Month: July 2015

Categories
Art

Our Monet-inspired Painting and FREE Monet Art History and Appreciation Lessons

monetart

BigG has shown an interest in art.  Not just making art but viewing at.  (A field trip to the art museum is one of our favorites!)   I was excited to find this FREE Claude Monet Art Activities ArTree Magazine issue!

The painting in the picture is the first art activity from the magazine issue.  We learned what Monet liked to paint and that Impressionism art was pretty much created by Monet.    We learned that Monet painted the same scenes over and over but a little differently each time.

Then we looked at some of Monet’s pictures of the bridge over the pond and talked about the reflection in the pond and made our own painting.  BigG LOVED this.  He was so proud of his painting.

Hurry and get the Claude Monet Art Activities ArTree Magazine issue while it’s available for FREE!

monetartHere’s what’s inside the magazine:

  • Visit Claude Monet’s garden and learn why he loved he so much. Paint the lily pads and the Japanese bridge many times over with Impressionist.
  • Design your own garden, explore reflective symmetry in the water lily pond and make huge water lilies to decorate your walls. Write your own poetry, perform science experiments, make a plantable paper.
  • See the time fly by with Fong Qi Wei and learn about parallel lines as you create your own piece of art. Capture different parts of the day and express your emotions.

You can even click on certain sections of the magazine and it’s linked to more information and pictures.

This won’t be available for long so hurry and get your Claude Monet Art Activities ArTree Magazine issue for FREE!

And while you’re over there you can check out the Homeschool Success eBook Bundle for FREE too!

Categories
Art School Day Sonlight Core A

Loving Sonlight Already | Core A Week 1 & our Supplemental Activities

I am so glad that I found Sonlight for our school year. After 2 weeks, I’m already in love. I love how it’s laid out for me and all I have to do is pick up my IG and the books we need and go. And I love how the subjects work together. It makes the lessons flow instead of feeling like we’re shifting gears between each subject.

We’re using Core A with Language Arts 2. The history seems a little light but I think it will pick up. Core A is made to work with K-2nd grade so I figured it might be a little light but everyone I talked to said not to skip Core A if your child fell within the age range. And I hate missing out on stuff so we went with it.

Core A History starts at dirt.  By that I mean creation.  But since it uses Usborne’s Children’s Encyclopedia and The Usborne Book of Living Long Ago it presents an old earth, “dinosaurs before man” and evolutionary version of history.  The Sonlight IG does a good job of helping you navigate these topics if you’re unsure of how to do it.  This is a topic I’ve discussed with BigG often so it was just a normal discussion to him.  He knows why we believe they way we believe.

One of the first history lessons discusses “cavemen”.  And while we don’t dispute the fact that people used caves as shelter, we don’t believe that they were unintelligent neanderthals.  One of the things the section on cave people discussed was cave paintings.  It suggested making a cave painting of your own but it was about putting your hands on paper and blowing paint around it to make a handprint.  That sound messy and not fun.

So I improvised!

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Make a Cave Painting

In the lesson it talks about how they made their own paints and used twigs, feathers, reeds, etc as “paintbrushes”.  So we went outside and gathered some things that we thought might make good paintbrushes.

We came back in and got started.  Ideally I would’ve used a brown piece of construction paper to paint on but apparently we’ve had a run on brown in the house and there wasn’t a piece to be found anywhere.  Orange made a good substitute.

cavepainting1

We discussed how mixing paints and making cave paintings actually pointed to intelligence and creativity bestowed upon man by our Creator.

We talked about things that might be easy to paint using the tools we had.  He decided on water, a boat and mountains.

cavepainting2

About halfway through trying to use a stick to paint mountains he decided that it would just be easier to use his finger to finish them.  So he did.  And he thought that was AWESOME.  Apparently I’ve never let him paint with his fingers before.

Here’s what else we’re doing to go along with our Sonlight:

Vocabulary Notebook – This is coming in handy.  When we come across one of the vocabulary words in our read-aloud, we write it down with the meaning.  Plus any other words that are new to BigG.  We review them everyday before we read our next chapter in our read-aloud.  He always points out the word if it comes up again.  I have no plans to test him formally on these words.  I think reviewing them each day is sufficient at this level.

