This year's school co-op

All year I've been meaning to write about school co-op.... and finally, on the very last day of class, I'm getting around to doing it!

Rayna, Colsen, occasionally Miles and I have been meeting every Thursday with a great group of moms and kids.  The kids are split up by level -- elementary through high school -- and take 4 classes.  The elementary group this year learned botany, poetry, literature/book club, and countries/cultures.  The teachers were wonderful -- creative and energetic, coming up with creative activities for everyone to do each week.

I'm sure I've taken some stellar pictures all year.... but can't find many of them at this point.  Here is a quick smattering of some of the things we've done:

Learning about plants

Making sushi

Making valentine bags

More learning about something

Pretending to be all the parts of a tree trunk

More cooking

Rayna and all the boys!

  It turned out there were about 10 elementary kids -- 9 of them were boys.  Poor Rayna always finds herself surrounded by boys everywhere we go!  She never seems to mind, though.

Throughout the year the kids studied several different countries, always cooking or eating a food from that country, and usually doing a craft or activity from the region.  A few times they even learned a traditional dance!  Here is Ms. Tammy teaching them the flamenco (or something?):

We also took a little field trip to Ms. Julie's house, and since she has a new indigo-dying company, we were able to dye some shirts!

We are very thankful for all these families who welcomed us in this year!