Artist Study-Bedroom in Arles

I've always wanted to do an art study, but never found a way to do so.  This year by request from Dare-Devil Boy he asked if we could learn about Vincent Van Gogh after watching a documentary with me about the artist.  So this past summer I went looking for an unit study about the artist.  

I looked over books, searched the web to see what other have done and then finally found something that I like.  I needed something that was pre-made for me.  I really didn't want to make my own curriculum from scratch.  Also I needed something cheap and easy to use.  After all my looking I found Harmony Art Mom's Art & Music Appreciation: Vincent Van Gogh & George Handel.

It a summer program but I decided to stretch it out over the school months.  Focusing on one painting for 3 weeks and then a week of learning about George Handel.  Then repeating the rotation until we have done all the paints included in the study.  

This month we are highlighting the painting "Bedroom In Arles".  One of my favorite paintings that Van Gogh did.  Here is what we did this month.

Dare-Devil Boy and Wonder Girl coloring a coloring sheet of the painting. Dare-Devil Boy's coloring sheet is at the top of the page.

Wonder Girl's own coloring.

They drew out there own watercolor version of the paintings.  First drawing it out with pencil and the coloring over with watercolors.

Dare-Devil Boy's creation.  It looks great and is pretty good copy of it.

Wonder Girl did her own version of the famous painting.  A bit more abstract i think.

Over all our fist time doing an are study and it goes well and they enjoyed it.  Dare-Devil Boy can't wait to learn more.

Flags and Wrapping Paper

Two weeks ago we started into our study of the later haft of American History.  We have picked up were we left off last year with learning about the slavery and the Underground Railroad.  

Dare-Devil Boy has expressed that's he's enjoying the books and the subject covered this year so far.  Even though it has been the first two weeks.  A huge improvement over the previous years when he looked at the books and wanted nothing to do with them.  I'm so glad that we've changed into a program that he loves and has great books that he enjoys.


In the last two weeks we've learned about the Underground Railroad and have gone into learning about the Civil War.  Like every year we've done some great projects that help in our learning.  It takes a lot more planning on my part, but learning is more fun for my hands-on kids.
 

Fort Sumter Flag

Here is Dare-Devil Boy making homemade wrapping paper.  We would use it to wrap gifts a few days later.

Beyond doing hands-on projects, games and other things one thing my family enjoys are the period style meals.  I try hard to find recipes from books, the web and friends that will fit with whatever time period or unit we are covering.  In the course of doing so my family finds meals or things that they like and I get to add in something new to my menu of cooking. 

Sausage & Apples with Hoppin' John.  It was one of the best meals yet. 

Starting A New (School) Year

Last week was our first offically start of the school year.  How did it go?  A lot better then I thought it would. 

Wonder Girls started Kindergarten this year.  She did very well the first week of school.  Really better then I thought she would.  She enjoyed herself and we both had fun learning her alphabets.  I found that she can do some of the work without my help, which in turn was great.  It meant that I could wash the dishes and do a loaad of laundry while she worked.

Here is Wonder Girl hard at work practicing her handwriting skills.

Wonder Girl made a friend to help her with her school.  She loves to draw random faces and people.  I find her drawings that she done (on paper) hidden all over the house.  All are different people with different names, that do different jobs.  Not sure what this one's job is.  I forgot to ask.

Meanwhile, as Wonder Girl was busy writing letters and shapes, Dare_Devil Boy went into perch himself on his bed to do school.  This year Dare-Devil Boys has become more independent with is school work.  He manages to most of his school work without me there and with very little help.  

How does that happen you ask?  Well in our homeschool house I've set up a kind of work binder that each child has. In the binder there are 5 folders that are labeled Day 1- Day 5.  Each fold holds only one day's worth of work.  WIth Dare-Devil Boy he has a schedule with all the work that he's gotta do for the week.  Mind you there are some school stuff that he's got that he does to with me.  Mainly History, Science, Bible and our Art/Music Study.  All this is as a group with Wonder Girl and sometimes Hondo listening in.  I'll make a seperate post one day one our schooling system.

