Saturday, April 15, 2017

First But Not Last! (Homeschool Coop)

Homeschool coops are awesome!  This little group has been perfect for us as we've begun to branch out of just our 'home' circle.  Our last few weeks together were spent on field trips to the World Wildlife Zoo and the Natural History Museum.  Baba took the day off for the Zoo because I wasn't sure how I would manage 4 kiddos all on my own.

Pumpkin LOVES birds!  The Macaws that were right at the entrance had her captivated!


Bud isn't all too interested in animals but he got to hang out with two of his friends almost the whole time we were there.


Its always fun to feed the giraffes and see their long blue tongues!  I never got to feed the lorikeets since I was so busy try to capture it on camera and keep a Bubby occupied safely.  Bug LOVED it and even though Pumpkin loves birds she was careful to keep a distance.



We caught one of their shows and enjoyed it while eating lunch. 



Once we'd separated from our group Bud got into the marine animals a bit more.  He's never been fond of any kind of living creature except humans but he figured the marine ones had less developed nervous systems and might be 'safer'. 



Goofy as always!  These two are like night and day!

Our friend from the ward, Sister Webb joined us for the Natural History Museum.  While the venue was such I knew the oldest two could just wander with the other kids and I could tend to the littlest two, it was still hard for Bubby to be so contained.  I was grateful for her help herding Pumpkin around so that I  could tend to a frustrated, overstimulated Bubby and make good use of run around time in contained areas.  Between the two of us and the other moms help we all had a good time.


It is always awe inspiring to walk in and see the size of these creatures!


Sister Webb was awesome and making sure Pumpkin had a chance to see some of these fossils and models up close.

The challenge of putting pottery back together.  Bud says it's the ultimate puzzle!


Almost all the kids worked together on this large pottery puzzle.  It wasn't easy to complete, let alone work with so many people cooperatively.  For at least one of my munchkins it was a good lesson on NOT controlling other, communicating thoughts and reasoning politely and for the other kiddo it was a lesson on sticking to one's gut response even in the face of criticism.  They all did awesome and were proud of the finished work.  I was particularly proud of their teamwork.


Carefully touching items several hundreds of years old!

The panning for gold was an ultimate favorite for just about everyone, including Bubby.  This meant a bath for anyone within close proximity to the boy but he was happy with this exhibit.




Digging for dinosaur bones and playing on the dino park.


Gems and minerals are huge with Bud.




At the end of it all was a classroom where the children could play with many different things and I let Bubbalicious out for some run around time.  Bud spent most of it with his friend playing happily, Bug was off studying bugs (no surprise there!) and Pumpkin was happy to have some of my attention to color and snuggle.


I never want the years to go by and never be in any of the pictures so I was so grateful that Sister Webb caught these few of me with the munchkins.  Good memories together!



My Pumpkin is a doll!!



We don't know what we will do for future coops but we've been so grateful for this one.  It has helped me to see that I don't have to be my kids only teacher and realize that asking humbly for help can make the extra-curricular activities a reality for our whole family to experience.  It's really about building a community of families learning together.  I hope to reach out and make some of these things possible in my own home soon.  Much thanks to Danna for putting this group together and taking care of science for a few months, to Ashley for the fun cooking classes that also made lunch for the kiddos easier on that day, and lastly but not least to Robyn to helped to branch out my sorely lacking art curriculum and inspire some confidence in my Buglove to try a little more.  You ladies are awesome!

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