The Sinister Scribe » Art & Music Apprec

Math is Fun Mom!

Hope — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:14:23 +0000

Here is is Thursday of the first week of the last quarter of this school year. (lotta “of” in that sentence!) It is going very well and most importantly, the kids are having FUN! On the other hand, I am utterly exhausted staying up late to make sure I have everything printed and ready for the next day. It is clear to me that in order for me to survive the next 9 weeks, I will have to do planning in bigger chunks. Like prepping an entire week at a time over the weekend.

Why that title? That is what Jess said to me on Tuesday morning when I introduced her to subtraction. First time I’ve ever explained it to her. We used some dry kidney beans as counters. I briefly explained the concept then had to go help Sam with a math problem. while I was with Sam I heard her exclaim, “This is so easy. I love math!” And completed the remainder of the 21 problems on her own. Yeah, I’m a bit dumbfounded/elated/scared/confused/…

Sam on the other hand is picking up Latin like no body’s business. He definitely prefers the info from Judith’s lessons over Minimus. I think maybe it is just the age and hope that Jessie will like Minimus later on. I am also constantly amazed at his ability to remember his Japanese vocabulary. Ok, I am jealous too. LOL!

Aren't they cute?

Tuesday we spent some time at a friends alpaca and sheep farm (first pic). If we hadn’t been trying to get both kids there for weeks, I would have canceled trip. I am glad I did not even though we were there 2 hours longer than I’d planned.

Sam has such a way with these animals. I teased him that I’d make a farmer out of him yet. I’m only sort of kidding. He had sheep coming up to him that usually do not approach people. He loved holding the lambs as you can see in this picture. They were absolutely adorable.

We even got to herd the alpacas back into their pen. The three of us, Sam, Jess and I, just slowly walked toward them with our arms out. That was all it took. We’ll certainly be going back to help out. Such a beautiful farm and Nancy is just the sweetest person. Sam and Jess are so in love with her.

History reading

What was I talking about… Oh yeah…

History went well yesterday. Here’s a pic of Sam reading to us while I got the yuanxiao dumplings boiling. It was cute to hear Jess ooh and ahh of the pictures in the book and ask Sam questions about them. (which he answered very well)

The dumplings were fairly easy to make. I’d mixed up the dough and filling the day before. The dough needed a bit of kneeding to revive it but they worked just fine. Forming the balls takes a bit of dexterity to get the outer dough around the inner filling well enough to keep it in there during boiling. Refrigerating the filling before using it definitely is a must! Sam thought you could even use savory fillings instead if you wanted. He liked them as we made them but Jessie did not.

Oh, I used corn starch on the outside because the sweet rice dough is so incredibly sticky after boiling. If I had powdered sugar ready, I would have used that instead.

While Sam filled in the GeoScribe sheets for China, Jessie colored chinese motifs (free Dover pictures) .

We had art appreciation and drawing outside on the deck. Beautiful day! Did a few exercises from Barb’s Medieval studies pack and reviewed a Draw Squad lesson.

Today will be Earth Science, more Art Appreciation and maybe the Library again. As I was trying to get my crossing eyes and fuzzy brain to focus on the Science lessons I realized we had no books for it and I was not finding what I wanted online. My solution, introduce the concepts and take them to the library to find books on it. Have them help me find the books! Sounded good last night.

I hope this was all coherent. My brain is feeling fuzzy and sluggish but I did go to bed at a decent hour. And now my coffee cup is empty. Must remedy that.

Oh, anyone know what this is? Nancy has had it growing on her farmfor years. It looks vaguely mint like… square stems, leaves opposite and alternate. Not minty in smell…

What is this?

square stems...

yellow flower...

any ideas?

Art & Music Appreciation: Week 1 Day 2

Hope — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:54:36 +0000

I have been sick so haven’t had time to blog this or other things I’ve wanted to get up here.

Wednesday last week we completed more of the art and music appreciation program from Barb at Harmony Fine Arts. We studied the focus artwork on the computer after all. All three of us sat and talked about all the colors we could see. Jessie even sat in for most of it. We also talked about the dimension and expression Giotto used in comparison to other works of the time. Actually Sam brought that up. I didn’t hide the painting while we talked though. I was worried about loosing Jessie’s interest if I did.

