Aug. 17, 2009 - A new school year for Co-op!
Our homeschool co-op is gearing up for another new year, yay!!! Below you will find a copy of the 1st page of our newsletter that was sent out to parets last week. If you would like more information about Community Co-op, please email sisterchicksteph@aol.com. Thanks!!!
Welcome to Community Co-op!
Dear Community Co-op families,
We are gearing up for a very exciting new year! Our planning meeting was a success and we came away with great ideas to help our 2009-10 year be the best ever. We have changed the start time for Co-op; we now meet on Mondays from 12:00- 3:00 pm. Our first day will be Monday, August 31st. Below you will find some important dates to put on your calendar. Reminder: The week before each new quarter begins is an “off” week. This gives us little break between sessions.
You will notice a few other changes for the coming year. We need every parent to sign a policy agreement (located at the bottom of the registration form) and bring it on the first day of Co-op. We are hoping that this will allow Co-op to run a bit more smoothly, and will keep some of the confusion to a minimum.
Dates to Remember:
August 27th- Not Back to School Party (11 am, Centennial Park, pack lunch, kids bring swimsuits to play in the fountains)
August 31st- First day of Co-op
September 21st- School pictures
October 2nd- Young’s Dairy Field Trip
November 9th- First day of 2nd quarter
November 20th- Boonshoft field trip (Chemistry)
December 14th- Christmas party
January 4th- First day of 3rd quarter
January 18th- Geography Fair
February 8th- Valentines Day Party
March 15th- First day of 4th quarter
March 26th- Boonshoft Field Trip (astronomy)
May 10th- Last day of Co-op classes
May 17th- Science Fair/party
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Jan. 20, 2009 - What a great time we are having!
The 2nd session of Community Co-op is in full swing. We have some great classes and learning opportunities for the kids.
This session began Jan 5 and ends on Feb 23. Classes are held Mondays from 9:00am - 12:00pm.
(If inclement weather, please watch WDTN for closing annoucement)
Current classes are:
Gym
Great games for everyone
Writing Workshop
Older group (grade level 3rd-up) journaling, working in teams to create an advertisement for a product of their choice, real or made-up. They will be learning about selecting words the draw the readers attention as well as creating art that is appealing to the readers eye.
Younger group (grade level K-2) journaling and working on sentence and paragraph structure that will be used to write their own book during this session.
Animal Study
Each week the group will learn about a different animal
Underground Railroad Study
reading a books, watching videos and learning about the underground railroad. (see the field trips below for a great trip to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in February)
Field Trips
Currently there are 3 fields trips scheduled
Feb 19 @ 9:30am -"Matter" (Boonshoft Museum of Discovery)
Non Members: $8/child, $7/adult
Members: $4.50/child, $3.50/adult
These prices are for the class as well as entry to the museum.
Feb 23 - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati)
$4.50/child, $9/adult
May 1 - Zoo Scene Investigators (Columbus Zoo)
you can find information on this field trip at www.columbuszoo.org/education/schools_and_teachers/plan_your_field_trip/programs/self_guided_programs/zooscenceinvestigators.aspx
The next session will begin March 9th so if you would like to join us, have an idea for a class or would like to teach a class, please let us know!
If you have any questions, please email or call.
Dawn Merritt - 698-2243 or Stephanie Ruby - 829-8294
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Nov. 21, 2008 - Calling all local families!
I just received a phone call from a woman whose child attends St Pat's school. Apparently a couple of the moms are wanting to get an elementary band together at Sound City Music in Troy. They do not have enough students, so they decided to invite homeschoolers to join in this as well. This sounds like a great opportunity. :-)
The lessons are geared towards grades 4th-6th, but she said that they might be flexible enough to go down or up a grade level or two. Mondays, 5:30-6:30, $7.00 per class if they have 7 students. (with more students, the price could possibly come down a bit more). No prior music knowledge neccessary. Contact Sound City Music at 335-2406 (ask for either the owner or Rick Paltida) or contact Mary Meyer at 335-6450 (she is the mom who instigated all of this, LOL).
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Sep. 21, 2008 - And we are off and running....
It is hard to believe we are going into our third week of co-op already (we skipped a week due to the hurricane-like winds that knocked out the power for a few days)! We have had so much fun, the kids are learning some really cool things in Science and History, fun games in gym and meeting some new friends!
We are now meeting Monday mornings from 9am-noon. We have also divided classes based on grade; K-2 and 3-6. Below is our schedule for this first session.
