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What are some good CO-OP classes?


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What curriculums/ book/programs have you used for co-ops?

 

If you can list various subjects that would be great. Age level of kids are preschool/early elementary, mid elementary and the other is middle school. 

 

The one I can think of is Play Dough Economics. 

 

Need more ideas. 

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I've used BFSU to teach 1st-3rd co-op science.  It works pretty well, especially extending the interactive portions of the lessons with ideas from Pinterest (see the link in my siggie).  It does take some prep work though.  I also did a human body semester mainly using scholastic books from the dollar sale days (Human Body Wearables, etc).

 

This year I am using Science in the Beginning for the same age group.  I am not liking it as well for a co-op setting.  I find myself reading from the book, which doesn't make for as great of teaching (It is just so tempting to do it when the text is written to the students -- unlike BFSU written to the teacher).  For co-op, there are some lessons in SiTB that don't really work at all or that we hit at the wrong season when trying to go straight through the book (No digging up dirt for a lesson on soil in the midwest in January!).  No biggie in one sense, that was true of BFSU as well.   But since BFSU is flexible in terms of what order you do the lessons, while SiTB is designed to be done in order it doesn't feel like it "works" as well when we have to skip lessons or do things out of order.

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I honestly think the best co-op classes are teacher created in an area of interest or inspiration. Which of course is a lot more work, but ends up being a far better and more interesting class. So what are you interested in? Could be a unit study topic, out of the box, life skill like cooking, sewing, etc.?

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I just did a co-op class with Ellen McHenry's book The Elements.  She has others besides that one but I think most of them would be ideal for a co-op setting.  I just wish I'd had a longer time with my class since we there was quite a bit of material and came no where close to finishing it.  Many of the activities in The Elements were well suited to a small group.  

 

I've taught a lot of co-op classes through the years (12 years homeschooling) and my favorite type of class to teach is STEM related or some type of engineering.  The co-op we are part of right now has primarily fun type classes but I feel the kids learn a lot from building things.  When at home I'm not as likely to do projects like that.  For a class I'm going to teach next session I am using projects I found online.  

http://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/

 

I have an engineering degree so I tend to prefer to teach classes in the sciences.  Other moms feel more comfortable doing art or writing.  I have done both of those type of classes though.  It was fun to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. 

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Pre-School/Early Elementary:

 

Before Five in a Row

Five in a Row

Adorable Wearables (http://www.amazon.com/Adorable-Wearables-Human-Easy-Make/dp/0439222699)

 

Elementary/Older Elmentary

Time Traveler Series from Homeschool In The Woods

Poetry (used a variety of reproducible books (like Scholastic/Evan Moore) including Poetry Projects with Pizzazz)

Literature/Book Club- variety of books using Novel Units

 

High School

Government- Whatever Happened to Justice, Bluestocking guide to Justice, Painless American Government

Economics- Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, Bluestocking guide to Economics, Economics Free Market Reader

DBQ writing- Document-based Assessment for U.S. History (Walch publishing)

 

 

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  • 5 months later...

I just did a co-op class with Ellen McHenry's book The Elements.  She has others besides that one but I think most of them would be ideal for a co-op setting.  I just wish I'd had a longer time with my class since we there was quite a bit of material and came no where close to finishing it.  Many of the activities in The Elements were well suited to a small group.  

 

I've taught a lot of co-op classes through the years (12 years homeschooling) and my favorite type of class to teach is STEM related or some type of engineering.  The co-op we are part of right now has primarily fun type classes but I feel the kids learn a lot from building things.  When at home I'm not as likely to do projects like that.  For a class I'm going to teach next session I am using projects I found online.  

http://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/

 

I have an engineering degree so I tend to prefer to teach classes in the sciences.  Other moms feel more comfortable doing art or writing.  I have done both of those type of classes though.  It was fun to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. 

 

What age range was the co-op class for The Elements?  How many times did your class meet?  I'm considering teaching this class for 4th through 7th graders for a co-op that meets 14 times for the year.  Most of the kids are 4th graders, and I want to make sure this will be a good fit.

 

Thanks!

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