For drawing we cracked open Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad. We’ve done the first lessons before but lost interest so we ended up going a bit further than I intended. Which is fine. Sam said he really enjoyed getting back into this book. Jessie participated quite well too. Her drawings were quite cute. Need to get pictures up! We’ve been practicing the shapes too and I’ve noticed them in Sam’s free time drawings as well. I love it when I can see what we cover influence their daily lives. Especially when it happens so quickly!

We still can’t print so there ‘s a few activities we haven’t done for week 1 but I may just move on and come back to those after next week. Again the plan,s flexibility is soooooo wonderful!

Oh! We did spend one afternoon ( I was starting to feel sick) on the couch listening to some podcasts about Vivaldi. Spent quite a lot of time actually … all three of us. Woot!

I wish I knew exactly why, but Jessie is suddenly participating in activities at an unprecedented level. I hope it continues! She came to me one evening last week and wanted to learn how to read… right then! Woot! We had a “lesson” of sorts and she memorized one of the “Bob Books” already so she’s convinced she can read now and won’t need any further lessons until the spring.

OKay… on to other things before I completely crash.

Art & Music Appreciation: Week 1 Day 1

Hope — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:45:58 +0000

This is something I’ve been meaning to blog about! But first I had to make sure it was okie-dokie to do so.

Barb over at Harmony Fine Arts has chosen us to test drive her completely revamped art and music appreciation program for the Medieval and Renaissance time period. How cool is that?!? Okay, so maybe “chosen” isn’t the right word. I did volunteer. But she said yes. Woot! If you don’t know about Barb and her amazing website, please go there now!

First glance: well organized; everything is laid out by week. Detailed: suggested reading, listening and drawing activities are all right there and linked. Images for study are in the PDF too. Options: she gives you 3… each laid out with the same detail and organization.

I emailed with Barb… that’s yet another thing I love about this … Barb is very reachable by email! Anyway, the pictures she lists are examples to pare down the overwhelming amount of viewable art out there. So besides having 3 well organized, detailed options laid out for you, you also have the option of using them as suggestions to customize it. Yeah, I’m kinda excited about this.

Yesterday was our first session. I’d planned on doing the art section with Mark Kistler’s draw squad but things worked out differently and we ended up listening to the Vivaldi part of the “Story of Vivaldi and Corelli” CD while the kids were having a snack. (yes, I’m stuffing their ears while they stuff their face. *giggle*) When it got to the tracks for “Autumn” and “Winter” we were all dancing around the kitchen trying to move like falling leaves, snowflakes, pretending to make snow angels on the floor (that was Sam), and doing things like patting out the beat in imitation of “Little Einsteins” that Jessie likes to listen to so much.

I’ve set up a table (cleared off more like) to set out things for art and music appreciation. Here you can see the table with the Vivaldi CD a print from Giotto, a book about him and one of the Met’s S.I.A. volumes. I’ll leave these out while we study Vivaldi and Giotto. I will also display our art projects as we do them. Maybe even have the art and music binder kept here.

I’d planned on printing out pictures of the focus artwork, artist picture and composer picture but we are on a printer ink diet this month so that isn’t happening. But I remembered something I picked up last year at one of the library book sales: “Seminars in Art” from the Met. (A large format, 17 volume set for $17 no less!) It didn’t have the artwork needed for this week, but it did have a couple of things from Giotto. It will have to do. One is a detail from the same artwork shown on the book cover. Of course there is the option of viewing the suggested image on the computer (which we will do). But I really wanted something not on the computer too.

One project I might add to the first 4 weeks list is a small fresco using a sketch we’ll be creating in the following weeks. Might be an interesting experience to try and convert a sketch to a fresco like Giotto may have done.

Wednesday we’ll probably read about Giotto (although Sam had it read as soon as it came in the house). And do the suggested drawing activities. As well as closing up the second quarter’s projects, tests and adding to our year book.

Whew! Lots to do. I’d better get going