Each session will be 8 weeks long with one week off between sessions. The only exception will be session 2 due to the Christmas holiday
Session 1 Sept 9 - Oct 21
Session 2 Nov 4 - Dec 9
Session 3 Jan 6 - Feb 24
Session 4 March 10 - April 28
Schedule
9:00am - 9:15am - Welcome and announcements
Grades K-2
9:15-9:50am Gym
9:50-10:30am Missions Study
10:30-10:45am Snack
10:45-11:35am History Lapbooks
11:25-12:00pm Science
Grades 3-6
9:15-9:50am Missions Study
9:50-10:30am Gym
10:30-10:45am Snack
10:45-11:35am Science
11:25-12:00pm History Lapbooks
Reminder: FIELD TRIPS!
We had our first field trip to Englewood Metro Park for a Creek Study. What a GREAT time we all had. We walked in the creek, found some interesting creatures and a few of us got a little wet! (Rocks in the creek can get slippery when stepping on them with wet shoes!! LOL)
The next field trip is scheduled for Friday September 26 at Carriage Hill Farm @ 10am. We will havea lesson in an old fashioned schoolroom and go on a tour of the farm. This is for 1st-4th grade children. Space is limited so if you are interested, please sign up soon!
There is also a field trip on October 14. This will be a Discovery Walk at Englewood Metro Park. Space is limited for this field trip so sign up now!
Here are some pictures from the past 2 weeks and the field trip!
Hope to see you at Co-Op this week!!
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Aug. 27, 2008 - Update on fall classes.....
I know that the schedule was supposed to posted last night, but our planning meeting has been pushed back until tomorrow (Thursday), so that is when I will have more information for all of you. Sorry for the delay. :-) Can't wait to see you all when co-op starts next week!
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Jul. 29, 2008 - COMMUNITY CO-OP NEWS!!!
August 26th is another planning meeting for Community Co-op, with our co-op classes starting on September 4th at 9 am sharp, lol. I am so excited about co-op starting again!!! If you want more info, e-mail me.
We have 3 field trips on the schedule already!!! September 9th (1:00 pm), at Englewood Metropark, we are going to do a creek study. We are limited to 20 children, so please e-mail me to be put on the list. I will put up a notice when that list is full.
Also, Spetember 26th (10 am) we have an interactive classroom experience at Carriage Hill Farm. We will have a lesson in an old fashioned schoolroom and go on a farm tour. This is only for the 1st-4th grade children, and I am taking sign-ups now as well.
October 14th (1:00 pm) we have a discovery walk at the Englewood metropark. This is for all ages, but, again, is limited to 20 students.
Also, I have a bit of news for anyone looking for a support group (which is different from a co-op, :-)
THIS IS FOR ALL HOMESCHOOLERS IN AND AROUND MIAMI COUNTY:
McCheo NEWS-
We have been BUSY getting ready for the new school year. For all of you local people, August 16th is the Miami County Christian Home Educators picnic. Shelter 5 at the Community Park in Troy. Bring a side dish or dessert to share.
You should plan on coming to the first McCheo meeting for the year. That meeting will be September 16th at 7 pm in Troy. (at the Troy Christian Church on 55) We will have Stacy Warner come and speak about Crown Financial Ministries. We have other great things planned for this year, including a spelling bee and an arts festival! You don't want to miss out!!! :-)
If you are in Miami County and are needing help to get started homeschooling, or you run into any issues with a local school district, do not hesitate to call me. My number is 829-8294. Also, if you do not belong to a support group and/or co-op, feel free to contact me. McCheo and Community Co-op always welcomes new members!!!
I am so excited about all that is going on!!! I look forward to seeing you all soon!!!
~*~Steph~*~
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Jul. 21, 2008 - Classes are going to resume in September!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer! This is just a quick update that classes will begin again during the first week of September, and we are looking forward to some great classes this first quarter. Also, I am working on setting up a few field trips right away. If you have any suggestions for field trips, please just drop me an e-mail. I'll be posting more within the next week about what to expect for the fall!
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Apr. 30, 2008 - A special offer....
from The Old Schoolhouse magazine!!! Do you subscribe to this magazine at all? My best friend got me hooked on it, and I love seeing a new issue in my mailbox.
I wanted to tell you about a special promotion the magazine for homeschool families is running right now. If you subscribe for just a year, you actually (while supplies last) will receive 25 curriculum-type gifts from various vendors. The value is huge – hundreds of dollars' worth of freebies to you. No strings attached – except that TOS only has about 2000 of these “gift baskets” left in their inventory. First come, first served. Here's the link which explains more, below. You can even view all the gifts and find out how they'll arrive. Hurry, though, they go really fast. Last time the magazine did this they sold out about two months early.
http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_60&products_id=1542
The above link will show you the pictures of your free gifts plus give you all the details.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!!
