World War #1 Co-op

Our driving question for our WW#1 Co-op was: Is war fair? Is Conscription fair? Is any means of warfare fair? Is it fair for those left at home?

For the introduction of the lesson: Allied and Axis forces - Trench warfare… Trenches, Barbed Wire, Craters and chances… 

I had a long piece of paper down the middle of the table with barbed wire and trenches drawn down each side. We talked about no man's land, about crossing and about your chances of getting to the other side.

Activity #1: Timeline of WW#1 (Canada’s Participation) - each student put their piece on the timeline on the table…

We discussed the events effecting Canada in WW#1 here and the students added their pieces to the timeline down the centre of the above sheet of paper. We then discussed each event.

I had the students divide into groups and summarize each of the battles and add the main points to the timeline - one person spoke about their summaries and one wrote on the timeline. They summarized information that I had taken from several books on Canada in WW#1. 

Activity #2 - Statistics - divide stats into axis and allies. I had given the groups 2 different statistics sheets for them to complete. Canadian Statistics and World Statistics. We got back together and discussed them.

Activity #3 - Debate - Conscription Crisis

“As the war progressed, Prime Minister Robert Borden, realizing that the volunteer system of raising troops had reached its limit, passed the Military Service Bill in 1917. This enforced conscription into Britain's war enraged the French Canadians and almost wrenched the country's two families apart. There were riots in the streets of Quebec and blood was shed. It didn't help that recruitment in Quebec was headed by the English elite or that Ontario had passed Regulation 17 or that the bitter memory of Riel's hanging still burned in the minds of French Canadians.”

While Quebec was rising to the protection of provincial rights over conscription, Ottawa was passing what would be one of the greatest centralizing measures - the Income Tax Act. This was meant to be only temporary, mind you, just a means of raising money to pay for the war effort. But this new "spending power" gave Ottawa the ability to finance bigger, national policies which the country demanded after the war.”

I had our students present their groups point of view if it were today and then have a debate about why you feel that this applies. What if today you were a farmer on the lower mainland with one of those huge greenhouses and you were providing food for 1000’s of people. What if you had been promised that you would not have to fight and then a military official came to your home and said that you would have to fight? What if this was about the world and you felt compelled to fight for freedom and yet you were going to have to fight for Britain?

Activity #4 - Women’s Rights - I read the below to our students - back to our original question - was it fair that women could go overseas and be nurses, work in factories etc. but still not have the right to vote? This was also a great discussion! Most of our male students could not see a reason why women were not given the vote earlier!!

Women Get the Vote 1916-1919

"It was during the First World War that some women in Canada were finally allowed to vote and in 1919 all women over 21 had the right to vote in a federal election.

Women's suffrage groups had existed since the 1870s, but during the war, it was hard to ignore their arguments. Women were serving in the war, taking over from the men in factories and offices, holding families together while the men were overseas, and working in voluntary organizations that supported the war effort. They couldn't be kept out of political life any longer.

Women got the federal vote in three stages: the Military Voters Act of 1917 allowed nurses and women in the armed services to vote; the Wartime Election Act extended the vote to women who had husbands, sons or fathers serving overseas; and all women over 21 were allowed to vote as of January 1, 1919.

Provincially, women were given the vote in 1916 in the four western provinces, in 1917 in Ontario, in 1918 in Nova Scotia, in 1919 in New Brunswick, in 1922 in Prince Edward Island, and in 1940 in Quebec.

Early feminists in Canada included women like Emily Stowe, who supported her children and a sick husband by working, illegally, as a doctor in Ontario. She'd had to go to New York to obtain her degree since Canadian women weren't allowed in medical school or any other higher educational institution at that time. She graduated in 1868. In 1876 she started the Toronto Women's Literacy Club, which was actually a women's suffrage group.

The first province to give women the vote was Manitoba. This was where Nellie McClung had rented the Walker Theatre in Winnipeg in 1914 and staged a mock parliament, casting herself as premier and putting men in the role of having to beg her for the vote. The event was a great success, both financially and politically. McClung was also one of the five women who campaigned to have women recognized as "persons" by the Supreme Court so that they could qualify to sit on the Senate. They were finally successful with their "Persons Case" in 1929.

The women's suffrage movement was often linked with temperance societies which were demanding the prohibition of alcohol. Women argued that excessive drinking by men ruined family life and led to much domestic violence. But alcohol wouldn't likely be abolished, they said, until women got the vote."

Final wrap up: I asked the students:  Have you changed your ideas at all in what is fair and what is not? Is war and all means of warfare fair? Is Conscription fair? Is the way that women were treated during WW#1 fair?

