Happy Birthday to My Special Sweetheart!

I love you.

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!