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Apr. 17, 2008 - We had our Coop planning meeting.....
I can’t believe how fast this first semester went by! We had our planning meeting for the next school year today, and here is what we have come up with: Summer plans (and we will be adding more park days and field trips as time goes on)- May 8th- Science fair May 15th- Jungle Jims field trip. Meet at the church at 9:30 am. May 22nd- Golden Gate Castle Park- Meet at 11:00 am, pack a lunch June 5th- Duke park in Troy- Pack a lunch, meet at 11:00 June 12th- Centennial Water Park in Englewood. Bring a lunch and meet at 11:00 am. Also, put the kids in a swimsuit and bring a towel. This is always a big hit, and it’s free! July 10th - Party at the Coate’s house. Bring food to share. July 21st- Columbus Zoo field trip. More info to come. The new school year will start on September 4th. We will be trying a new schedule of 8 weeks on/1 week off with the entire month of December being off. Hopefully this will prevent us from feeling overwhelmed. Fall quarter will be packed full of fun activities! We have an acting class planned for the first quarter, along with a great new science class, a study on missions and, of course, we will be keeping gym class for the kids. We are also going to have the kids start a newspaper, have someone come in to o ‘school photos’ for the kids and, hopefully, work on getting a yearbook together for the kids! We are going to try something different with the membership. Instead of paying every week, if you would like, you can just pay for the whole year all at once (or quarterly, or whatever works best for your family). The fee will be $128 a year, no matter which way you want to divide it up. We are looking forward to a great summer and a fantastic start to the next school year! If you have any suggestions, or any questions, please e-mail me right away! J
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Apr. 10, 2008 - Planning meeting!!!
Please join us at West Milton park on April 17th for a planning meeting! Pack a picnic lunch for you and your children and come ready with your ideas for the upcoming school year. Some things that will be discussed- classes for the fall, summer park days and field trips, membership fees for next school year, bringing in a photographer to do school pictures for our kids and more!
We will meet at noon at West Milton park on state route 571. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Mar. 9, 2008 - We will be starting new classes soon!
This Thursday (March 13th) marks the end of our first quarter as a co-op! What fun we have had! On March the 20th, we switch classes. We have a cooking class planned, gardening, and gym class! Come join in the fun and make some new friends along the way!
Some announcements:
March 13th- I need all money for the Creation Museum field trip. We leave out at 7 am Saturday, March 15th. Plan to be at Community Grace Brethren Church before 7, please.
Start working on a project for the science fair! We will be holding our science fair May 15th. The science fair will be divided up into 2 age groups- K-2nd and 3rd-6th.
We will continue to meet through the summer, though we have not hammered out the exact details for this. We are planning some park days, a field day, outside science classes and many more fun activities for the summer. Please, plan on joining us!
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Feb. 19, 2008 - We had a great field trip to Boonshoft Museum!!!
We had the best science classes today! The kids made spectrascopes (in which they could make and see rainbows), and they got to participate in a bunch of science experiments that showed really cool colors. They also had fun wandering through the museum and playing/learning at all of the different exhibits. Check out these pictures from our wonderful day-
I have more pics, but seem to have run out of space... I'll try again tomorrow! We have more fantastic field trips planned, so come check us out and get in on the fun!!!
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Feb. 8, 2008 - REMINDERS FOR NEXT WEEK (February 14th)
February 14th is Valentines day and we will be having a party! Bring your already-made cards, a treat to share with everyone and a shoebox. We will decorate the boxes to be mailboxes for the card exchange.
Also, if you plan on going on the Boonshoft field trip, please try to prepay on Thursday (if you can). I have to pay them in large bills only, so it would be a bit easier if I could have everything pulled together in advance. Thank you so much!!!! :-)
We look forward to seeing you Thursday morning!!!
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Feb. 8, 2008 - Co-op was great yesterday!
We had a lot of fun making Valentines to give to the firemen after our field trip today. The kids loved the glitter paint and the conversation hearts, LOL. They did some warm up stretches in gym and then had a balloon relay race. In music they looked further at how to read music and then we added a class- science! In science the kids made balloon rockets and held races shooting them across the room.
Today we took the kids to the fire station. It was a wonderful field trip (though, my oldest is now pointing out any and all things wrong in our house, fire-safety wise, LOL). Fire safety was discussed, the kids got to see (and hear) what a fireman looks like in the full gear, they got to see the fire-house and they got to get in a firetruck and an ambulance! Quite a full afternoon, LOL.
These are the 'hooks' on a 'hook and ladder' truck.
The jaws of life... those are sooooo cool!
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Feb. 2, 2008 - Updated field trip list!!!!
