Art Study

I had previously decided that my choice of homeschool "method" was very similar to the Charlotte Mason method, and so I had thought to follow her ideas...this is easier said than done, and I wonder often how I will accomplish all she set out to do! I've been a lurker at a Charlotte Mason yahoo group or two for quite sometime...recently one post in particular prompted me to do more with art. I love art, so it shouldn't be a hard thing...but it can be very intimidating! One poster had on her blog simple steps that even I found to be very quick and painless. She called it a "Picture Study" so that is what I call it.
I had some prints in 4x6 size, so I chose one at random. Now, God is not a random God...so I should not have been surprised when I pulled out a famous painting of a rabbit...given that we had just completed our rabbit lapbook! God knew, and He is so good. So our first "study" was of this particular painting by Albrecht Dürer ca. 1500. We didn't do much...they studied the image for a minute or two, and then narrated back to me what they had seen. (This week I actually typed their narration so that I will have a record of it...but my first attempt in lost, oh well, live and learn.) Then I gave the girls each a composition notebook, and a photocopy of the print to glue in. They then journaled their thoughts about the painting. The print remained on the wall for the rest of the week.
This week I took it a little further, and a little slower. I chose another print by Dürer, Nuremburg Woman Dressed for Church ca 1500, and again let them study it and narrate or dictate to me their thoughts. I did type them to add to their notebook at a later date. Then a couple days later we did the journal, and another couple days after that I gave them paper and paint so that they could re-create the painting. I thought they would really enjoy this part...not! My dgd who LOVES to draw was so stressed about making it perfect that she completely lost the fun of it! And dd who is a perfectionist really struggled as well! Gosh, I had hoped it would be something fun for them to look forward to doing...I guess we'll have to see about next week. They did finally get a painting done, and we've attached it to their notebook. I haven't given up, but I hope they are a little more relaxed about it next week. I was practically chanting...it's art, it's not about perfection, art is individual, each person's art is different, it's not Dürer's woman you are painting it's your woman dressed for church...I think it did finally sink it...but I hope things are better next time!
Here's a couple pictures without tears:





*Ü* Blessings,

Rabbit Lapbook (Fox too!)

Hello Friends!
We finished our rabbit lapbook today to go along with the Thornton Burgess book "The Adventure of Peter Cottontail." In looking back, I realized I never posted photos of our fox lapbook for the "Reddy Fox" book...so I'll add those here too! Next we'll be doing a mouse lapbook to go with the book "Danny Meadow Mouse."

I was surprise at how much I actually fit into this rabbit book! We did some vocabulary work, though it isn't in the lapbook...we learned that a buck in an adult male, a doe an adult female and a kit is a baby bunny...a whole litter is referred to as kittens! Rabbits live in a warren and are herbivores. The latter two words are in our lapbook...the first three were just interested things we thought quite funny.

In our lapbook is a bit of poetry copywork and some math - addition and tangrams (I'll do tangrams in each of the animal lapbooks.) We made a little puppet and poem, a lifecycle wheel, and what rabbits eat as well as who eats them! Rabbits are found on every continent except Antarctica, so I didn't feel the need to do any mapping of their location. We did a fact layer book as well as a pre-made fact shape book. Most of the things were found on homeschoolshare.com and some things I made myself. Because I used Jan Brett's mask of a fox face for that lapbook cover, I decided to do the same with this lapbook for a rabbit...I know she also has a mouse mask as well as a bear mask...not sure what I'll do for a frog or squirrel yet...we'll see.

Here is dgd with her lapbook:


the inside:


And dd with hers:


and her interior:


You can see they are both a little different in layout and colors...they picked their own, and they helped with layout as well. In the very middle are mini match books with a number on the top...inside are images or rabbits, and the girls had to decide upon a number sentence for each group of rabbits...here is a close up of one of the books:


We had alot of fun with this lapbook, and actually I have already begun sketching out and planning the mouse lapbook...I'm hoping to be a little faster with the other lapbooks! I was anticipating them only taking a week or at most 2 to finish...but they've taken a bit longer...though we did have some holidays and vacations to deal with in between this one and the fox one...still I wish to be faster!

Here is a quick picture of our fox lapbook:


*Ü* Blessings,

They Did It!

The girls have both mastered their poems and allowed me to video tape them. woo-hoo!
I'm so proud of them both. G chose "The Swing" and B chose "Bed in Summer" both poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. They really enjoyed this exercise, and are already scouring the "Child's Garden of Verses" for the next piece. Wow!
Here is "The Swing":


And here is "Bed in Summer":


The girls were so proud of themselves!

*Ü* Blessings,

Time Sure Flies By Fast!

I can't believe how time flies! The holidays are over, and we are back hard at work...well, easing in this week by finishing up our mouse lapbook...sheesh, I know! I should have been done with that ages ago! But on the bright side, I have already started work on the mouse lapbook! So that one should go alot smoother! I'm pleased with the rabbit lapbook as I've found lots of things to include. I'll be uploading it to LapbookLessons, and you can download it there if you are at all interested.

I think it would be great if there was a generic animal lapbook that you could use to apply to any animal...but I haven't found one...and I suppose making 8 of the same lapbook would get monotonous and that wouldn't be good...so I'll keep doing them individually.

We had a lovely, small Christmas this year. The kids got maybe 5 or 6 gifts each. No overload, no stress, it really was nice. Favorites? Fisher-Price learn to skate Rollerblades for dd6, and Matchbox race track ramp thingy for ds4!





I was able to finish both sweaters, and they came out wonderful! (If I do say so myself.) I'll have to get a photo on here soon...I have one of dd, but not ds. I also made them "church" coats out of fleece. Their winter coats were so grungy because they are from last year, and I thought they should have a dress coat to wear out to church or even just the store...I love how they came out:



I've got to get lunch going or I'll have mutiny here soon!
I hope you also had a wonderful holiday, and I'll post more soon about our homeschool journey!

*Ü* Blessings,