Anyway here is Dare-Devil Boy doing his school on his own.

I even managed to do some fun coloring/drawing with Hondo.  Here he is hard at work. 

Here is what I caught Hondo doing later when I was busy with the other two.  He got a hold of a banana and a toy knife.  He started to cut up the banana and eat it. That was why he was so quite while I was reading to the others.

One thing I've started to do on the first day of school is pack lunches.  We have several lunch boxes around the house.  All were given to the kids by family and most are never actually used as lunch boxes.  2 of them are used to carry both Wonder Girl  and Dare-Devil Boy's AWANA's books, bible and any odd papers they collect for church.  The others are used by the kids to tote toys, as briefcases when they are playing, and who knows what else they think of.  But a few are used saved to carry food in.

Here are the my super heroes eating there lunches.

Homeschool Curriculum 2011-2012

This year I am going to be schooling both Dare Devil Boy and Wonder Girl.  Hondo will be sitting in on both in their schooling year.  This year my kids will be in 3rd grade and in Kindergarten.  Here is what we are planning to use this year.


Wonder Girl (Kindergarten)-


Language Arts: This year we are using WinterPromise's PreK/Kindergarten: Basic Phonics.  Its more of a hands-on program then what I used for Dare-Devil boy when he was in Kindergarten.  Something my little super hero in training needs.  The program uses Jumping Right into Reading, Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code workbooks.  It also has a Hands-on Activity Pack and Phonics Card that go along with it that you can get from WinterPromise.  Its not in the picture because I forgot to put it in the picture. Click here if you want to take a look at it.  There is samples you can try out.  I added in A Reason for Handwriting-K and Sonlight's K Readers.

Math:  This year after almost a year of researching and going back and forth between several programs I finally decided on using Saxon Math K. The reason is because I needed something hands-on for her that went at a slower pace them Horizon did.  (Which I used in the past for Dare-Devil.)  Wonder Girl is so excited about starting.  Mostly because she wants to play with all the manipulates that go along with the program.  Which I got from Rainbow Resources.Click here to see it.

Dare Devil Boy (3rd Grade)-



Language Arts: This year I've thrown out the boxed curriculum and instead put together my own Language Arts curriculum for him this year.  I did lots of research and looking at all my catalogs, but finally came up with what I think is a good complete program.

• Language Lessons for the Very Young 2.  We are using this as a base for the our LA this year.  I liked the Copywork and Writing exercises in this.
• Phonics- Modern Curriculum Press Phonics C.  
• Handwriting- A Reason for Handwriting: Transition 
• Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1 and 2.  We need more spelling and something that will teach rules to spelling that I can't answer.
• Grammar- Easy Grammar 3 with workbook.  I've heard great reviews with this program and I like the way it teaches students.

Readers:  This year like most of our homeschooling years we use Sonlight Readers.  This year we will be no different.  We will be using there 2nd grade intermediate readers, now called 3rd grade readers.  Of all the different books we read Sonlight's readers have always been the ones that we use the most and my kids keep coming back to read.  I know that Dare-Devil Boy is exciting about reading these books this year.  He's moving into short chapter books and he's starting to read aloud to all of us.


Math:  Teaching Textbook 3.  Dare-Devil Boys are more excited about this then I am.  He's been wanting to do it since he did the demo online at Teaching Textbooks website.  Its a good mix of teaching on the computer (which Dare-Devil Boy thinks he's playing a video game.) and then workbook learning.


For both:

History:  WinterPromise's American Story 2.  We finished American Story 1 last year. It was a great year of learning and everyone in the family had a great time  learning along side Dare-Devil Boy.  We did lots on hands-on projects, lapbooking, and eating food of the time periods we were learning about.  (This was my husband's favorite part of last year.)  I have lots of extras and other stuff about our year doing American Story 1 that you can check out here.


This year we will be picking up where last year ended.  Right before the Civil War then up to present day.  It will be another year of learning, eating and having fun.


