Co-op This Week | Subject: Olmecs (Ancient Civilizations)
Yesterday was our co-op day. We’ve been studying Ancient Civilizations this semester. Our focus this week was the Olmecs.
If you are not familiar with this group of people, they were an ancient Mesoamerican civilization believed to have thrived along the Mexican Gulf Coast from approximately 1200 to 400 B.C.
Our co-op is small-ish. Nine families. Eleven kids, ages 5-12. Five of the moms rotate lessons for the semester. Most lessons consist of several rounds of sharing information pertinent to the day’s topic and breaking between each sharing session to do a related activity.
This was not my week to teach, but I wanted to share my kids’ work, perhaps as inspiration, and definitely as a keepsake for myself to look back on here.
The first project of the day was making stone heads out of air dry clay, which was representative of the giant stone heads the Olmecs were known for creating. The kids were shown several photos as inspiration and given toothpicks and popsicle sticks to use to carve and shape.
She was so proud of the helmet.
Hers and his. He was slightly less enthused with the project, thus putting much less time and energy into it. But he still did it and knew what it represented.
The second project was patiently wrapping rubber bands around a wadded up piece of paper to make a bouncy ball. They used the small rainbow loom bands. This activity was meant to correspond with learning that the Olmecs were the first known civilization to use rubber.
The last project for the day was constructing a pyramid with homemade Rice Krispie treats and vanilla buttercream icing (so, so yum…our resident baker was the teacher, which is always exciting 😋). This was a nod to the Olmecs building pyramids or pyramid-like structures like most other ancient groups of people.
His. I took a photo of hers–which was wider and flatter than her brother’s–but some of the other kids were in the background, and I wanted to respect their privacy so chose not to post.
The Olmec lesson may sound somewhat simple, but doing projects with 11 kids can take up a big chunk of time. And some lessons are shorter or less involved than others. It’s so wonderful that each week is similarly structured, yet approached from a different mind. And we’re always encouraged to dive deeper into each topic.
Next week is my second lesson to teach for the semester. I’ve been excited about it since watching the Sight & Sound Theatre’s “Daniel” last month when it was in theaters on Labor Day weekend. So much to unpack and learn.
Went outside around 8pm a couple of nights ago to see if we could see any meteors (Draconid meteor shower). I came back in 20 or so mins later having seen three 💫 and with approx. 20 mosquito bites. Still worth it.
3 of us have also been doing a lot of baseball watching, while 1 does the playing. ⚾️🤍
Been doing a LOT of thrifting, though. And that’s been a real fun outlet. One of my favorites when there’s time, actually.
It’s been a weirdly busy, but not bad season that feels nothing like Fall at all.
Back to baseball for a couple months 😊⚾️🧢
Testing out his creation
A few thrift finds from this week:
A book ($1) titled, “Glorious Flowers,” that’s packed with beautiful art of various flowers…aiming to frame them
A set of measuring cups ($1) for a new project
A Boska cheese grater ($0.12)
A silver spoon ($0.12)
And a pretty little glass vase ($1)
Been thinking I might write a detailed-ish description of our trip to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. But, so far, I only have a title typed out. So, in case I never get to it, I’m gonna post snippets here and there for me to look back on.
Jellyfish at the Georgia Aquarium 🪼
Last Sunday in August 🩷🧡💛🩵💜
Trying to figure out how to have 11 kids build their own ziggurats in a fairly short period of time without it costing a lot of money in supplies.
Went to our first (and last) Mississippi Braves game a couple of weeks ago. Scored a bunch of merch half off and these super great photos of some really cool people. ☺️
Pre-Fall Inspiration
I fall in the camp of people that are usually ready for Fall before it’s even remotely close (although that’s changed a little in recent years). As a lot of people (at least where I’m from) similarly cite, it’s because it’s soooo hot here… Imagining a reprieve from that is nice. My personal approach is to stay clear of pumpkins (though pumpkin flavored things is always on the table, but ewwww to Sbux PSL, just saying) and other items that scream Fall until at least September 1st (likely more the middle of September when real Fall season (not weather) actually arrives) and to just start thinking about and incorporating cozier items and colors. I think there’s something to be said for literally living in the season you’re in and enjoying the right now and what it brings you (which is why we play in the sprinkler well into October), but dreaming about beautiful things to come also brings joy.
All that being said, one of my favorite parts about the pre-Fall celebration is just seeing new Fall items and colors hit store shelves (and websites). I have drastically decreased my holiday decor purchases over recent years, but I still really enjoy “window shopping” for inspiration and the occasional fun find I decide to purchase.
So, while I’ve been perusing the online aisles, I saved some of my favorite things to some inspiration boards.
TARGET THINGS
Green ribbed ceramic table lamp with scalloped shade
Fluted antique brass finish decorative tray
Driving over the Mighty Mississippi
Doing important work and mapping out coffee stops for our trip this week.
We had a late morning appointment and an early-ish afternoon appointment today, so we stayed “in town,” got smoothies, and roamed the aisles of Walmart to fill the majority of the time in between. It was a fun change of pace.
Went to the chiropractor today. After Rowyn got adjusted, she looked at me and said, “What do chiropractors actually do?” It made our chiropractor laugh, then she proceeded to give Ro a wonderful explanation.
Christmas in July Craft: Pipe Cleaner Snowflakes
We had a Christmas in July event with our homeschooling community a couple of weeks ago. I brought supplies to make pipe cleaner snowflakes. It was super easy to put together and relatively inexpensive. And it went a long way for a large group craft (we had close to 40 kids).
I got a pack of 200 white pipe cleaners. Kept to just one color to keep it simple. And picked out 6 bright, Summer-y colors of pony beads. I picked up those supplies at Hobby Lobby on a week when the beads were half off. But even when not on sale, I’ve found Hobby Lobby to be the most cost effective place for those particular items.
Creating the snowflakes is pretty easy, but younger children might need help combining three pipe cleaners to make the basic snowflake shape. I just twisted every other short stem tightly around the middle.
All these photos are from snowflakes we made at home before and after the event, so they are a few different sizes (and we used a few different beads than the original 6 colors). But for the group, I cut pipe cleaners in half (a small pair of beading wire cutters is super handy for that). That way only 5-7 beads was needed per stem. I saw multiple ways to finish these off on Pinterest and gave the kids the option to finish it however they wanted. A lot chose to use more beads and wrap the very end of the pipe cleaner around itself to keep the beads from falling off. In that case, the ends were just straight. Some, like myself and my children, chose to add one or two extra small pieces of pipe cleaner to the ends for more of a traditional snowflake vibe.
This was an easy and pretty quick craft. And it was fun to do with the “Christmas in July” theme to change it up. My kids and I have made 3 or 4 each, and I’m actually planning on us putting together several more and making them into a garland for real Christmas season!
PS - If you’re doing this at home or in a smaller group and would like a book to go along with it, I recommend Snowflake Bentley.