These are the moments I wait for

Little tiny ice pellets are falling from the sky. We have been waiting for the horrific weather that has been forcasted for the last couple of days now. Even though the weather was supposed to start last night, it finally did start around 3 this afternoon. We'll see if we get the 2 to 3 inches of snow they were predicting. Right now, it doesn't look likely.

My plan today was to make homemade playdough. This activity was especially geared toward my 4 year old in an attempt to keep him off "screens" today. (Screens = anything with a screen, TV, computer, video games, etc.)

I knew DD10 would want to make playdough because she very much wants to be 4 again. Much to my surprise, DD11 wanted to make playdough, too. I really wasn't expecting that. To make playdough for all three of them, I had to make one and a half batches. So I made the first batch for the two younger kids and DD11 insisted on making her own. I told her she only should make a half batch, and she simply said, "Yes, mom. I know how to multiply the fractions by 1/2." (Great big cheer inside.) This is the child who has cried more over math than I can even tell you and she has this very matter-of-fact attitude about it today. I guess (in her mind) since it wasn't in a math book, it wasn't anything she needed to cry over. I won't pop her bubble by telling her any different.

And here she is just going to town working with fractions.

Always with a flair for the dramatic - I don't know why this child had to flour her face.

This one is busy working with his "recipe". It smells so good that he had to taste it. Well, it's made with salt and doesn't taste like it smells. Perhaps if we used sugar instead of salt...

We made Kool Aid playdough. It smells so good and requires boiling water. The kids knead it after it cools a bit and they love feeling the warmth on a cold day like today.

Clove Apples

Aunt Eliza had brought Ma a large red apple stuck full of cloves. How good it smelled! And it would not spoil, for so many cloves would keep it sound and sweet.

-Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Today we made clove apples. When I went on the search for cloves for 5 children*, I had no idea how expensive this could be. One little bottle of whole cloves was $10.50. Yikes! So I got one bottle and told the kids they could make a design like a heart or something like that. I just wanted them to have the experience of putting the cloves in and smelling the spice. Their apples actually turned out beautifully. The other nice part about this "project" is that all ages could do it.

*3 of the children are my own while the other two are students I tutor.

Here are some pictures:

DS4's apple

DD10 tried to clove a lemon. She drew a heart on it as a pattern for her cloves. This is all the further she got because it was very hard to get the cloves in. She even used a knife to poke little holes. The apples were much easier.

Wordless Wednesday

Hog Bladders and Butter

We started back into our routine this week and we are having a blast. We are reading a chapter a day from the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. We started yesterday with Little House in the Big Woods and today we made hog bladder balloons and butter. I would have rather made the balloons yesterday since they are mentioned in chapter 1, but the local meat store didn't have them available until late yesterday.

As we did each of the activities, we were able to discuss toys back in Laura's time. There was no mass market toy superstore back then. That is why Laura and Mary were thrilled to have a hog bladder to bat around. My plan was for the girls to take the balloons out in the yard to kick them around a little, but we are getting snow/rain /ice today and it's just not a good day to do that.

The bladders did have a little bit of a "smell" to them. I told them that the smell probably didn't bother Laura and Mary when you consider how often they bathed and the lack of things like deodorant.

Starting to get a little tired of shaking the jars.

We were also able to discuss all the work that went into making butter. I poured about 3/4 cup of heavy cream into a jelly jar and let the girls shake until we had butter. It took about 20 minutes and the girls were able to see the physical changes happening with the cream. After about 10 minutes they said they were getting tired. It was a lot of work to go through just for some butter. I explained that is why they didn't have exercise gyms back then either. They got exercise by default and probably didn't have to worry about diets to loose weight.

Mmmmmm...fresh creamy butter!

I hope the rest of the week is as fun as today was.

Happy New Year

Isn't it wonderful to have new beginnings? The holidays are definitely a time for me to regroup.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and the beginning of our study on Laura Ingalls Wilder. Our study will be based on The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray. I attempted to use The Prairie Primer two and a half years ago and I burned out very quickly. I tried to do every activity, every day. I spent hours gathering materials for an activity that would last 15 to 30 minutes then we would never go back to it.

This time, I am using The Prairie Primer, but am only doing selected activities. I plan to read a chapter a day with the kids. They will continue to do their Math U See books and Primary Language Lessons each day. At times we may take out Ray's Arthmetic and the McGuffey Readers so we can do lessons like Laura did.

This next week will be full with making butter, corn cob dolls, hog bladder balloons, cloved apples and oranges, and drawing Jack Frost. I am really looking forward to it and hope to post pictures as we go.

The Nativity Through Fine Art

I feel the need to express the utter joy I have felt over the last week.

First of all, a little history...

