Year 2, Day 126: The Last Day of HSG Co op

What a bittersweet day!  While most were excited that we finished our homeschool co op days, I also know we will miss the very sweet people we've met and spent all this time with learning lots and lots!  It was a pretty typical co op day concerning the classes, but then we had a big ice cream bar and loads of game time, as well as displays of the kids' work.  Since Gary and Jared were on a business trip for the evening, Grandma, Benaiah, and of course Abishai all came and hung out with us.  Benaiah seemed to enjoy running a brand new game that one of the families got for Christmas and played with the adults.  While the teens played "spoons" and on the phones.  And you'll see what the littles and middles got up to.  I had an hr nap this afternoon because I'm so tired and my stomach is still not doing well.  If I seem out of it at times, that's probably the reason why.

Speaking of illnesses, one of my favorite people at co op was missing today because she had vertigo.  Mrs. Trixie is such a lovely person and I'll miss her way of teaching my kids.  We will be getting together soon on her hobby farm because I've heard all about it and it sounds charming!  Plus, Justin wants to talk to Luke about the Pokemon' game.  But it was disappointing that they couldn't be here tonight and see what the kids' did for their history class.  I'll make sure to bring them over to her when we visit.

So, it's sad when you have to say good bye, but I'm excited for next year as well.  I think I just finished purchasing everything I want for next year, including Foundations book, and a Latin curriculum.  We have history and math already, and I had purchased that writing curriculum last week.  I'm so excited to get into all of it!  I wish we did have time to do school in the summer!  Justin is upset that we might start some Latin memorization over the summer, but I told him, he can only read Lord of the Rings for so many of the 12 hrs he's awake.  10 minutes on Latin or other memory work is not going to break your day, dude.  He is upset tonight because I let Abishai play with some minifigures I used in the cake (see below) and one of the special hair pieces is now gone.  I'll be trying to find a replacement on eBay or through the Lego company itself or one of those businesses we saw at the Lego exhibit.  I just hope it's not $20 or something!  It is a very special piece though!

Ok, pictures for the day:

While Keturah and Justin finished up co op today, Abishai was learning how to play the drums at Grandma's house.  What a racket!

We went to get groceries yesterday so I could get a gluten free cake mix.  We came out with 1/2 of a normal load of groceries.  Whoops.  Anyway, the sign is still up, but good bye Family Christian Bookstores! Thank you for providing a job for Jared during his high school years (same branch of the store, but it was in a different strip mall).  The kids want to know what will replace it.  I don't have a clue what it will be.

Abishai wants to stay out of the cart now, and today, he pulled the cart all by himself!

Playing in the car waiting for someone.

Baby selfie.

Waiting on Grandma to come pick him up.

The kids have loved spending their money at the vending machine in the gym of the church where we do co op.  It's still a novelty to them, and to be honest, to me, too.  I haven't had regular access to one in ages and never knew of them in childhood.  Yummy!

Justin's face after his first attempt of cleaning off his face painting (see full picture below).  He looks like he's got a mustache or facial hair and a red mask like the green one that the Arrow wears.

After we went home, he washed off the rest of the face painting. Then he had Mrs. Brooke redo it, but this time, he had her make the leftover smudges into bumps and bruises.  What!?  Eww!

Miss Keturah and her love for sparkles and color.  And thankfully, Mrs. Brooke doesn't mind sharing her talents with the kids. 

More drums for baby.

Boom, bang, bam!

Working hard with magnets at co op this morning.

All the kids have these magnetic building pieces!

The leaning tower of Pisa!

Final touches on our folders for tonight's, "See What I've Done Night."

His usual snack and toys.

I want to remember this cool set of ramps where you could push the claw down where one of the cars with the rubber holey ball thing on the top, and it would grab the car and slowly lift it up.  By pushing it down, you would wind it up so that they went up by itself.  Then it released the car at the top and it would literally bounce off of a trampoline underneath it!  You could also push the cars down the ramps and one of the lead to the same trompline.  Fun!

I think this is the last time Justin will get a full face of face paint.  It bothered the skin around his eyes and it was so hard to get off.  He decided on the Poke' ball of all things.

Mrs. Brooke and her paints are very popular with the younger kiddos.

I printed out photos of what we did for fun in math class after their worksheets were done.  They are such goofs!

Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel (Mary Anne) for the littles' class.

Our papers on Peter Rabbit, also for the littles' unit study class with me.

Here's what I could put together for Mrs. Trixie's history class.  They have their nice state project folders plus some other posters they've worked on.  I encouraged Keturah to pick New Hampshire because it would be easiest for me to work on with her since I know a lot of it by heart.  And the president she chose to study was Franklin Pierece.

Keturah found one of our Usborne Face Painting books, so she showed Brooke exactly what she wanted - a tropical sunset!  Including sparkley yellow lips!  Perfect for my sparkley girl!

Sparkley lips!

The main cast in my classes - two of the littles, and then the 4 math kids.

Ugh, why does he have to look like he's hurt!  It was creative of him to take what was let on his face and turn it into something, though!

Posters that Mrs. Kim used to teach the kids in their Word Stories class.

Aw, our hosts asked us to clean out our closest in the kitchen at the church.  So we did.  And one of the moms took it all home to store until next year.

Teens on their phones.

Ice cream bar!  Complete with cinnamon chocolate chips, corn flakes and sea salt caramel chips!  Although, Keturah didn't have any of that.  We also had cherries and bluebberry pie filling to add to the gluten free chocolate cake I made.

Ah, I picked a great choice of games to bring tonight!  Twister was a big hit with the littles and middles!

Even Abishai got in on the action.

Teens playing a game I think.

Benaiah joined the adults to try out a new game full of trivia!

Some of the other moms, and Austin, who graduated from the co op a few years ago.  He now teaches high school math.  He's very, very intelligent and always conversant with the other moms.

Spoons!  It's a game that we used to play in high school!  And they play it on PEI, too.

Doctor Who Monopoly with the littles/middles.

Some of the other sweet moms - Crystal, Serena, Brooke, and Kim.  And the long full table of sweets to add to ice cream!

Ah, what a fantastic crew!  Full of personality and fun!  I'm sure going to miss them!

This year was a blast! We hope to stay connected with these families through Facebook and maybe our paths will cross again.  Good bye!