Hands-On Activities

As the homeschool co-op group leaders, we would go to the park each year to begin planning our co-op for next year.

Sharing 3 homeschool co-op history resources worth exploring, I hope to pass on a few tips to ease planning and to help you think outside of the box.

It is easier in the beginning of your homeschool co-op to have ideas and many hands do make the work light. However, life marches on, kids grow up and seasons of change hit all homeschool families. That normally meant that on more than one occasion, we were caught short-handed if some families had to plan graduations, had illnesses, added another baby to their family and well you get the idea.

Having a few tricks up your sleeve helps your history co-op through a few rough patches, but it can also add a welcomed change when needed.

History Brought To Your Classroom Co-op

{Mountain Men Trunk Pic Attribution: National Park Service}

Traveling Trunks.

Traveling trunks have been a life saver on more than one occasion for us.

They are just what they say they are, which are trunks or mini-museums as I call them that come to your group. Chock-full of fun hands-on things like toys, books and magazines and objects from a time period or topic like beads or household items, our kids flipped over them. One trunk had an apron a pioneer girl would wear, a beaver pelt and things that a mountain man would use every day.

They can be the highlight of your history co-op or you can use them like we did, which was as a table display or station for the kids to visit and learn about.

Too, when you want a fun round up of things from a certain time period and not have to spend tons of money buying each item to only have to get rid of it later, they have been worth the cost.

I got our trunks from the National Park Service. They list what comes in each trunk at that website.  Too, some sites have a free .pdf for you to use to teach and the trunks I got had teaching notes.  Look at some of the choices of traveling trunks:

• Frontier Classroom
• Gold Miners
• Heritage of the Southwest
• Overlanders
• Plains Indians
• Steamboats A’ Comin’

These certainly are not all the topics available. A simple google search will also yield some wonderful results from other places for various themed trunks.

My first tip for arranging for a trunk to come to your home is to call the park or institution.  I know, it sounds like a bit of trouble, but a friendly voice that explains who you are and what you do means more than an email that might otherwise leave out some details.  People like to deal with real people that they can hear and have a friendly conversation with and ask questions to know that you will take care of what they will ship.

The most important tip is to reserve them way ahead.  Public and private school teachers reserve these trunks months ahead of time. So NOW is the time to reserve it for next year.  If your co-op meets during the summer you may not have much competition from public schools.

{Our kids playing with the toys that came in our Overlanders (Oregon Trail) Trunk.}

Second, be prepared to use your credit card.  It never bothered me because I knew our group would reimburse me and it was an expense our group paid for.

Third, be sure somebody is in charge of it the whole time at the co-op because if something is broke, per the contract, you will probably have to reimburse them.

Finally,  be sure you have arranged shipment back to them.

Even with all that, I would rent a traveling trunk in a heartbeat anytime for my group. Also, there are some resources that we’ve used through the years that have made teaching history to a group so much fun.

We love the products by Home School in the Woods.

Like-Minded Folks From Your local community.

The next resource is pretty nifty and that is local people from your community who are history buffs.  Where do you find them?

I found so many resources through our local chapter of the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution and here in the south we have Daughters of the Confederacy.

Veterans of war and retired history teachers many times are involved in doing reenactments and spend their spare time doing things they love.

Again, a little time on the phone calling a few people and I had more people calling me interested in what I was doing and wanting to offer their help. Sharing a love of history, some of these people have gone to great lengths to have accurate time period dress and to buff up their knowledge about a time period in history or about a person.

When we had our Early American co-op, I finally connected with this lady above, which was “George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington”. A retired public school history teacher, she had spent many years dedicated to learning about Mary Ball Washington. She brought her fishing pole and even baked the favorite cookies of George Washington to bring and share with our kids. Mary Ball Washington was not a person that we had made time to learn about in our history co-op and it was an unexpected treat. Through her story telling and love of this time period, she had brought this time period to life when she talked about “her son”.

Most folks who are educators are priceless and giving of their time.  They share a common interest, which is the love of teaching children. Most have gone out of their way to help me when I explained what I was doing.

Even though “Mary Ball Washington” did not ask for any compensation, we presented her a thank you bag from our group, which had a gift certificate for gas and some nice smelling perfume and body lotion.

In addition, we also offered to feed her lunch. She was very pleased with how well-behaved our children were and not distracted by the little ones underfoot. But we all know, that is nothing new for our kids.

Take the co-op elsewhere.

Most of us visit museums for field trips and science classes, but sometimes we don’t know about all the educational programs they offer educators for history. Also, don’t assume that you have to be a public school or private school to take advantage of the educational programs they offer.

{Part of our class was inside as our kids learned about the chores of pioneer children.  Then, we had another wonderful instructor outside as our children explored the “comforts” (chamber pot) of pioneer life.}

Some museums are very organized as far as instructions for the group and programs and very aware of homeschoolers in their area.  Others, are still trying to understand how we don’t learn by segregating grade levels.

If you do delve into the programs, again, I encourage you to take time to make a phone call.  There is just no substitute for the amount of information you get because most personnel enjoy talking about the programs offere for educators.

Another insider tip, if you have never been to this museum or do not know other homeschoolers who have listened to the program you are looking into, is to try to mix up the activities.  Part of the time the kids can sit down and listen to the program and part of the time they need to move around or go outside.  This works best for a mixed group.

A long-winded educator that is boring and doesn’t know it can be a huge turn off to co-op classes.  And believe me they exist, and I have done my best to avoid them in our co-op classes.

Whether you are a small group and need help with adding some entertainment to your history co-op or you are a larger group and need a change, I hope your group can benefit from an idea or two here.

Look at these other tips:

• 5 Days of A Homeschooling Co-op Convert – Day 1:Who needs one anyway? 
• Homeschool Co-op Tracking Form– 7 Step Homeschool Planner 
• 10 Homeschool Co-op Subjects That Are Better Learned With a Group
• Homeschool Co-ops, Support Groups and Regional Groups. How Does It All Fit?

Hugs and love ya,