A little bit of school

Our first co-op meeting for the new school year is now just a memory.  It felt good to see everyone and meet new friends.  Co-op is a wonderful way for the kids to remember that they are not on this learning journey alone.  Yes, there are other kids in the world who have schoolwork too!  It is not some evil plan mom thought up just to take away some play time!

As our core curriculum we are using Tapestry of Grace and we are currently in year 2.  This past week our focus was on the Byzantine Empire and the rise of Islam.

Ethan made a mosque and told the class a little about it's distinctive features.

 

Megan made a triptych.  The "painting" is of a dragon and some guys living in tents.  Not exactly the Byzantine Empire theme... but that's how we roll.

 

 

Logan wrote a 3 page(!) report on the history of the Byzantine Empire.  Our long term goal for the year is to improve our writing.  I'm pretty impressed that his report was three pages long.  That is much improved over last year.

 

Today in co-op we made "stained glass" windows,

 

 

And geometric art.  I found this great blog post at ClassicPlay that I used as the lesson.

 

Megan's

Megan's full view.  She loves to doodle! :)

Ethan's.  He is such a perfectionist and the compass he was working with wasn't professional quality.  This was try number three.

 

Looking ahead to next week: Medieval Europe.  Hmm, I'm thinking we'll be designing our own coat of arms very soon.