Special Times with My Children, Part 2

This past year, because some things were falling through the cracks, we started Arts Weeks. This occurs on the 3rd week out of every 6 weeks.

The point is to have a week set aside to deliberately work on art and art appreciation, music appreciation/composer study, sew with Carrie, work on cooking with Thomas and baking with Carrie and Abby, and work on science experiments, nature study, and Five in a Row projects which we don't normally have time to do. This is quite a list of expectations for one week, so I pick and choose which things will take place based on what's been happening in school the previous weeks.

After the first Arts Week was such a terrible mess did not accomplish all I'd hoped, I found that much planning was needed ahead of time to make it all flow smoothly. So, several weeks ahead, I look at the list of artists and composers I made during the summer and choose one of each. I look at Discovering Great Artists and figure out which projects will work for my crew and gather the supplies needed. We look for this artist's work on the internet and make a wallpaper to use for that week so we become very familiar with his technique. I look at Lives of the Musicians or Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers to get familiar with the composer I've chosen and make sure we have a CD of his music or I find it on the internet ahead of time.

I plan what Carrie and I are going to sew and gather the materials for that or, if we're in the midst of a project, look to see what's going to be worked on next. We're using this for sewing right now and you can read about how we use it here.

I look at the week's menu and decide what I'll cook with each child and make sure I have the right ingredients.

I plan out the FIAR book for that week and put together the things I'll need to make it happen.

I decide which other things might fit into the week, and finally, I make a grid plan for each day, showing which things I want to make sure we do and which things are expendable, since I never know what's going to be happening at my house life happens. We drop all other subjects for the week, except our family Bible lessons.

Every Arts Week has been different, but the kids have thoroughly enjoyed them all and we'll continue that tradition this next year!