Co-op in Review: August 25, 2016

Week 4 of our co-op year brings us to the best land deal in all of American (maybe world?) history:  The Louisiana Purchase.  It was a deal that almost didn't happen, but thanks to Jefferson's negotiators, and the fact that Napoleon was desperate for money in order to fight the British, it happened and the United States instantly doubled in size!  The older kids also studied the Jefferson presidency, his administration, his character and his religious beliefs.  While the younger kids studied the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was commissioned by Jefferson to explore the newly acquired lands.  The Dialectic class made model canoes, like those that would have been used by Lewis and Clark. The Upper Grammar class made board games and played a Lewis and Clark adventure game, and they also made field journals, like the Lower Grammar class.  The Lower Grammar class also made some awesome moccasins.  The Five in a Row class read the book, "Library Lion."  They then made cute lion faces out of paper plates.

Co-op in Review: August 18, 2016

This week was all about the Industrial Revolution.  The students learned about it's beginnings in England and Europe and how it moved and really caught on in the United States.  And, they also learned about how industrialization had both a big upside and an even bigger downside--the perpetuation of the practice of slavery in the United States.  The Rhetoric class made bracelets using Morse Code--which they learned about as they studied the invention of the telegraph.  The Dialectic class made a yarn weaving project--as they learned about the tedious life of a textile fabric worker during this period.  The Upper Grammar class made models of a cotton gin--and they almost work!  The Lower Grammar class made steam powered boat models.  And, the Five in a Row class read the book, "Are You My Mother?"  Then they made a cute craft of the little bird sitting in his nest--before his big adventure begins!