Today was our Home Schooler's Science Co-Op Day. This is the day once per month where we come together with pre - determined lesson plans on a particular subject and teach 4 classes on the same subject to 4 different age groups of children.
This years topic is called 'De Mystifying the Periodic Table of Elements'. Pretty cool topic in my opinion especially since many people go through life and don't have a clue as to what that table is about, why we have, or let alone how to read and understand it.
It is to many just a chart that they saw hanging in their science classes, and was understood by only the smart kids.
It is really a very simple chart, and shows all of the elements on the earth. What their atomic weight is and how many molecules they are composed of.
I also think that it is really cool that we are exposing children as young as 5 to the periodic table so that they will grow up with a familiarity with it, instead of being intimidated by it.
We are exploring the periodic table very simply by starting from left to right and incorporating as much about an element into the different classes as we can including our snacks.
Last months element was potassium so we had foods rich in potassium.
This month was Magnesium, and hubby and I were asked to teach a class, so I didn't have to bring a snack.
Magnesium, is a really cool element that burns under water. It is used as flares by divers and for roadside flares as well, and is the white stuff on the top of 'Strike anywhere' matches. It is also used in medicine, such as 'Milk of Magnesia'. It is very good for irregularity.
Hubby downloaded some YouTube vids of people making fireworks, so we of course taught the kids how to make their own too.
For the little kids we took caps for toy guns and cut the rolls up into pieces, put the pieces onto a piece of tape and folded it up into a little bindle and taped the bindle to the head of a hammer. After all the children had made their bindles we ventured outside and the children took turns banging the hammer with their bindle attached onto the asphalt parking lot. It made quite a loud bang and the kids loved it.
For the older children we scraped the magnesium off of sparklers and placed them in a bindle with a firecracker inside as a fuse. The magnesium flared bright white as the firecracker exploded.
This was quit
e a popular class.But as I am watching the kids have such a great time and putting what they have learned into practical application, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the kids in public school who would be expelled if caught making the things that we were teaching them to make.
Our country is crying out for science and math scholars, but these subjects aren't interesting if they are only learned in a book. They are interesting when you apply them to real life applications and have fun with them.
Every time I take my son to this co-op it reinforces to me why I choose to homeschool my kids.
