Final Day of Coop For the Year

At the final Fourth-Friday Coop of the year we made Marshmallow Guns! They were pretty easy to make and the kids had a great time playing with them.

Alli had a little trouble figuring out how to use her gun. She kept sucking in her breath instead of expelling it, and her marshmallow kept flying into her mouth!

The big kids started a war. For the most part it was everyone else against Jessie!


After coop, we all stayed around for a bar-b-que. We each cooked up our own meat, and brought a side dish to share.

Then some of the kids played football.

When we finally decided to call it a day, we realized that we had been there for 8 hours or so! Of course, the kids said stuff like, "Awe! Why do we have to leave already!?"

Mama's Shawl

We've mentioned before that we are in charge of teaching and coordinating the handicraft at our coop. In September we took on the task of teaching the moms and kids of the coop to knit. Although I had taken knitting classes more than ten years prior, I had never finished a single project. It took some brushing up, a visit to grandma's house, and quite a bit of help from Britany, but in the end I got my basic facts straight and taught everyone what I had learned.

I really enjoyed knitting this time around, so I kept at it though the winter. I finished my first scarf sometime in January, and then finally this weekend, I finish my first shawl. (The weather got cold on us, which was motivating.) Anyway, everyone else in the family gets to show off their accomplishments on this blog, so I though I would too this time! :)

Current Events

During school we get on the computer to read current events, to see what's going on in the world. We look at Student News Daily, The Big Picture, and sometimes we look at Time for Kids.

Whenever we read about something online, we map the location on our map.

Story Time

by Lizzie

During story time we all do different activities. Each day we pick a new activity to do. We have a lot of choices. Britany and I normally prefer to color or stamp. Sometimes the little girls will play a computer game so they won't distract us, but it doesn't always work. Ronnie and Mary prefer to just sit and listen. Mitchell does unique things with wire and sometimes paper. It's really fun, but we do have to pay attention.

Gracie (above) and Alli (below) playing the Zoboomafoo Creature Quest ABC Animal Adventure.

Teacher's pet. ;)

Mary thinks the best thing about homeschooling is learning while on the couch. :)

Mitchell wire sculpting.

The little girls are drinking tea. Frequently in the winter we make a hot tea to drink during story time.

Natural Tunnel State Park

We started out our visit to the Natural Tunnel State Park by having a picnic lunch with friends.

Then we headed down the trail to the creek.
The ranger showed us how to find creatures in the creek.

Then we looked at what we collected.

After that we walked down the path to the Natural Tunnel. The railroad put tracks right through it.

On the other side of the canyon the railroad blasted a hole because they couldn't turn so sharp.

Then we road the chair lift up to the top again.

Lastly, we went to see the block house replica and view a short video about how settlers used block houses to protect themselves when they moved West.

It was a very fun day!

White's Mill

Ronnie - We went to White's Mill in Abington, Virginia for a field trip. We went on a hike and were shown the river and mill pond that used to power the mill. When we got back from the hike, we went inside of the mill and saw all of the milling equipment. The stones that were in the flour mill weighed over 1000 pounds and were imported from France at around 1790. We learned a lot about milling on that field trip and it was really fun.

We took a short hike up to the mill pond where we ate our lunch and visited with friends.

The mill pond is up behind Alli. The dam has broken, so the creek runs right through it.

This picture shows the broken part of the dam. Previously the water was diverted from the mill pond down a side creek to power the mill.

The little kids really enjoyed the creek. The saw lots of little black snails.

Lizzie, Alli, Mary and Gracie sitting on the front porch of the mill.

From inside the building you can look down over the mill wheel.

Mr. Price showed us three different milling machines that have been used at that mill over the last 200 years.

This picture above shows how the building was constructed.

Above is Braden standing in front of the gears that propel the old mill.

We bought some corn meal that was ground there and made corn bread the next afternoon. Our favorite!

Painting with Walnut Ink at Coop

After we prepared the Walnut ink, we took it to coop with us to share with our friends. Everyone had a chance to paint with it and take some home with them as well. Mitchell used the walnut ink and leaves to create this stamped picture.