Hi All!
I am looking for some help with ideas and resources. We are joining (helping start, actually) a new homeschoolers' co-op in our area for the fall and I am teaching social studies, "author's chair/journalism" and PE. I am looking for resources to use as spines or for ideas about activities we can do in the small amount of time we will have. We have yet to decide what are the specific areas of interest the kids/families involved have, but if I can have an idea about some ways to go about this or spines to use (esp. for social studies) I think that would guide us a bit. Right now we're not really willing to just poll the kids and say "what do you want to learn about?" because that feels really overwhelming and disorganized. We will also have a different time set aside for "unit studies" which is basically a designated time for bringing in stuff to work on whatever you want to learn about separate from the social studies time so I would like this time to be a little more structured.
Challenges:
1. We will have kids between the ages of 5 (a gifted kid who is already at a pretty high level) and 13. Mpst of the kids are ages 6-11.
2. We will have social studies once a week for 45 minutes, PE once a week for 45 minutes and a 15 minute period (possibly longer if they stay after school) for either reading stories they themselves have written or for working on a school newspaper or other joint project. I'm thinking this is not enough time to work on a joint project (so they would have to make this one of the "after school activities" but I was wondering if we could do a weekly writing challenge where I give some kind of cool idea or "assignment" that everyone has to produce for the next week?
I really appreciate any ways in which you guys can point me in some good thought directions. Thanks!!!
I am looking for some help with ideas and resources. We are joining (helping start, actually) a new homeschoolers' co-op in our area for the fall and I am teaching social studies, "author's chair/journalism" and PE. I am looking for resources to use as spines or for ideas about activities we can do in the small amount of time we will have. We have yet to decide what are the specific areas of interest the kids/families involved have, but if I can have an idea about some ways to go about this or spines to use (esp. for social studies) I think that would guide us a bit. Right now we're not really willing to just poll the kids and say "what do you want to learn about?" because that feels really overwhelming and disorganized. We will also have a different time set aside for "unit studies" which is basically a designated time for bringing in stuff to work on whatever you want to learn about separate from the social studies time so I would like this time to be a little more structured.
Challenges:
1. We will have kids between the ages of 5 (a gifted kid who is already at a pretty high level) and 13. Mpst of the kids are ages 6-11.
2. We will have social studies once a week for 45 minutes, PE once a week for 45 minutes and a 15 minute period (possibly longer if they stay after school) for either reading stories they themselves have written or for working on a school newspaper or other joint project. I'm thinking this is not enough time to work on a joint project (so they would have to make this one of the "after school activities" but I was wondering if we could do a weekly writing challenge where I give some kind of cool idea or "assignment" that everyone has to produce for the next week?
I really appreciate any ways in which you guys can point me in some good thought directions. Thanks!!!
