Monday, August 31, 2009

Term Two Artist


John Singer Sargent
1856-1925
American

Sargent is AO's term two artist.
The first painting below is the only one AO chose.
The other three are paintings by Sargent
I thought would be more of an interest for my son.

Oysters Gathers of Cancale- 1878


Gondolier's Siesta- 1904

Gassed-1918

Muddy Alligators- 1917

We will study each painting over a 3 week period.
I will have my son look at the painting
and then turn the picture over and narrate
details about the picture.
Might even have him draw the picture from memory, maybe.
We will read a little about the artist life.
Once a week should do.
I will keep the picture we are currently
study in a protective plastic covering in the kitchen.
Just in case inspiration hits.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Reflecting


Our term one is complete
and we begin term 2 on Monday.

As I begin to sense a ever so slight change in season,
I reflect back on our term one.
We started in June gently
and that is how we ended, gently.
We had our struggles,
but also many successes.
We tweaked things that were not working for us.
We added to and took away.
I think we are beginning to find our trail.

Term two will bring with it new additions.
We will add a composer and artist study.
We will add a history funbook of our state.
Our science of astronomy really blasts off.
Our World history and American history is more focused.
Our Bible is more a part of our world history
and not studied separately.


Much was learned in term one.
Looking forward to were the trail leads us in term two.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My Little Chef

This year my son is participating
in some co-op classes on Tuesday afternoons
with our local homeschooling group.
He is taking two classes.
For the first hour, he is taking Home Ec.
Believe it or not there are quite a few boys
in the class.
Last night my son wanted to fix the roasted carrots.


He did nicely and they were yummy.
After preparing the carrots for the oven,
he went off to war.
The Revolutionary War I do believe.

Dump Trucks


Dump trucks.

Do boys ever outgrow them?

I think not.



Dump trucks.
They are tough and withstand anything
any boy can throw at them.


Haul away and dump where you may.
Mommy loves you.


Saturday, August 22, 2009

Twaddle


Twaddle anyone?
Yes, we are proud owners of a lot of twaddle.
My children love for me to read to them
and sometimes that includes some twaddle books.
Yes, my children love when I read the classics.
And, we read them everyday.
But every once in a while,
they love the bright colorful pictures and
the simplicity that comes with these quick reads.
I do too.
This is okay in our family.
Thirty minutes of snuggle time with the children.
Priceless.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Books We Have Read

In our World history studies we are at the
the story of Noah and the great flood.
We read the above book along with the Bible.
My son really liked the audio CD.
I have never listened to a book on CD before.
But, this made for nice listening
while we road back and forth to our co-op
classes on Tuesday.



I have really been worried on how to approach
the subject of dinosaurs with my son.
The Bible and dinosaurs just don't seem to mix.
Or so I thought.
The above book was recommended.
We have enjoyed it.
It has made our study of World history flow.
Dinosaurs are now included in our wall timeline
with no worries or confusion.
you can find this book here.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Center



Call me crazy, but if my kitchen is not tidy
I am scattered, nothing is clear,
I can not accomplish anything.

If my kitchen is tidy,
the possibilities are endless.

The Burgess Bird Book


We have started a notebook with our
Burgess Bird book readings.

We ordered these wonderfully colorful notebooks from here.
My son choose green for his Burgess bird book notebook.

After we do a reading, my son draws the bird or birds
in the story.
We look the bird/s up at this site.
We read about them and even listen to their call.
He draws his pictures on card stock.
We then glue them to the notebook.
We also added a little copy work on the other page.


I have my son frame his drawings with color.
This makes the picture look more complete,
not so much blank space.
Your focus is on his drawing.
This has been a delightful addition to our studies.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Yummy


Finally, after about 5 tries
I have a rhubarb pie that is just right.
Well, that is what the hubby says.
And he is the one that counts.
My hubby's favorite pie is rhubarb.
So, being the good wife I wanted to make one.
Well,...
My first attempt was more like a soup
than a pie.
Second attempt, the rhubarb was not cooked
all the way and was tough.
But, my last attempt and 5th, my rhubarb pie...
was gone by morning.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Our Home School is Now in Full Swing


Public school started back here on Wednesday.
We school year round, but this Summer
we took a more relax approach.
This allowed us to ease into year one.
Now with ps in session,
we are able to concentrate a little more
and spend more time with the studies.
This short week went well.
In math we added MEP.
We started with lesson plan 7.
Above is a picture of activity 7 of lesson plan 7.
My oldest is comparing sets.

He talked about the differences of the two sets.
I then asked him to place the appropriate symbol between the sets.
We spent 10 minutes on this.


Next was Ray's.
Here is how we did lesson one.
Homemade flash cards of number words.
I would put out pebbles, my son counted them.
He then wrote the number and pointed to
the number word.
He then wrote the number word.
He has mastered this this week.
Next week, the flash cards will be gone
and he still needs to write the number and
number word.
We will move to lesson two once he masters this.
This took about 15 minutes.

Lastly, there is Shiller math.
We are on Lesson 1-111, number comparisons.
We played a number game.
Lay out numbers 1-9 and place a red circle
at the ends.
I think of a number 1-9 and it is my son's job
to try to figure out the number.
He uses the red circles as markers.
My number is 4.
My son guesses one.
I tell him the number one is less than my number.
So, he places his marker by number one.


Next, he guesses number 5.
I tell him number five is greater than the number.
He moves his other red marker by the number 5.
Now he knows his number is between 1 and 5.
We started out with four guesses.
As he improve we did only three guesses.
We spent 15 minutes on this.

My son enjoyed his math this week.
We will do MEP, Ray's, and Shiller 3 days a week.
We will do living math and math journal
one day a week.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Children and Play


Have you ever sat back and watched children play?
I mean really watched?
Children have this wonderment about them.
That special look you see
when they first do something new.
The amazement dirt and water can bring,
hours of simple fun.
The giggles seeing a little frog jump across the grass.
Sticks that become weapons of heroes.
Climbing to heights that were once unattainable.
Filling up a water can and carefully,
not wanting to spill a drop, walking across
the lawn to water the woods.
Watching their eyes and facial expressions
while they play.
Children's innocence and purity.
The wholesome love they show.
They are true blessings.