Science:  This year we are trying out to WinterPromise's Rock Around the Earth science program.  It'll be something different for us from our year's of doing Sonlight sciences.  But we are wanting to do something that will cover science more like a unit study and something that I could do all in 1 or 2 days instead over a week.  But still not feel overwhelmed.

Art & Music Study:  I've have always wanted to add in an Art & Music study into our learning.  But never seem to have the time to do it or sometimes to find something that both the kids and I would like.  Well I found it this year.  We will be using Harmony Art Mom's The Summer 201o Art and Music Appreciation: Featuring Vincent Van Gogh and George Handel Ebook.  This is summer program, but I'm stretching it out to do one painting per month.

So that's what we are doing this year.  Its full of fun, learning, and discovery.

Time with Mom

I like to take my one of my kids shopping with me when I go out.  I don't always like taking all three of them.  If you have ever gone shopping with more then 2 kids life can be crazy.  Most of the time i spend in the store consists of, "Mom can I have (fill in the blank)."  or me saying, "Don't touch that." or "No you can have that."  By the end of the shopping trip (which is normally buy grocery) I'm tired, the kids are tired, and all I want to do is put everyone down for a nap when I get home.  

But with just one of my kids its another thing.  I can take my time and the stress level isn't so high.  Yes, that only child will ask for something and want to touch something they really shouldn't.  But in this case I don't have three kids all saying it and trying to run off in three different directions.  

Usually I just my trips with a single child in tow is to do some errands like going to the library, to the mall, or something like that.  But those are some of my favorite one-on-one time with my kids.  It is always during those times I get to teach some things I don't always get a chance while I have all three with me.  

With Dare-Devil Boy he likes to come with me to the library.  When we are there I use the time to teach him how to look up books on the computer that he might be wanting to get.  On our most resent trips to the library I've been teaching him how to play chess.  Which has been an interesting experience.  He does okay for a 8 year old.  

Dare-Devil Boy taking time to be Captain America while in Walmart.

With Wonder Girl she likes to shop like any other girl, but lots of the time she thinks that its a great time to perform her one girl show for me.  She likes to run around the store collecting things here and there that she can wear.  Then stop me to show off her current costume.  A pictures of a few of my favorite creations  below.  

Wonder Girl's old lady look.

 Her Rock Star look.

 Wonder Girl playing outlaws.

All in all these are the times my kids love the most.  They remember those times I drag them to the mall to get shoes or to Best Buy cause I need to get something.  They get the chance to play demo games with me, look at the latest TVs or end up breaking out in a dance in the middle of the toy store.  I treasure these times.  I know that I can't last forever.  Because one day they will be teenagers and won't want to "hang out" with mom.  So I'm going to take advantage of those moments with I can.

Doctor Who's Birthday

If you have been following you know that I love DOCTOR WHO and so do my kids.  Well over the summer the kids had a Doctor Who theme Birthday Party.  This year we combined our two oldest birthdays.  It was just simply due to the fact we just weren't able to have a party for Wonder Girl when it was her birthday earlier this year.  SO we decided to double up when it got closer to Dare-Devil Boy's birthday.

Well when the kids choose Doctor Who as the theme to say the least I was excited.  I spent weeks before looking for ideas and things that had to do with Doctor Who.  In my searching I found a website that had a Doctor Who themed paper craft.  My kids were excited about it and loved them.  So I spent about 2 weeks printing out and making our own Dalek army, Adipose, K-9 and Tardis.  I filled them with candy to give away to the kids that came to the party.

Here is a picture of my Dalek army.

 Later I would find Wonder Girl playing with the Daleks and the Adipose.  

Here she set them up in a Cha-Cha line.

She managed to even make them work.

A friend of ours would make the Tardis cake and Daleks below.

I also managed to find some coloring sheets also for the kids to color.  All in all it was a great party. (Even though it rained us out from playing outside.)  My kids have requested for me to make more Doctor Who cube paper crafts of different characters to play with.  


This all took a while to get posted because I missed placed my SD converter for my microSD card.  So all my pictures have been sitting on my phone.


If you would like to make your own here you can check it our here:

• Doctor Who paper crafts