Right before Thanksgiving 2007, my husband experience some medical "episode". When he arrived to the hospital, he was diagnosed as having had a heart attack. (Note: He was 41 years old at the time.) The next several weeks into Christmas and beyond were difficult. Although he is a professional firefighter, he was not allowed to go back to work until he had the okay from the doctor. We did continue to get his base pay, but without overtime and mounting medical bills, things were extremely tight. God did take care of us through that uncertain time and all of our needs were provided for plus some.

Since money was tight and I felt helpless, God moved me to teach a class out of my home to homeschoolers during the last full week before Christmas. Even though I charged a fee for the class, it was full before I knew it. The class was based on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. It seemed to be a blessing in so many ways - I made a little money, my kids got to see their friends, we got "school" in even though it was not like "school" at all, moms could leave their kids with me while they went and finished up some holiday errands, etc., etc. I knew right away that I wanted to do this again a year later.

This year, the name of the class was "The Nativity Through Fine Art". I wrote the "curriculum" myself and as I began to write the plans for the week, I immediately felt such peace. I loved pouring over the pictures trying to decide which to use. There are so many good pieces from which to choose.

Back to my joy.

Even though the class was called "The Nativity Through Fine Art", the Bible was the base for the class. We would read from Luke, Matthew, Isaiah and Micah beginning from the Annunciation to Zechariah and we finished with the flight to Egypt.

Typically, we would read a Bible passage, look at a picture, discuss the picture, the students would then write their thoughts and observations. Sometimes, the Bible passage would be copywork and when appropriate, we watched excerpts from The Nativity Story.

As a former public school teacher, this class was a joy because the children were engaged in learning. When they showed up to my house, they would ask "How many pictures do we get to look at today?" I would also hear comments like, "I liked the last picture better than this one" which indicates to me that they are interested and thinking about what is being presented to them. They are forming opinions about the art. Through the discussions, the children would come up with ideas that I hadn't thought of and they all seemed eager to share what each picture was saying to them.

Although I didn't intend for it to happen, we studied quite a few paintings by Sandro Botticelli. We did not study all the Botticelli pictures at the same time. On the third Botticelli (The Mystic Nativity), one of the girls in the class piped up and said, "Hey, look at how Mary is dressed here. It's the same as The Annunciation and The Magnificat! Her sleeves look exactly the same!" That comment was exciting because it showed me that she is starting to recognize Botticelli's style.

Each day, as we met for the class, I felt an overwhelming joy and contentment with what God was doing. This class was a process for me and through this process, I felt God drawing me in. There really is no greater joy.

Here are the Botticelli pictures I mentioned. Do you see how the sleeves are the same?

The Annunciation

The Magnificat

Mystic Nativity (detail)

P.S. If you look at the Christmas cards you are getting in the mail this year, you may find a Botticelli on the postage stamp.

Art

What a wonderful time of year to talk about Art and Music Appreciation!
Last night we discussed Chapters 25 and 26 in Karen Andreola's book A Charlotte Mason Companion.

In Chapter 25 she talks about picture study. Picture study is a wonderful way to expose our children to great paintings and it really doesn't take too long. It can take as little as 10 minutes once a week or every other week.

Resources can be found on the internet (see the end of this post), at the library, in the bargain section of your local bookstore (big coffee-table books are wonderful) and at after-Christmas sales. You should be able to find calendars and Christmas cards on sale after the holidays are over. Also, be sure to check any Christmas cards you recieve. Even if the picture is not done by a famous artist, it could still be used for a picture study.

How to do it?

Give the child a picture face down. Then have him turn it over to look at it for 1 or 2 minutes. Don't talk to him during this time. Just let the artist speak to him. After the time is up, have him turn the picture back over and tell you what was in the picture. Can the child describe the picture? Was there anything that stood out to him? (This is a type of narration and will help the child to learn the habit of attention.)

At this point, you can do a couple of things.

1. You can discuss the picture. If you have done some research, you can tell the child about any symbolism that may be in the picture. Or you can briefly (and I emphasize "briefly" so you don't loose the child's attention) talk about the artist himself. You need not go into a lot of detail about the artist at the younger ages. As the child approaches the teen years, then he can learn about the lives of the artists.

2. Give the child a 4X6 copy of the picture and let him write about the picture on a notebooking page. He can write about a detail that stood out to him or the way the artist painted the picture - anything that helps the child to connect with the piece. Do not let the child just write, "this is an interesting picture" or "I like this picture very much." If they write that, ask them to answer the question "Why?" This notebooking page is perfect for your end of the year portfolio.

Once you have finished with this, be sure to display the picture somewhere in your house (We put ours on the refrigerator) so the child can see the picture again and again. Be sure it is at the child's eye level.

The site with the free notebooking pages can be found here: Notebookingpages. com
Just click on the link for Free Resources and you will find all sorts of pages for your porfolios.

Art websites that I recommend include (but are not limited to)
Web Gallery of Art
Biblical Art on the WWW
Art and the Bible
National Gallery of Art for Kids
National Galler of Art
National Gallery of Art Loan Program