Boot Camp Co-op

We culminate each week's study with a day of co-op on Friday.  To complete our week on the military we let the kids dress up in some sort of uniform.  DD chose navy blue and white to honor her uncle who is retired Air Force and DS chose to honor his Dad who was in the army years ago.  We even made some little "medals" during the week out of ribbon, a bedazzler and and some hot glue.  So they each had three of these pinned to their uniforms along with their rank pinned to their sleeve.  All the co-op kids came dressed for boot camp with assorted canteens and weapons.

My wonderful husband led co-op this week so we had an especially fun time.  He started in the house with a power point and some instruction on what happens during basic training.  He went over all the insignia worn and the various ranks.  He showed them how to salute, who to salute and when to salute, when they should wear their head cover and when not to, how to stand at attention and more.  This lasted about an hour and the kids stayed engaged from start to finish.  I was amazed!

We then moved outside for some practice marching.  This was really fun because all the moms got to play too.  We were taught how to turn and pivot and march together.  Fortunately we live on a little dirt road so we could march up and down the length of it without interruption.  We also got to shout a marching ditty of my husband's making because the ones he used to sing in the army had profanity.  You know the kind..."I don't know but I've been told!"  and then dh's words, "New England weather is mighty cold!"  He ended it with something about our toes falling off in the night, quite silly so we loved it all the more.

One of the moms brought MRE's for lunch and all the kids had to try each item.  That was an adventure of it's own.  Some of the courses were better than they expected and the one part DH and I remember liking best turned out to be disgusting!

Finally to complete the day we all went back outside to run through an obstacle course.  This time DH was supposed to yell in their faces like a drill sergeant but he just couldn't do it.  He yelled but it all sounded more like shouts of encouragement to me. :)

Military Week

Learning about the U.S. Armed Forces

Today my youngest colored a picture of the Union soldiers raising a balloon into the air in order to see where to best direct their cannon fire during the Civil War.  My son colored a picture of an American fighter plane during the time of WWII held almost 100 years later.  While coloring I asked them to discuss the advancement of military equipment our country, and the world had seen during the 80 years between the Civil War and World War II.  Even I was amazed at how much had changed in so little time.  I knew the information but never really thought about it before.

We followed this up by learning the various ranks and insignia of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.  We "took" the Oath of Enlistment then I assigned all of us rank and we made patches for our sleeves.  We colored them onto cardstock, laminated each one, cut it out and pinned to our shirts.  For the remainder of the afternoon we addressed each other according to rank and title.  

Once our badges were made I drew a clock labeled with military time and we talked about that for a while while I quizzed them on it.  

The afternoon was made complete when I "let" them play a mock battle with their little green army men.

Obedience - Authority and Bible

This was our first week back to KONOS co-op.  All the kids were thrilled to be back together and I was too!  We are studying the unit on obedience in Volume I this fall beginning with identification of our authority figures.  Here's what we did at co-op today:

• Begin with prayer and pledge of allegiance.
• Discuss the obedience of Abraham compared to the disobedience of Adam and Eve.  Who was wiser?  Why? (Page 82 Activity E)  Color pictures of Adam and Eve and Abraham and Isaac while discussing.  Also use this time to discuss proper obedience, who we should obey and how they did practicing obedience this week at home.
• Students present reports on obedience (page 83 Activity H) including why they should obey, how and what they need to improve on.  Reports should express a personal testimony.
• Discuss community leaders such as policemen, firemen, librarians and pastors that must be obeyed and make badges of authority.  (Page 83 Activity G)
• Discuss authorities through history.  Explain the differences and similarities between various types of government: monarchy, totalitarian state, socialist state, communist state, republic and democracy.  (Page 83 Activity F)
• Write the names of government leaders on slips of paper and have group prayer each child praying in turn for the name on their slip of paper.  Children should take home their slip so they can continue to pray for their government leader on a daily basis.  (Page 83 Activity N)
• Bible sword drills.  Say a verse and have kids compete to see how fast they can find it in the Bible.  (Page 86 Activity D) We gave each child a pen with the books of the Bible written inside when they had found a verse just for fun and to give them encouragement to learn the books of the Bible in order.

We have co-op earlier in the day now so we broke for lunch in the middle which worked perfectly today since there was so much discussion.  Next week we are moving on to the military portion of the unit before we do kings and queens the following weeks.