This past Saturday marked the culmination of a wonderful year of cooperative learning. Our Geography Club hosted a 5th Annual End-of-the-Year Spring Program. The 2012 program theme was such a hit, we decided to repeat it again this year. Each family chose one country that we had studied collectively this past year and presented our experiences to our extended family and friends in the form of an informative booth.
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| Egypt Booth-my family |
Although each booth was quite different, they all had the following common elements: an oral presentation by the children, a national food item to be passed around to the guests, and lots of information!
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| Canada Booth-The Architect's family |
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| Kenya Booth-The Deputy's family |
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| Australia Booth-The Radio Announcer's family |
Before the booth presentations, each mom took turns awarding special certificates to each of her kids honoring them for one particular success this past year. Some of the children received awards for improvement, others earned them for character qualities or academic achievement. It's always been a nice way to publicly praise our children for all their hard work.
One special award was given out to my Blonder Warrior...a kindergarten graduation certificate. Since we are a small co-op, we usually only have a few graduates each year. This year, there was only one. The Hubs came to the front to pray over our boy asking the Lord to continue to be with him and guide him for the next twelve years and beyond.
Then came the presentations. I really had a desire this year to be very "hand's off" while my children were preparing for the program. I bought supplies and answered questions when asked. But, other than that, I tried to stay out of the plans. It was so fun watching my children brainstorm together on both the display board and the oral presentations. While at times I wanted to insert my two cents, in the end, I am so glad I stayed mute.
They decided that Super Boy (1st grade) would MC our presentation. He introduced our country, explained each element of our display board, and introduced his sister's and brother's portion. (It was a nice way for the second born AND oldest boy gain some leadership skills.) Sweetie Pea (4th grade) read a report she had written for English class on modern day Egypt. And Blonde Warrior (kindergarten) shared a basket of items that held "things that we use that came from the Egyptians" like eye makeup, marbles, board games, and hard candy.
At the close of their presentation, I helped the children pass out samples of Gebna Makleyah, an Egyptian appetizer made with baked feta cheese.
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| The Architect's family |
After all the presentations, guests were invited to stick around for some more traditional treats and a short video slide-show of co-op pictures from the past year.
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| The Deputy's family |
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| The Unlikely Homeschool |
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| The Radio Announcer's family |
As is our tradition, the graduate got a small "congratulations" treat from mom and dad. Blonde Warrior is a huge Pixar Cars fan and was excited to receive a new "lemon" to add to his collection.
In case you are curious, our Geography Club (co-op) used the following resources as our CORE curriculum for the year.
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