First Day of "School"

It's Fall and so it's time for the kids to start back at EMMA Classes, their Friday co-op. This year, Irene joins the fun as she's finally able to start some schoolwork. It's pretty much art and music at this point, but that doesn't matter to her! She just wants to be part of the fun.

Olivia's starting to prepare for her high school career with Math Review, Intermediate Spanish, Public Speaking/Debate, and Literature and Writing. 

The boys are in most of the same classes, like history, Beginning Spanish, and music. They are taking different art classes this year, tho. One new one they're doing, though at different times, is LEGO Robotics. They are super excited!!!

Emma is moving up from the simple stuff she did last year to take on new things like Historical Heroes, Science, Art, Music and PE.

Even though it's only one day a week, they absolutely love the classes and the other kids they get to see each week.

Arts and Sciences Night - EMMA Classes - Spring 2018

It's that time of year again! The kids have had an amazing term at EMMA classes, continuing their courses from last fall. once again, one of the boys' favorite classes was Art. Their teacher, Ms. Patti, had them using various styles and media to create some very cool pieces.

 

 

 

Emma also loved her art class! She got to do so many awesome things with her class!

 

 

 

Other than their art class, the boys had a geography project where they had to make salt dough maps of a country that they had studied. Ezra chose Italy and Gabriel picked Israel.While I did help them some with the dough portion of the maps, they handled all the painting and labeling.

 

Olivia didn't have an art class this year, but she did have a couple of science classes that had projects for her to put together. She's gotten to be very independent in her work, so these were done with almost no input from us.

Her first one was a presentation on the Appendix. She had to research its function and purpose, plus talk about how it can get infected and interesting stuff like that.

Her other science project was to create a salt water acid battery.

She had to sand one side of a bunch of pennies down to remove the copper coating and expose the zinc.

 While she was doing that, she had to soak cardboard in a solution of salt water and vinegar.

 once all that was done, she stacked the pennies, copper side down with the cardboard between them.

Then when you attach a small LED light to opposite ends of the stack, it lights up! Something about the different metals interacting with the salt, vinegar and water causes an electrical current. So long as the cardboard stayed damp, the light would stay lit.

We really do love EMMA classes and so do the kids! It gives them a chance to learn and do things with kids their age that we might not be able to do at home. 

EMMA Arts and Sciences Night - Fall 2017

Well, another semester is gone and it was time for the EMMA classes Arts & Sciences night! This was the first time we had four kids all in classes. This term, Olivia took Spanish, Chemistry and Physics, and General Science. The boys took Geography, Science, and Art. Emma had an activities class that went for 2 hours and an art class. All the kids took PE and Music. 

 Olivia doubled up on her science this year, so she had to do 2 projects. Her Chemistry and Physics project was to make a lava lamp using water, oil and Alka-Seltzer. It was a fun one, for sure. 

 For General Science, she had to choose a famous scientist and do a presentation about him, so she chose Galileo and did very well. 

 For the boys' Science project, they had to choose an animal from Africa, the Amazon or Australia and make a posterboard. Gabe chose the Green Anaconda, the largest snake in the world. 

 Ezra, however, went more cuddly and chose the kinkajou, which is kind of like an Amazonian raccoon, only cuter and less hazardous to my chickens!

 Emma did really well for her first time taking classes. She loved her teachers and really loved doing her art.  

Kid's got a future, am I right? 

 The boys were also proud to show off their works of art.

  

The highlight of the evening, though, was the play. All 4 kids were in it. The younger 3 were singing in the choir, but Olivia grabbed a small solo part, which she was super excited about. They had such a fun time! If you're feeling froggy, you can watch the whole thing below. Beware! It's half an hour long!

If you're in the GSO/HP area and are considering a homeschooling co-op, I would highly recommend EMMA. The staff and teachers are fantastic and the kids are having a great time learning each week!