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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

We do art...and so does the Bunny

The boys have *really* been loving our art lessons and will often continue on with different art projects for the rest of the day. We are studying the seven elements of art using How to Teach Art to Children. The book contains easy-to-prepare activities that all three big boys can do to some degree. Here are a few of our projects on line:

Lines of All Kinds

Expanding the lesson with worksheets from The J. Paul Getty Museum


During each lesson I like to expose them to a few pieces of art that display the element we are working on

The big boys also did the Blindfold Drawing activity from the Think! blog

Line Designs

Curved or Bent?

I love that Atticus is adding titles to and explaining his artwork on the back of each piece. The square on the top left is called 'Caught Dead' and says, "An owl in the dark was caught dead in a tree at night while sleeping." The spiral drawing (2 to the right of 'Caught Dead') is called 'Decoration Dilemma' and says, "A spiral is all alone until he gets shot with paint balls, then comes the decoration dilemma."

Line Delight
I drew lines on each sheet of paper and they were supposed to make "something" using those lines.
Creeley created a monster with a big open mouth and Atticus started with scenery.

Atticus's are in the left column. Once again, he added some commentary on each of piece. The first one, 'Crazy Comet,' says "For the town's people on this planet, the day had just started..."
The second, 'Map of Giza,' states "The robbers found a map of Giza but can't get past the security..." And my personal favorite 'Icarus and Daedalus' (bottom left), tells a store of the father and son. He wrote, "Now remember Icarus, don't fly too high or too low right? Yes father. 5 minutes later: Icarus!"

Creeley's are in the middle column. He made two monster faces, explaining that the lines were their teeth, and one belly (notice the belly button in the middle). Townsyn just drew a little person on one of his, but it did keep him busy for two whole minutes.

We go through a lot of art supplies in this house, so the Easter Bunny decided to help out our cause and went with art themed baskets this year.

The whole spread

Atticus's
Creeley's
Townsyn's

Dempsey's (okay, no real art theme here, but the blocks are handmade with felted wool)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Transforming space to keep up with time

Unfortunately for Andrew, I inherited the "move-things-around" gene from my mother. Fortunately for me, he inherited the "patience-for-someone-who-moves-things-around" gene. This is especially important during pregnancy and shortly after the birth of a baby in our household. During this last pregnancy, all home improvements initiated by me were fairly small scale, due to my constant sickness. I'm not counting the complete kitchen and upstairs bathroom renovations in the late weeks of my pregnancy because they were NOT initiated by me. So now we have added another member to our family, and although all of the drawers in the house are grossly organized, I felt that we needed some major room shifting. I refuse to grow out of this house, even with four boys, so the only solution is to purge and evolve.

Since we are moving heavily into the schooling stage for the older boys, I thought that creating a "schoolroom" was obviously the best choice for room renovations. What we call our "tea room" has housed our computer since we moved in the house in 2003. That is the only constant in this space. Over the years it has undergone many transformations, starting as a room with a table for two and an under the table wine rack (not a good idea with a new walker), a viewing room when we didn't have a t.v. and cuddled on the couches to watch shows on the computer, a place to keep our exercise equipment, and a general storage facility.

This renovation called for a purging of books from the family room bookshelves, which were moved into the room to hold all of the homeschooling books and supplies. I adore having everything in one place. It makes the days much less hectic and me much less frazzled. The family room redo is for a different post, and you won't get pictures until it's painted. ;) The biggest challenge is avoiding making the space look like a public school classroom since it is an often used livable space in our small home. Luckily I don't have much wall space for tacky posters.

Here's a poor quality phone pic of most of the non-computer side of the room. The bookshelves hold the activities and books we use. The table is used for some projects and activities, although it is usually more of a place to store the books and activities after we have completed them and before they go in workboxes or back on the shelves. The kitchen table is bigger and lower and in the room attached to this, so that's where we gravitate to work.