I am organizing this list a little bit better and will continue to add on to it (I have a few places that need to return calls so that we can set up more field trips). Here's what we have so far-
February 8th- Englewood fire station
February 19th- Boonshoft Museum (This will include a really cool Creative Science class).
March 7th- WHIO News station
March 15th- Creation Museum (We are getting a fantastic discount!!!)
Please e-mail me for all of the details or check out the sign up sheets next Thursday at Community Co-op!!! Hope to see you at some of these fun activities!!! :-)
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Jan. 31, 2008 - 13, that's 13 kids at co-op today!!!
Hey, I feel like the Count from Sesame Street, LOL. Yes, we did have 13 (and that was with four kids absent today). Our little co-op is growing and we are having fun! First, some announcements. We have a field trip to a firestation planned for February 8th and a field trip to Boonshoft planned for February 19th. Please e-mail us for the details (or get the details at the next co-op). Also, we have a family field trip planned for Saturday, March 15th (so that husbands can come too, LOL) to the Creation Museum! We have a great discount offered to us ($9.95 for adults, $6.95 for children, $4.00 for the planetarium) and I need to know how many you have coming and I need half of the admission by February 20th.
Febraury 7th we will be making Valentines to take to the Grace Brethren Village. The residents will appreciate having some cards to brighten their day! We also have a Valentines Day party scheduled for the 14th. Have your Valentines cards made before coming and bring a shoebox to decorate as a mailbox for the card exchange!
Now, for some pictures of our morning. I would have had more, but I ran out of battery power and my spare batteries were not in the bag (one of my children probably swiped them for his racecar).
This is how our gym teacher survives the day, LOL.
The kids made foam door decorations for their rooms.
One of the games we played was musical chairs. This was when my camera died, LOL, but you can bet there was more fun to be had even after this shot! :-) Please, join us next week!
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Jan. 17, 2008 - We had a great first day!!!!!
The first day of co-op was wonderful! We had a total of 11 children (not counting younger siblings that also tagged along!). Our music teacher was sick, but even without a music class, we managed to fill the time well.
The kids started a 2 part art project (photo frames) and will finish those up next week. They also made a fun *popper* out of brown paper bags- these make such a fun noise!
Our gym teacher had several great activities- soccer, volleyball (with a beach ball), and some fun *tag* style games. All of the kids seemed to have a great time and we are looking forward to more fun next week! Here are some pictures of our first day:
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Jan. 17, 2008 - Our Co-op newsletter!
Hopefully the first of many!!!!
Dear parents,
Welcome to Community Co-op! We are looking forward to having a wonderful time getting to know you and your children.
This co-op started when four friends realized that there is a need in our area for a relaxing co-op for young children to have a chance to *socialize* (haha, my favorite homeschool word) and learn with other young children. We all agreed that we wanted something that was FUN, first and foremost, and something that wouldn’t weigh us down with a lot of strict requirements. We are looking at setting up a yearly membership fee (probably for the next school year), but for now, as we are getting our feet wet, we just want to have some basic guidelines: The fee each week is $3.00 per child with a $6.00 per family maximum. This fee is strictly to cover the use of materials needed for the co-op. We plan on organizing some field trips, and if you have any suggestions or would like to set up a field trip, that would be wonderful! We would also appreciate it if you could start thinking about classes that you may feel up to teaching or other capacities that you feel available to help out in. Our teachers have made plans for this first 9 weeks, and we would love to start having a general plan for the next quarter.
We do have a blog at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/communitycoop that you can check out for any updates on the co-op. Also, if you would like to e-mail any questions you may have, you can e-mail us at communitycoop1@yahoo.com. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or suggestions! J
Thank you so much for checking out our co-op!
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Jan. 3, 2008 - Welcome to the Community Co-op blog!!!!
Hi there! Welcome to the blog for Community Co-op. This is a relaxed co-op at Community Grace Brethren Church in West Milton, Ohio (also known as The Chicken Church, for all of the locals, LOL). We are starting classes January 17th (art, music and gym for the first quarter). Hopefully we will have a good turn out, as I would really like to see this co-op grow.
Here is all of the basic information (and you can e-mail me with any questions that you may have): the co-op will run every Thursday from 9:30 am until noon. It is for ages 5 through grade 6 (we will divide the children into two groups- ages 5 through grade 2, and grades 3 through 6). The cost is $3.00 a week per child, with a $6.00 per family max. We have 3 moms signed up to teach this quarter, but hopefully, as we grow, we will have more volunteers. Community Grace Brethren Church is located on State Route 48, on the south side of West Milton (directly across from the Eagles lodge).
We welcome all homeschoolers! Please contact me if you have any questions at all! :-)