Another great Co-op day! If you need help with your High School Co-op drop me a line and I would love to help ;) Blessings!!

Immigration - A great start to our Co-op year!

Our first Co-op this year started a new chapter with the addition of Biblical Hermeneutics. For the first hour of the morning we had the benefit of a wonderful pastor teaching our children about Hermeneutics. It is pretty deep first thing for these teens but it will be such a great addition to our day!

This Co-op centered around Immigration in Canada. Each of the students told a story about how their ancestors came to Canada.  For this session the students were asked to be prepared to answer:
Who had come? (how many generations ago?)
Why had they come?
Where had they come from?

The students ended up hearing immigration stories from many different generations, countries and reasons for coming to Canada. I think this was such a visual representation of diversity in this relatively small sample of BC. 

After lunch, the students learned about Picasso and started on their Picasso-like self portrait collages. As always our art instructor sets up the lesson with the life of the artist and facts about the art that our students will be creating. There is always a lively lesson with one so gifted in art and drama!

Then the students "went to town"! Such a great lesson and lots of opportunity for creativity!!
After art it was off to the ball diamond for a great game of softball to finish off a full, but very fun day!! 
Blessings!!

Movies as Literature - Young Victoria

It is great to be back after taking the summer off from schooling! One of the highlights for me is to start once again with our Movies as Literature class. Our first class was Young Victoria. In Social Studies this year we will be studying the Victorian era so this movie was as much a Social Studies class as a literature one. 
I have been trying very hard to get the right technology for us. Right now we are in Blackboard Collaborate, but it is a little more restrictive and less desirable than Google Hangouts. I am working on how we can best make our class work! 
I do love to participation of these students! How they comment on each others work, how they share in the questions, and their participation in the session itself has been wonderful. Google Docs has definitely been a great collaboration tool.

Here are the questions to Young Victoria. If you need advice on setting up your virtual English class using movies, just let me know. I would love to help! 
Blessings, Natalie

Space Exploration Co-op

Our last Co-op for this school year, as always, was bittersweet. It has been such a great year of expanding friendships, prayer for each other, ongoing support and learning together. We have bonded this year at an even deeper level and each new family has added a new dimension and a new opportunity for learning from each other!

This co-op was a collaboration with another mom and it was great to use her resource ideas as well as my own! To start with the students got in pairs and did a Solar System Scavenger Hunt! This was a great idea! It got them some interesting trivia about space as well as laying a foundation of the the basics about the planets. 

We followed this up with Planet Riddles that I read aloud and the students yelled out their answers.

Next I introduced the students to Mars One. I wanted them to estimate what they thought the timeline would be for Mars One. I showed them the NASA photo of what NASA intends Mars One to look like (above). They worked in groups of two and wrote down their ideas using this timeline form.

I then read this article and guided the discussion to “Is the money spent on Space worth it?” The students chose their viewpoint and were divided by about 2/3rds on the no side and 1/3rd on the yes side. They came up with a variety of arguments for both yes and no. I was impressed with their passion for their sides! We had a short mini-debate about this issue and I think both teams won!!

To finish up the morning I had the students watch this video on Humanity and Space Exploration and how the International Space Station has affected changes in humanity. I asked after the video if any of the students that voted no wanted to change their mind - they all held to their position! 

After lunch the students did a run through of Les Miserables and then performed it for us. These plays are so valuable in learning the context of a story and the timeframe! Our drama mom works very hard writing these and I understand that she has three great ones lined up for next year!! 

To finish up the year the last sports time was Ultimate Frisbee - it had been raining pretty hard at the beginning and I was impressed how these students chose to just go with it! Thanks to our sports dad who didn’t give up even with the rain!! 

Looking forward to next year!! I am sure it will be another amazing one!!

Grade 9 Electricity Co-op - Such a great day!!

It was such a great day this month for Co-op! I love the way all of our moms and our PE dad teach our children with such passion for their topics! It is such a blessing to have devoted members of a co-op!

Our topic was Electricity and our two moms that were teaching set up 4 stations and divided the students in 4 groups. 

The first station used the card game AC DC to learn about circuits. You can learn more about this card game here. This took a little explanation but once the students got ahold of the rules away they went!

The second station was several experiments testing static electricity. They certainly had fun with those balloons! They  learned about bending water and static charges and our moms had provided a sheet to record their findings. Great fun!!

The third station they tested a wide variety of items for electrical charges. Our students then recorded their results. 

