Arts Week (October 09)

Just a couple of things from today.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has questions and answers about the book, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. And some other fun stuff, too!

You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery. Wish I had the one about the Metropolitan Museum, but, alas, I only have this one. It's fun to read something to Thomas that makes him laugh because then I laugh, too.

The Many Names of Lee Lu. I can't believe Amazon has a picture of this old book. We read it to go along with Grandfather's Journey. We talked about how Lee Lu had some adjustments to make when he came to this country and probably Grandfather did, too.

Love Arts Week!

Arts Week (October 09)

Sandro Botticelli was the artist of choice today and a good choice it was. The children had an interesting time painting pictures on pieces of round paper with no flat top edge to be the sky.
Katie came home from work early and made the photos for us.




I started reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to Thomas, which he found very amusing. It was a childhood favorite of mine, too. The setting is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and I thought it would be an interesting read while we're learning about Renaissance art.




Any Sesame Street movie is always appreciated here - today was Big Bird in Japan to go along with Grandfather's Journey. Abby made Japanese stew for lunch, too.




And we spent the drizzly afternoon watching Pork Chop Hill to finish up Anna's BF American history course - accompanied by some Ghirardelli chocolate brownies!

Arts Week (October 09)

Thursday is our "short" day because we do errands and usually have music lessons, although we didn't today.

While I was at the library this morning, I found a book I thought Abby would be interested in. She was fascinated by the pictures of orphans who came to America from Europe around the turn of the century and I checked out Orphan Train by Verla Kay. Not exactly about orphans from Europe, but an interesting book, nevertheless. We also read The Long Way to a New Land, both to go along with Grandfather's Journey. We played around with the art lessons for the book, too.

Thomas and I learned about medieval Christmas celebrations, as well as the Feasts of St. Thomas and St. Lucia to go along with The Door in the Wall. We're all finished with that unit now, except for preparing for a final feast, which we will do after next week's three birthdays are finished.

Carrie has been busy with geography, but has found time to read Skating Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, and Pharaoh, also by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (OOP).

Arts Week (October 09)

Today we looked at paintings by Fra Angelico, who was a 15th century monk, illuminator, and painter. We painted and used "gold leaf" accents (aluminum foil, really).

First we drew a picture on dark colored art paper. Then glued on pieces of foil and painted around it with tempera paint.

The painting of the fish was done by Carrie. And Thomas did the angel.

Thomas and I read an article by Barry Stebbing about Albrecht Durer and looked at some of his paintings and woodcuts, which Thomas thought were amazing.

We read If Your Named Was Changed at Ellis Island to go along with Grandfather's Journey and looked at Ellis Island photos in a huge coffee-table book that we found a long time ago at a library sale (oh, the great stuff they get rid of!).

While I was cooking lunch, the kids listened to a Beethoven CD and we laughed at the bio about him in Lives of the Musicians by Kathleen Krull.

A good school day!

Arts Week (October 09)

We did something interesting today. We studied Giotto di Bondone, who was an artist during the Italian Renaissance and we made paint with colored chalk and egg.

First, Carrie and Thomas pulverized the chalk.

Then we mixed in an egg yolk, beaten with 2 teaspoons of water, and divided among our bowls to make the right consistency of paint. Then we painted.

Thomas' picture is first; Abby's picture is second. The colors are so vivid!

Thomas and I also studied Correggio, who was an artist during the Renaissance. We finished reading The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O'Dell, which went along with our unit study. And we learned to play a middle-ages board game called Fox and Geese.

Carrie happily finished up her geography unit on North America today.

And Abby and I started Grandfather's Journey by Allan Say. We learned a lot about Japan from a couple of websites and looked at the atlas.

Mike Mulligan

 

Last week we enjoyed reading Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.  We also read other books by Virginia Lee Burton: Maybelle the Cable Car, Katie and the Big Snow, and The Little House (did you notice Mary Anne in one of the illustrations?).  We enjoyed the art lessons and learned about the elements of a good story, which we practiced with the author's other books.  Katie and Abby made Mary Anne Brownies.  A yummy ending for our week!

Simple Woman's Daybooks (October 19, 2009)

Outside my window...

Cold and sunny!

I am thinking...

About my schedule and about having some quiet time to work out some snags.

I am thankful for....

my husband, who is constantly trying to be a better husband and father (I think he's great!).

I am wearing....

khaki jeans and my favorite yellow oxford shirt, a great pair of earrings, and my favorite pink/white socks.

I am going....

nowhere this week if I can help it. ;)

I am reading...

Earl Stanley Gardner books (Perry Mason). Love 'em!

