Supply and Demand, Economic Systems in Other Countries, Calories and the Heart

Co-op yesterday started out a little strangely.  Jonah had sliced his thumb pretty badly a week and half ago (on a Ravioli can) and had to get stitches.  Co-op day marked the day the stitches were to come out.  So he removed them (he wanted to be Rambo and stitch his own wound in the first place, but that didn’t happen).  Connor watched, the moms oversaw the operation, and the girls hid downstairs in the family room.

Once the operating room was closed for the day, we got down to Consumer Math, Financial Literacy, and Economics.  Homework since the last meeting was all about figuring taxes on income, and understanding how sales tax is calculated.  We discussed various types of business structures and how they change the taxation of the owners, partners or shareholders.  Since all three co-op moms own or are partners in small businesses, it’s a subject we care about.

Homework for next time is to work on understanding Budgets — the principles behind having one, the many ways to structure one, the pros and cons of different types of budgets paired with different types of personalities.

Our DVD lectures for the day were on Calories and The Heart.  We learned a lot about Basal Metabolic Rates and why Carlie burns more calories than some of us because she jiggles her legs all the time when she’s sitting down. Apparently this is called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or some such thing.  We also learned about how it’s possible to be skinny-fat (low body weight, poor ratio of body fat to lean muscle), and how gaining lean muscle mass (increasing pounds on the scale) actually raises your BMR so that you burn more calories even at rest.

Geography time!  Everyone shared the results of their research on various countries (of their choosing) and the economic systems in place there.  We got a glimpse of Spain, New Zealand, Kazkhstan, Aregentina and Cuba.  Connor taught us about New Zealand’s unusual relationship with Great Britain’s economy….what was that system called again, Connor?

We’re spending next session on US Geography, and we divided up research for homework:

• Jillian will study languages (areas of concentration throughout the US)
• Jonah will study natural resources
• Connor will study topography
• Carlie will study urban areas
• Kendall will study water.

Setting Goals, Laying a Foundation

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We started with a little technology time, choosing, resizing and compressing the file size on our bio pictures for the blog.

Consumer Math found us sharing answers to the following questions from last week’s homework:

A Nutrition lecture (DVD series from The Great Courses) followed, and we were delighted to learn about our often-under-appreciated digestive tract.  Dumping Syndrome and Constipation were highlights of the topic.  Oh, my.  Lunch followed (naturally!).

After lunch we covered Geography sharing our findings about definitions for Geography and Economics, sharing cool facts about Physical Geography and Climate, and sharing a custom from another country.

The bulk of our time this week was spent on our personal fitness evaluations.  Each of us (moms, too) shared personal fitness and nutrition goals for the coming year, and we completed a comprehensive fitness evaluation (from the DVD lecture materials we’re using from The Great Courses).  Cardio test on the step in the back yard, push-ups and sit-ups, flexibility test, skin calipers to measure percentage of body fat….OY!  We charted our results to form a base line.  Let’s see how much we can all improve our wellness over this school year!

Okay, y’all:

What part of the Fitness Evaluation was the most challenging to you?

What part of Co-op did you most enjoy this week?

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