Busy Activity during Read-Alouds – BigG is no stranger to chapter books but the first read aloud, The Boxcar Children, is lacking the pictures he’s used to in our newer chapter books we’ve been reading.  We have an older edition of it, I don’t know if the newer ones have better pictures.  I don’t mind that it doesn’t have exciting pictures – I think it’s good for BigG.  But I have allowed him to sit with his Legos or Play-Doh during read-aloud time.  The only stipulation is that what he makes during that time has to relate to the story somehow.  When our chapter is over he has to tell me about what he’s made.  This works as a check to see if he was really listening.   One day he made a boxcar out of Legos.  Another day he tried making the children out of Play-doh.

That’s all for now!  Can’t wait to share more with you as we keep going through this year!

Categories
School Day

Wrapping Up Week 2 | Yes, we took more field trips

I really love field trips.  They’re quite possibly my favorite thing about homeschooling.  Last week we went to a show at the Planetarium.  They were having another one this week so we went to it also and while we were out, we used some free passes to the Southern Museum of Flight that we had gotten.

fm3

The Southern Museum of Flight was something we’ve never done before (despite being in close proximity to it) so it was a nice treat.  Plus, unless we’re doing something huge like the zoo, I like to try to squeeze in two “field trips” in one day.  While the Planetarium was great, it was a one hour show.  Kind of hard to justify a one hour show as a whole school day (especially since it was the 2nd time we went in as many weeks).  BigG also did some independent reading in the car and we did Lesson 3 in English for the Thoughtful Child, Vol. 1
(our LA supplement we’re using in addition to Sonlight this year.)  Science, history, reading and English sounds like a day to me.

We also fill out our field trip logs when we get home from a field trip.  So I guess it was science, history, reading, English and writing.

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Last summer we read the book The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot July 25, 1909 
and strangely enough, it turned out to be a book BigG really enjoyed and wanted to read over and over.   He remembers it well so we brought it up while we were at the museum.  BigG also learned about Wilbur and Orville Wright and their first flight from one exhibit.  But aside from that, the museum was more fun than educational.  He liked looking at the planes and he liked the few hands on things but the history of the planes and the science of flight was just a little over him.

fm2

Also this week:

  • We’re two weeks into Sonlight Core A.  I really like it.
  • I realize it’s very Charlotte Mason-ish and I never viewed myself as that kind of homeschooler, but I like English for the Thoughtful Child, Vol. 1.  I got it brand new at a book sale for $3 too.  Awesome.
  • We’re finishing up our BJU Math 1 because we didn’t finish it last year.  See, BigG started the year as a Kindergartener but by October I realized that wasn’t working at all.  So we bumped up to first grade.  Getting a late start meant not finishing all of the 1st grade math.  We managed to finish all the other subjects but not math.  After we finish we’re picking up Singapore Math 1B.  Yes I know there is a 1A and it’s supposed to be for the start of 2nd grade.  But I flipped through it and he could already do everything in it even before he finished BJU Math 1.  So I decided to start at 1B.  We have some math supplements too and we take our time with math.  It’s not a subject I want to run through.  (I was never great at math anyway.  It was always my “sweat subject”.  I had to fight to keep my A average in math in high school when everything else was a breeze.
  • We are also doing Abeka cursive.  BigG begged for the longest last year to start learning cursive.  I promised him in 2nd grade we would.  We do a cursive lesson every day and he willingly writes more than I assign him.  But ask him to write his spelling words?  AGONY.  For both of us.
  • And we finished up our week learning about Monet and doing one of the art activities from the Monet art activities magazine (free to download!)

All in all, I say we’ve had a hugely successful first two weeks of school.

This is part of the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap-Up
Categories
Resources

FREE Minecraft-Themed Math Worksheets your Kids will LOVE

Do your Minecraft kids need some encouragement to practice math? How about a quick addition refresher before going back to school?

minecraftmath

Download Multi Taskin’ Mom’s FREE Minecraft Themed Addition Worksheets. These fun math worksheets include single digit to double digit addition, making this freebie useful for Minecraft kids ages 5 to 12.