From the learning rooms...

I've just finished working on 6 weeks of school plans and am pretty happy about what we're learning and what we've accomplished so far this year. We're almost finished with Thomas' unit study and are progressing nicely with Abby's history and her Five in a Row. No one is having trouble with math or English and Thomas' spelling is improving and his reading is great. Emily thinks she'll be able to finish her senior year by Christmas or a bit after and we're starting to think about what we'd like to do for her graduation celebration.

From the kitchen....

there's a caramel apple cake in the kitchen that's calling my name and I have to stop listening. I have a new recipe for apple bread that I'd like to have Carrie make for next weekend.  And I'm thinking about letting Rachel make apple strudel for next Sunday's dessert.  Mmmm.....apples!

I am hearing....

nothing much. It's a quiet morning.

Around the house...

I'm planning to wash curtains this week and dust blinds and vacuum cobwebs and baseboards.  There's a little mouse in the house, who I ***hope*** will be sent to a better place this week, no thanks to the kitty, who is falling down on his job! I also want to get out the wool coats, as cold weather seems to be here.

One of my favorite things....

candles burning.

A picture I'm sharing....

Scottish shortbread cookies made by Abby last week.

Wee Gillis

Abby and I have been rowing Wee Gillis.  She finished up last week by making Scottish shortbread cookies, a family favorite.

We enjoyed reading The Keeping Quilt and discussing the importance of family in our life.
We read Katy and the Big Snow to emphasize sticking with a job until it's finished.
And we read Festivals of the World: Scotland and loved seeing all the pictures of people playing bagpipes and wearing kilts.

Sometime this week, we're going to make fog in a jar to go with Wee Gillis and our current chapter in A Door in the Wall.

You won't see me for a few days because.....

I'm going to Catalyst with David, Joshua, Katie, Rachel, Emily and Anna!!

See you next week!

Quinceañera

The girl.

The cake.

The shoes.

Need I say more?

It's party time!

Happy 15th Birthday Anna!

FIAR Burnout

Since 2000, I've been teaching Five in a Row. Anna and I went through the books twice, Carrie and I went through most of them twice, Thomas and I read each of them once or twice, and now I'm going through the manuals with Abby. I truly love FIAR and I think it teaches many, many good lessons in language, art, science, and social studies. Since we love to read aloud, it has been a perfect curriculum for our family.

But this year, I've felt rather burned out with the FIAR lessons. Along the way, I've done many, many hands-on projects with the kids, made lapbooks, cooked almost every recipe in the book, and read stacks of supplementary books. For some reason, this year I'm just bored. Now, Abby loves it and begs to have FIAR every day. But I've found myself dreading the reading and avoiding projects. Since I love FIAR and think the lessons are important, I don't want to give it up, as has been suggested to me. Abby is my last FIAR student and I don't want her to miss any of it.

What to do? How do I solve this?

I spent a good bit of time talking through my feelings with my husband and 2 oldest daughters. I spent some time praying about it. I worried over it and thought about it a great deal and wrangled with the problem, trying to figure out exactly what the matter was with me and how to fix it.

Finally, I looked at my goals for Abby, which I felt God had given me this summer for the upcoming school year: Plenty of snuggle time. Better behavior, mainly being still, attentive, and focused. Learning without books. More Bible knowledge, prayer, character training.

I thought about how FIAR helps me meet these goals: it provides snuggle time, especially if I do it in a conversational style. It helps Abby with attentiveness and listening to the read aloud helps her stay focused. It's learning without textbooks, which is huge for me. And it can be used to teach character.

To solve my problem, I decided it would help me if I found some things about each book I would like to learn. For example, for All Those Secrets of the World, I would like to learn more about American culture during WWII and I would like to learn more about the Chesapeake area. We're working on this book right now and I've been doing my own research in these areas. We've been listening to the Andrews Sisters, which is fun for me.

Character lessons are always helpful for my children, so I have figured out a couple of character traits to work on for each book and found picture books to illustrate that trait. This project enables me meet one of my goals for Abby.

And finally, I've given myself permission to leave off lots of projects and lapbooks. We are in a busy season of life and I simply can't be all things to all people. There's plenty to learn from the manuals without added projects, but we still like to use supplementary books and will continue to check those out from the library. In fact, I've found a new library with lots of good books to go with each FIAR book.

I'm happy to say that I'm lovin' FIAR once again!

Read Aloud Week!

This week we are reading, reading, reading!

And this week, I'm reading.....

During Arts Week, Thomas made bannocks to go with his The Door in the Wall unit study. He and Abby had a picnic in the yard with the bannocks, bacon, and cheese.