monday classes

I've been trying to find time to post about our super-duper fun Monday Homeschool Classes! I'm teaching a Living History class called "Colonial Days" to a lively group of kids who are 8 years and up. We're working on authentic colonial cooking and crafts, and are learning the types of games that the kids played during the colonial years. We're following the story of a family who lived near Springfield, MA in the early 1700s. Since everything needed to be hand-made back then (it was far too difficult and expensive to buy things from Europe), we spent this week's class weaving as the Colonists needed to do to produce cloth for clothing and coverlets.


J is taking the class, and here he is working industriously on his weaving. Weaving was so important to the colonists that there was actually a law enacted in Massachusetts in 1640 requiring each family to produce a certain amount of cotton or else face a fine.

In addition to weaving, we've made butter and Maple Cream, and learned a target-practice game that helped colonial boys improve their aim for when they went hunting.


J's finished weaving project, a useful mug mat!

Next class we're going to do what the Colonists did when clothing wore out -- braid rag rugs with the cloth! I'm excited to do it with the class!








The boys are also in a Spanish Class -- here they are playing the Spanish Restaurant game in our kitchen (one is the waiter as ask what the customer wants, and the customer tells him, all in Spanish of course). The kids have been playing this a lot.

Zoo Boy was in his own class originally, but was too insecure for the portion of class (the majority of it) where only Spanish was being spoken. So now he and I are observing in J's class. Which is working out great, since The Boy is more of a watch-and-learn sort of kid anyway. It's certainly worked well to build his enthusiasm for speaking in Spanish at home! And it's great for me to be able to watch and learn as well.


Both boys were eager to work on their worksheets (optional exercises handed out by the teacher in case the kids wanted to do them) as soon as we got home on Monday.

One more class to talk about -- J's drama class. Hoo Boy, what a hit! They are doing an AMAZINGLY adorable musical called "Anansi and the Strange Moss-Covered Rock." J is a monkey. (Type casting!) The kids got to pick their roles, and I was surprised when J chose one of the lesser roles. Usually he's a limelight-grabber. But he's SO enthusiastic about it! This play will be practiced for two semesters, so won't be performed until the end of the winter semester.

Both boys agree that Monday is one of the best days of the week! I agree as well -- I really feel like this community has gelled, and I feel like a comfortable part of it. The boys have friends that they look forward to seeing each week, and so do I. This group is definitely one of our blessings of homeschooling!