Here’s more ways to use your child’s interest in Minecraft for learning:

Looking for more ways to turn gaming time into learning time? Check out all the Minecraft-themed educational products offered on Educents at a discount.

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You can use your $10 gift card on anything at Educents!  You can find deeply discounted resources and lots of great printable packs sometimes for $5 or less (making them FREE after your credit!).  Plus, you can almost always find a freebie on Educents too!

Educents is a flash deal site for discounted educational products!  If you are an educator or homeschooling family, check them out today!

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Categories
Art

Monet Art Activities (Free Download)

I love Educents.  I have found so many great things to use and most of them have been FREE!  Here’s a new free download that BigG is going to love!   We don’t have a set art curriculum yet but he loves looking at art and thanks to a book at the library, has taken a special interest in Monet.

monetartClaude Monet Art Activities ArTree Magazine issue!

Here’s what’s inside the magazine:

  • Visit Claude Monet’s garden and learn why he loved he so much. Paint the lily pads and the Japanese bridge many times over with Impressionist.
  • Design your own garden, explore reflective symmetry in the water lily pond and make huge water lilies to decorate your walls. Write your own poetry, perform science experiments, make a plantable paper.
  • See the time fly by with Fong Qi Wei and learn about parallel lines as you create your own piece of art. Capture different parts of the day and express your emotions.

I’ve already downloaded it and browsed through it.  It has some great stuff in it!  BigG, even at only almost 7 would enjoy this.  Lots of easy to do projects and fun facts about Monet.  I’m waiting for some art books I ordered to get here so we’re going to fill next week with these Monet activities!

This won’t be available for long so hurry and get your Claude Monet Art Activities ArTree Magazine issue for FREE!

And while you’re over there you can check out the Homeschool Success eBook Bundle for FREE too!

Categories
School Day

Still Kicking After the First Week of School

Despite a rocky start on Monday we made it through our first week of homeschool!  We even squeezed in a field trip to the Planetarium at Samford University!

samford

I should’ve mention that we didn’t do FULL school days this week.  We are easing back into the routine.  We’re doing Sonlight for History, Bible, Language, Spelling/Vocab and Reading.  So this week we did the Spelling, Language and Reading Portion of Sonlight each day along with Handwriting (G is SO EXCITED to be learning cursive!!) and we did Math three days this week and Science on one (finishing up Apologia Zoology 1 that we started back in the spring.)

Next week we’re going to add the History and Bible portion of Sonlight to each day, math everyday and aiming for 2 days of Science.  And possibly another field trip.  I do love field trips!

I posted this as part of the Weekly Wrap Up Linky!

Categories
School Day

First Day of School 2015

I was trying to decide HOW to start this blog.  I mean, I have tons of post ideas to share with you, but HOW do I get started?  Well, I decided to start with our first day of school!

We school year round so we start in July.  So our first scheduled day of school for the 2015/2016 school year was Monday, July 13th.  This is our first day of our second year of homeschooling.

Our First Day of School for 2015 didn’t go as planned.  Our air conditioner went out Saturday night.  Not wanting to have to pay weekend rates for service, I waited until this morning to call.  Well, apparently there was a list and he would “try to get to me by the end of the day”.   UGH.  At this point it was 7:30 am and 84 degrees in my house with a projected high for the day of 96 degrees.

So I scraped up the most portable lessons scheduled for today and we headed to the library around 9:00.  BigG browsed the new books.  I picked up some books we would be needing.  He wanted to play with the toys in the kids area so I read to him while he played.  As I was just about to suggest we move from the kids area to the quiet area to get started with our school work, the AC repair man called and said he was on his way to our house – it wasn’t even 10:30 yet!  So we check out and head back home.

By 11:30 the air is fixed.  Praise the Lord!  But now lunch has to be made and eaten and we’re so far behind on our “first day of school”.  And it isn’t ANYTHING like the magical day I imagined it would be.

But, by golly, it HAPPENED!  We did it.  We had our first day of school!

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