The fourth station was using Squishy Circuits to create electrical circuits. This was awesome! Our moms had made up conductive and insulating play dough ahead of time and then the students used is as part of the experiments! It looked like alot of fun!!

So much learning took place that morning just from listening to the students interact with each other and experiment in different ways! Such a great morning!!

In the afternoon the students finished up their Sunflower (Van Gogh) or Scream (Munch) paintings from last month. It is always a joy to see our students embrace this art time! 

Over the years our students have learned about so many artists and then tested their skills! We have such a gifted art/drama mom who really encourages our students to be creative and do their best!

Spring means baseball and so our students got the opportunity to play baseball together! I love the team sports aspect of our co-op! Many of our students don’t participate in a team sport so co-op has been such a great way to learn a wide variety of sports! Each year I think the experience get’s richer for them!!

One of the greatest blessings of co-op are our families - meeting with the moms each month gives me such encouragement - they are a committed, loving group of moms!! Seeing the students learning and interacting with each other gives me such hope for our future leaders!! We are truly blessed!!

Grade 9 Science Co-op - Reproduction and Genetics

We had our first Science Co-op for Grade 9 and it was excellent! To start with our art and drama mom took over the beginning of the lesson teaching about genetics. First she had the students fill out an inventory of traits. 

This gave our students something to relate to as they continued through the lesson. She had prepared a graph before hand and the students then filled out the graph together based on the inventory. 

She explained how genetics work with dominant and recessive genes and how they effect our traits. It was a wonderful lesson. This has always been a little confusing to me, but I understand it much better now! I am glad that I was listening!! Many moms say that they learned more from homeschooling than in there entire time in school - I must say that I have to agree with that!

Next another one of our moms discussed abortion and development of babies. It too, was an excellent lesson. She first had the kids watch this video. 

She then had models to show them and she talked to them about what happens in an abortion and what stage the fetus is in. She also had our students look up several verses on the sanctity of life.The hands on nature of this lesson really put things into perspective for our students. It was excellent! 

Our mom’s knowledge and passion for the subject really shone through!!

Next it was another run through of Les Miserables. It is such a blessing to have these dramas. It gets our students so comfortable with reading in a group, being patient, staying focussed and being comfortable in all kinds of characters. 

Each one of our students knows the piece of literature so well as they go through it! Through our students years in co-op our students have become so culturally competent. They know plays, literature and have a grasp on time frames and culture during those time frames. What a blessing as they go into their adult lives!!

After this it was off to gym time. Our gym dad led the kids in a session of European Handball. They played it once last year, so it was great that they had another opportunity.

Another wonderful day at Co-op with our amazing students and incredible moms!! I can’t imagine our homeschool without this opportunity!

Industrial Revolution Co-op

We had a wonderful Industrial Revolution co-op for our final social studies co-op of 2013/14. For the next four months we will be addressing Grade 9 BC science outcomes. This is the first time we have done science in this co-op and I am so looking forward to it! We have some very talented moms that teach in our co-op and we can look forward to some great lessons ahead!!

Back to the Industrial Revolution…

Our mom had the students take a look at the Factory Acts and see if there was any benefit to the workers in each of the Acts. 

She gave the students a printout with the Acts and they interpreted them based on the following criteria.

Ages and Hours Worked

Changes in Working Conditions

Other Changes

After they discussed if the changes were beneficial or not to the workers with each act. Our mom then challenged the students about working conditions around the world today. 

She then set up a debate for or against child labour. The group that was for child labour had a much more challenging task, as these students have a great sense of social justice. I have seen their compassion and heart many times through our co-ops! It was great to see these students engaging in a debate. I hope that we will have many more of these in the future.

This co-op was a perfect tie in to our North and South study and really enhanced our study of the Industrial Revolution. What a blessing to have talented teachers and engaged students!!

The students then had a break and in the afternoon had an art study on portraits with our Art/Drama mom…

Here is her synopsis:

“On Monday we talked about how art changed during this time period. There was more realism, more perspective, more mood, light and shadow, and more portraits. We talked about the first thing you notice in a portrait (eyes), and how to draw them correctly. The kids chose either charcoal or pencil and we drew eyes first. Next we drew full portraits and I gave the kids some measurements by which to check if the facial features were in correct location.”

These students have been so blessed to get such great art/drama instruction each month in this class. There are so many skills our students are learning! I am always amazed!!

Then it was off to the gym with our PE dad who taught our students more skills in floor hockey. 

After the session, he led the students through a devotion and then it was time to be off…

Co-op days are a long day, but it is always bittersweet when they are over!! 

Blessings,

Natalie