on the list said "Only do the first two items on the list".  It prompted good discussion on paying attention. 

We then had one more activity on listening/paying attention.  For this activity, the children worked in pairs.  The partners sat back to back so that they could not see the other person.  One had a piece of blank paper and they were to draw the picture (of various shapes) that their partner described to them.  One of the other moms and I demonstrated this for them.

Then they tried it. 

Most of them did really well with this and seemed to enjoy it. 

It proved to be a real challenge for one of my boys with auditory processing disorder.  I knew it would be hard for him, but thought he would be able to do it.  I tried to help him work through to be successful.  Its hard watching your kids struggle - though at times I think its good for them too.  I want him to learn that he can do some things that he doesn't think he can do. 

 
Now, school was out so each child took a turn ringing the bell.

A picture in front of the school at the end of our lessons.

Our last lesson was on "how far is 1/2 mile"?  This was how far Thomas Edison had to walk to go to school.  We took a walk to demonstrate.  It was a beautiful day and the walk was easy and pleasant.  We walked to the courthouse and took a photo in front of one of the monuments.

And one of the moms too!  We so rarely are in front of the camera. 

What a fun morning!  We missed the families that weren't able to come to our impromptu outing.  I'm thankful that this worked for some of us though as it's always fun to join friends!

One of my sweet friends let me know that today (Fri) was Thomas Edison's birthday.  We've put off one of the lessons in our manual and it just couldn't be put off any longer.  It was making a cake - one that Thomas Edison enjoyed for his birthday.  We omitted the sugar frosting and it was still really yummy.

We are having a great time with this study and have more fun hands-on projects in store!  Hope you are having a great week too!

Blessings
Leslie