Favorite co-op class that includes 5-year-olds

[shawthorne44]

So, experienced hive, what is your favorite co-op class that includes 5-year-olds.  The class should include DD, there the age requirement.  Something that enough parents sign their kid up for that it makes, and something the kids like and is good for them in some way.  

 

eta:  This is co-op is in a church, and not only did I have to sign a Statement of Faith, they required a religious reference.  Although they probably didn't check mine since it was "Ask about me from anyone in the Sunday School administration."   Not that I think I will effect the answers, but just in case.  

[MeaganS]

My kids have enjoyed stories and art type classes. As I'm not a crafty mamma so outsourcing art projects this way has been fun for my girls. They read a book and do an art project associated with it. You could even base it on FIAR if you wanted. 

[school17777]

One of my favorites that my oldest dd did at that age was The Little House on the Prairie. We had six classes, so the teacher would read the odd number chapters in class and do a project related to what they read. We had to read the even chapter at home inbetween classes.

 

I know they made butter and maybe bread or biscuits for one of the chapters. For the Chrstimas chapter, they made gifts described in the story. I don't remember the other projects.

 

Another class that I remember is reading a book and doing an art project using the same technique that the illustrator used. For example, with The Snowy Day they used tissue paper and water colors.

[kristin0713]

I led a FIAR co-op for a few years and it was very successful, and enjoyed by all.  We did not set an age limit but geared it towards ages 4-8 like the guide says.  We divided up the books among moms and took turns teaching.  I have since left that co-op but others took over the FIAR class and it is still going strong.

[HomeAgain]

Hands on anything: science labs, art, math, geography...anything the parent is more reluctant to do at home with a single child but is a lot of fun with a group.

[freeindeed]

I led a FIAR co-op for a few years and it was very successful, and enjoyed by all.  We did not set an age limit but geared it towards ages 4-8 like the guide says.  We divided up the books among moms and took turns teaching.  I have since left that co-op but others took over the FIAR class and it is still going strong.

 

I taught FIAR to K-2nd graders at our co-op a couple of years ago. We did one story (with related activities) per week. It was a hit! This year I am teaching a Reading/Art Class that is similar to FIAR. I choose a theme and related books and activities. Depending on how easy it is to go in-depth with each topic, the themes last from a couple to several weeks. If you're interested, I can attach a list of topics I'm teaching this year.

[kirstenhill]

I'm doing a literature class for first and second graders, and it could easily have included 5's if our co-op's schedule had been set up that way.  The first half of the year I am focusing on fairy tales (fractured fairy tales in particular), and teaching really basic literary terminology through those fairy tales (words like character, setting, conflict, point of view...in a very basic way).  We're acting things out, drawing pictures, playing games, etc.  The second half of the year I'll focus on genres and talk about tall tales, myths, legends, fables, etc.  We only meet 2x per month (and only once each in Nov/Dec), so I don't have that many weeks overall to fill.

[EmseB]

Math Games -- I teach a class for K-2nd graders, although it's mostly 5 and 6 year olds.  I do a lot of skip counting, pattern recognition, and basic math facts games.

[HS Mom in NC]

American Girl Club.  The books could be a read aloud if the child wasn't an independent reader.  Each included discussion of the first book for each American Girl (read at home before the co-op), a related craft activity, game and snack.  Of course we could read as many of the books in each series as we liked, but only the first was discussed. They were the original American Girls from Kaya (precolonialism) through Molly (WW2.)

[craftyerin]

In my experience, the easiest things to do with Kers are things that look like library story time. Read a book, do some songs or finger plays, do a craft related to that, done. FIAR works well for that. A friend and I did a 4-5yo co-op class with that basic outline using Dr Suess books. Another friend is doing one this year on "animal habitats" but it's the same idea. For "forest" week, she does a song about forest animals, reads a couple of picture books about forest animals, then does a craft. Straightforward and fun! 

[Targhee]

I taught a math circle for 5-7 year olds last year that was a lot of fun. We played a LOT of games - purchased games, printed games from the Internet, games from the Family Math book, games from RightStart, and things from Moebiusnoodles. No outside work assigned, but I did let kids check out games and math books from me.

[shawthorne44]

You guys have so helpful!  

[HS Mom in NC]

If I had known about this book when mine were little we would've used it. Maybe it would be of use to you or someone else wanting to do a hands on activity related to beautifully illustrated children's books.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Storybook-Art-Hands--Children-Illustrators/dp/093560703X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 

(I'm ordering it anyway in case something in it appeals to my crafty 10 yer old. She still enjoys a good picture book sometimes, so it's a last ditch effort.)

[momtolgd]

The little kids in our co-op this year are enjoying a community heroes class, in which they learn about a job one week and have a guest speaker from that occupation the next week. So far this year they have had a visit from the mounted police, and a nurse.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[PeacefulChaos]

Art.

 

That's pretty much the only class my kids have ever done.  We don't do co-ops, but a couple friends and I found an art teacher last year and facilitated an art class - one for K-4 and one for 5-12.  The younger class was AMAZING.  The older class focused a lot on drawing so some of the kids - if drawing wasn't something they were super interested in - didn't care for it (Link was one of those).  I think an older version of the younger class would have been great.  

