Homeschool Graduation

Today is the end of the year celebration  / achievement night / graduation for Big Bro and Little Bro at our homeschool co-op.

Since Big Bro has just completed his third year of the Montessori 3-6 cycle, and is the age to be in kindergarten, he will get to participate in the co-op kindergarten graduation, complete with a royal blue cap and gown...
Last year, since he attended a preschool program part time, he wore red.

What is nice is that for this end of the year celebration  / achievement night / graduation, is that each family got a table to put out a display of anything that they wanted to share with others.

Big Bro brought one of his favorite Lego creations, some items from the continents boxes, the binomial cube,  some of his favorite books, and his desert project. He wanted to be able to set up some pink tower and knobless cylinder extensions, but we decided against bringing them, as it would have taken a great deal of floor space.

Little Bro brought some of his artwork, some blocks, some of his favorite books, some sensorial and practical life works, and some of his projects as well...

They both decided to make posters about what they had learned.

Hard to believe that a school year has come and as of today, is completed.
Explained to the boys last night that we are going to take a mini summer break and then, we will do a "summer camp" of sorts....
Big Bro asked if we are going to use tents.
Little Bro was more into whether or not we would get to eat marshmallows, as he had heard about eating marshmallows while camping. To drive home this point, he got out a big bag of marshmallows and wanted to eat some right before going to bed...
Had to explain that summer camp is where you get to "learn about something new, play games, do cool things, go places, and have fun at the same time" to which Big Bro added,"Well, we already do that! I wanna use a tent"!
So, we might be cracking out their play tent and making some s'mores in the next few weeks.

Here are some photos from the end of the year celebration  / achievement night / graduation.
They had a fun time but were getting pretty tired near the end, as it went way past their bedtime.

If you get the chance, here is a link to Sue at The Homeschool Chick's cute cartoon depiction of
Homeschool Graduation.

Happy Graduation!

Happy Friday!

Grubs, Beetles, and Hissing Cockroaches...O My

Well, seeing the visitors at Big Bro's co-op class gave me the same sort of feeling I got when the scorpion came for the day...eek!!!

Today's visitors included hissing cockroaches, grubs, and beetles.

Not just a little tank of creepy* crawlies...an ENTIRE BABY SWIMMING POOL of them!

*Creepy, but of course, interesting...

All of the children were taught how to correctly handle them and how to examine them.

Mr. Doug graciously offered for a grub and a hissing cockroach to come to our house, but I said that I thought that they should stay with their families!

Luckily, Big Bro thought that it was better that they stay with their families, because "they would be lonely without their families."

Mr. Doug also dressed up as an inventor today, although Big Bro was so taken by the crawly creatures that he could not even remember who Mr. Doug was impersonating.

Big Bro did retain all of the facts about the visitors, though...he just loves this class!

I helped out in Little Bro's art class for co-op today.
We did some stamping work.
The kids enjoyed stamping a variety of pictures.

Stamping pictures of nature is more my speed...

Hissing cockroaches that are the size of mice - not so much!

All in all, another great day at co-op! No photos, though...

Forgot to bring my iPhone in from the van...oops!

Big Bro's Cool Homeschool Co-op Class

Big Bro just loved holding the touching the Florida King Snake! He liked it so much that the teacher let him put it around his neck!
Big Bro also liked the other critters: a rabbit, a hamster, and a fire bellied toad.
What a cool co-op class! Talk about hands on learning!!!