Unit Celebration

Tonight, we celebrated the completion of our first nine weeks of co-op, which also means the completion of 10 weeks of school. We gathered with the rest of the families in our co-op for dinner, displays and presentations.

We've been studying ancient history this year, and thus far we have covered Creation, the Worldwide Flood, The Tower of Babel, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, especially the Holy Days, the Exodus, and the Desert Wanderings.

We started our evening by viewing each family's display. The children were allowed to choose their favorite items from their studies thus far. There were tabernacle models, salt dough maps, Egyptian paddle dolls, compositions, lapbooks, rock collections and more. Maitlyn and Elspeth were proud to show Brett all of their work thus far.

Then we enjoyed dinner together. Most of the dishes served tonight fit with our historical studies so far: Matzah, Matzah ball soup, lentil stew, hummus, olives, grapes, challah bread, charoset (the apple and spice mixture served at the seder), poppy seed purim cookies, honey cake and more. There was a also special table set up where each person could taste elements of the Passover seder.

We got to hear Brett play the shofar for us. Then each class of children presented something special. The Lower Grammar class (Maitlyn and Elspeth's class) sang Shabbat Shalom and performed a kids' version of the Ten Commandments along with motions. The Upper Grammar class described each part of the Tabernacle, and the Dialectic Class did a skit about the Passover Seder based on the characters in All of a Kind Family. Also, the Upper Grammar and Dialectic Latin students recited a prayer in Latin and its translation.

It was a great night. I think the kids are proud of what they accomplished, and I am proud of them too.