 

I wish our art teacher had wanted to continue or that we had known of another one.  

 

 

 

I can't think of anything else *we* would do.  But for us to do an outside-of-home class, it needs to be something that either is better served teaching in a group or that we can't do at home.  Basic subjects in a co-op setting are useless to me.  

 

 

[Julie of KY]

Hands on, active classes:

Hands on science, art, PE

[shawthorne44]

Thought that I'd update with the final decision.  

 

There had been some suggestions that I would have loved to do but couldn't.   I'd really been looking forward to the Math games class for DD this fall that someone else taught.  The teacher worked really really hard at it.  But, it was totally different than what I would have done.  I think doing another completely different one might step on some toes.  

 

Couldn't really do art because both mommy and daddy are ridiculously bad at art.  In fact, DD is taking an outside class this morning at an art studio because we never even taught her how to draw a stick figure or a cat face.  

 

I noticed a trend that many of the suggestions involved reading a story and doing a related art/craft project.  Or instead of a story doing a chapter from a book.  This has been rolling around in the back of my brain.  Then last week, DH said that he thinks DD is ready to listen to us read the first Rush Revere book.  So I ordered it.  Then I was looking around on the website and they have an Education section where they post activities you can download.  Coloring pages, mazes, and quizzes on each chapter.  Seems to be geared to homeschoolers.   So, this Spring there will be a Rush Revere class using the pilgrims book!   

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Sorry to have to post this. You sound excited about the book, but it's not a good choice-especially for a class.

 

Here is my actual review from Amazon.com copied and pasted. (No idea why it formatted this way.) I only reviewed it from the writing angle. There are other reviews detailing the poor historical/theological quality as in the way Limbaugh labels the Pilgrims as Puritans.

 

Rush Dumbs Down America, January 6, 2015

This review is from: Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans (Hardcover)

 

I really wanted to like this book. I'm the
perfect demographic for it. No one is more interested in an engaging
historical fiction book than I am. As a Classical Education
homeschooler I've read aloud or assigned to my children dozens of
American historical fiction and non-fiction historical narratives
alongside the original historical documents and other first source
materials (auto-biographies, journals, letters, and such) written by the
founders and other great writers of Western Civilization as it relates
to American History. (And World History.) I've done it since 2000 and
am intimately familiar with the genre.

 

This book is a mix of
fantasy (the time travel element) and historical fiction. I have no
problem with those things separately or combined. But if you're going to
do it, do it well. Rush doesn't. Mary Pope Osbourne does it really
well. She's much better at it than Limbaugh is because she gets more
historical content in each of her books per page than Rush. His
historical content is thin and shallow. Hers is denser. A child walks
away with far more after reading one of her books than one would reading
Rush's.

 

Not only is the amount of history to fantasy far little
to make this book worth buying and reading, the fantasy and modern era
content are poor quality. There's a surprising amount of pointless,
tedious descriptions about what people look like, what they're doing
(like playing with their hair) describing the deck of a ship, how the
waves are moving in the sea, etc. It's disproportionate. While a few
of those details can add interest, when overdone they're an unnecessary
distraction from the important ideas a book about the pilgrims should
be. The endless chatter of the middle school kids at the modern era
parts are not worthy of a reader's time either. There is far too much
of both.

 

Who is the audience for this book? At first I guessed it
was late elementary to middle school aged kids based on the age range
of the main characters. But the language (sentence structure and
vocabulary) are for neurotypical early elementary aged students. Then I
thought maybe it was meant to be read aloud by parents to discuss with
their children. Those fall into two categories:
homeschoolers/afterschoolers who do this all the time and parents who
don't homeschool/afterschool but share Rush's views. This book can't be
for the former because we don't respond well to thin content and
remedial language in read alouds or assigned reading. We're familiar
with the genre and have scores of other books of much higher quality to
choose from.

 

So, I can only assume this book is being purchased
by and liked by people who share Rush's views and whose children are
getting an institutional school education (public or private) full of
textbooks rather than first source materials and living books (highest
quality, engaging and insightful writings by the best minds on the topic
full of depth and breadth.) I suspect most of them aren't aware of the
far superior resources out there for American history. Rush is right
about competition in educational options having the potential to
increase quality. The sad thing is, his book proves to be the poor
quality option compared to many others in the same genre.

 

Rush
should stick to writing about conservative Republican views and leave
the historical fiction and historical narratives about the Pilgrims to
people like Susan Wise Bauer, Margret B. Pumphrey, Mary Pope Osbourne,
Clyde Robert Bulla, Kate Waters, Cheryl Harness, Ann McGovern, Virgil M.
Hillyer, Charles Coffin and editors of great series like Arthur M.
Schlesinger and publications based on the Plymouth Plantation living
history museum. Then readers can move on to edited original sources
like Homes in The Wilderness edited by Margaret Wise Brown. After that
they'll have a foundation they can build on with complete first source
materials.

 

Now to figure out what to say to my dad when he asks me, "How did you like the Rush Revere book I gave you?"