Starting from the left top shelf, we have:

Math manipulatives, card games, letter magnets, and more


Library books for things in the upcoming week or two plus a few read-aloud books and frequently used activity books


Art supplies and a few activities


Puzzles and a few skill building activities


Starting from the right top shelf, we have:

Containers holding beads, glitter, modeling clay, beeswax, dot paints, etc. Teacher's manuals, folder to hold copies for the upcoming week or so, whiteboards, and a spot for papers that need to be filed.


Then our art books


Next is paper, notebooks, kid-safe art supplies, and a special box of activity books right at Townsyn's level


The bottom shlef is reserved for curriculum materials we aren't currently using


And since we must use every available inch, here is a view of what is currently stored on top of the bookcases for lack of a better storage space:


At the far end of our bookshelves we keep our workboxes. I am new to this concept, but basically, I fill the individual "boxes" with the assignments or activities the boys need to accomplish each day. I put them in order based on independent tasks and work that involves my help and stagger them so I can be available at different times for each kid. I included Townsyn in this set-up because...well, he is a pain. It helps somewhat. When the kids complete their activity, they remove the number tag from the box and place it in a little booklet I made. That way they have a concept of what is expected of them each day, it keeps me on task, and I can easily see what needs to be moved to the next day as we progress through the assignments.

The workbox bins contain their curriculum books, library books on topics we are covering, art activities, fun activities, and sometimes their favorite


And most important, the centerpiece of our daily activities, my much loved Pampered Chef utensil holder transformed into an art supply keeper


The other side of the room is a work in progress, including plans for a system to temporarily display posters using clips, strings, and a small shelf. It will also include hanging maps of the U.S. and world, a clock, and an ugly thermometer. The only part of the other side that I have worked on is the art work string to display the children's artwork before disposing of it. Here's another poor quality photo:


I'll give you a peek at the rest of it as soon as it's done!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Back in the swing of things

I am a sucky blogger. Very, very bad. In fact, it has been over a year since I posted. BUT...I am getting back in the swing of things. I promised the kids I would keep a record of our schooling since it is impossible to keep all of the, um, important works they produce every day.

Since last year we had a cute little addition to our family.

Meet Dempsey:

This is in the birth tub. Brand new.
And this is at 10 weeks. Still giving me the business at night, but sweet as can be during the sunlight hours.

Anyhow, besides that little bit of business, life is moving quickly. The boys are growing at an alarming rate, and we are getting back in our homeschooling groove after a long break.

We have settled on our curriculum (for now) so I'll report it here just to humor my other curriculum dork friends.

Atticus (grade 2):
History-Story of the World 2
Science-R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life (finishing this up withing the next few weeks...then on to Earth & Space!)
English-First Language Lessons 2
Writing-Writing with Ease 2
Grammar-Growing with Grammar 2
Spelling-Soaring with Spelling 2
Math-Singapore 2B
Art-Using How to Teach Art to Your Children
Handwriting-Handwriting without Tears-Printing Power
Geography-various sources for a study of all 50 states
We are planning on adding Music study and either Latin or German or possibly both during the summer months.

Creeley (Kindergarten):
Science-Living Learning Books-Level 1-Animals, Human Body, and Plants (It looks like there have been some changes to this curriculum since we bought ours a few years ago)
Math-Singapore Earlybird B
Reading-Reading Reflex
Handwriting-Handwriting without Tears-Letters and Numbers for Me
Art-Using How to Teach Art to Your Children

Here are various pictures of our fun over the past few weeks:

Creeley's experiment to find out what ants eat:
Atti's experiment about amphibian's hearing (bonus points for including the toddler):


Operation Keep-Townsyn-Busy:
A little English:

Some Handwriting:
A little painting and decorating:
And how sweet are the cute little gifts for our room?
Learning about line:
Atticus starting his 50 States study:

A little eagle cam viewing that coincided perfectly with our bird studies. I tried to post a link but it's dead now (the link, that is). Watching the babies and mom was fascinating!
Counting practice with 1oo Hungry Ants:
An experiment about how birds stay warm and dry:
And plenty of loving on the little dude, who doesn't quite know what to make of it all:

I'll be back with more. I promise. The kids are having so much fun and the excitement is absolutely contagious.