Cars, Planes, Boats and Trains

The previous blog post spoke to making boys into manly men by teaching them important life skills.  This post is about organizing a co-op for the younger boys and girls, based on the history of transportation.  My daughter who lives in Texas with her three sons (ages 6, 4 and newborn), will be hosting a co-op this fall and she has asked me to help her organize it.  Asking me to help organize a co-op is like inviting a chocoholic to a "Death by Chocolate" event.

One of the reasons I love co-ops, as a homeschool mom, is that children of various ages can participate, keeping families together.  Another reason I love co-ops is because the parents share responsibilities, lessening the work load.  But, one of the better benefits of having your children participate in a co-op, especially at young ages, is that you can create a safe and friendly environment for the students to give presentations.  The earlier a child begins to speak in "public," the less afraid he'll be of speaking in public later.

With a co-op centered around transportation, it will be easy for a young child to give a presentation to the group because he can do something short and simple, such as holding up a picture or a model of a mode of transportation and saying a few sentences about it.

Here is a preliminary schedule for a transportation co-op:

Week one:     Walking with mention of wheels on carts, early boats and animals

Week two:     Chariots, wagons, bicycles

Week three:   Cars

Week four:    Trains

Week five:     Boats

Week six:       Planes, balloons, dirigibles

Week seven:  Emergency Vehicles

Week eight:   Rockets

Week nine:    Future transportation (driverless car, trips to moon)

Week ten:      Review and party

The subjects we will include are as follows:  devotions, songs, manners, timeline, science, thematic snacks, student presentations,  geography, craft, games and pre-view of next week.

One of the highlights of our co-ops has been to publish a newsletter that includes a re-cap of co-op highlights as well as the children's presentations.  Of course photographs are included as well.  The newsletters are great to share with others, put in your child's portfolio, and keep as a memory to enjoy later.

Below is a chart of what the first week of this co-op might look like.  Eventually we plan to publish all of our co-op guides as a part of our "Better Together" series, but for now you can use this and if you send me your email address, I will share the plans for the other nine weeks as they are developed!

For thematic snack ideas, go here:  http://pinterest.com/mamaweso/transportation-co-op/