Manton Valley Homeschool Co-Op

On Friday, October 13th the Manton Education Council started the Manton Valley Homeschool Co-Op Science Fridays! Our classes will take place on Meyerhof Farm and our focus is on preschool, Kindergarten & 1st grade science curriculum, however, we have older homeschoolers joining us as well.

Our first day was filled with excitement!
Class started at 9AM, where we hiked up the path to Buddha's Watering hole. 

On the farm, we have created a wetlands for animals to get drinks and bathe. Turns out it's a great learning space for children to observe habitat in action. We have many visitors, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, finches, jays, deer, butterflies, dragonflies, and much more. We will be coming to our sit spot weekly to draw and talk about the changes in nature.  

This week we talked about using our Owl Eyes, and Deer Ears (Coyote's Guide to connecting with Nature) to observe what is happening all around us. When we closed our eyes to listen with our large deer ears, we heard hummingbirds working the giant eucalyptus tree, and a scrub jay flutter by. The children were so excited! We talked about things that make up a good home for the birds. All the things that make up a habitat. 

Our personal homeschool vision on the farm is that learning can be exciting and fun at any age. We believe in multigenerational learning and we welcome to our group, Grace, an 8th grader, she acts as class aide and blogger. Maddy a 6th grader, will also be a class aide, and a 4th grader, Jack. Jack will be the class cartographer, charting all we experience on our adventures & microbiology teacher. Jack will be learning microbiology as a part of his homeschool curriculum and will share what he learns with our group. 

We closed our science friday with a reading from Sybil Von Olfers' book, "The Story of the Root Children". Next week, we are gearing up to make shoebox habitats!
                                                                               --Blog update by Marlo

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