Wordful Wednesday

The study of Noah, the Ark, and the Convanent

This has been a fun week long lesson on Noah and his story. The kids really enjoyed it.

For the art section though, I changed it up a bit. They were having a real problem with the large Main Lesson Books. They felt like it was just too much to draw. Their drawings, in turn, would get messy and their writing huge and sloppy. I decided that one sheet, folded in half, was plenty for them to do the entire lesson on and all of a sudden, their work became beautiful again. Detailed, and obviously thoughtful. It was a great discovery. I plan on doing many more of their MLB lessons this way.

First up, Cyan:

Alex:

And me:

Spring Nature Table

I brought out the felt root children, along with Mother Earth, bedecked in pink and purple holding a purple crocus. A glass chicken on the left under the Flowering Quince branches, and the terrarium from our Creation project on the right, just behind a small figuring that my mom made of a mother and child. All of this is below a sweet Waldorf picture of a Spring Meadow with butterflies and gnomes swinging in the flowering trees. Sigh... I love Spring.

Spring is upon us.

Hazelnuts

Last year, just before Christmas, I bought this huge bag of local hazelnuts. We ate quite a few at first, and then put them away until last week, when I got them out again. The kids loved cracking them in the new Spring weather and we didn't run into a single bad one all afternoon!

No fancy nut crackers here... our cracker of choice? A big rock and the patio. You have to get the pressure just right, but it works great!

Mama work

Sometimes it takes some research to teach the things we need to teach our children in homeschooling.

I am not a person who draws. But my kids are... I am more of the 'art history' type art buff. But in the last year, my children have started to really require me to show them how to use the techniques that they are being asked to use... so I have stepped up and am starting by teaching myself to draw with all the many mediums and techniques that I am requiring them to use in our schooling. I read through all of the sections of Live Education on drawing with different mediums, I have looked online for different techniques and new ways of looking at the materials.... and finally, I am getting the hang of drawing (after some serious mess-ups... of course).

These are some of my most recent pictures that will be examples for main lesson book drawings in the near future:

Noah's Ark in the stormy sea, in colored pencil.

Grains of the World: Oats, in graphite pencil

Grains of the World: Wheat, in colored pencil

Grains of the World: Corn, in beeswax crayon

Giveaway!

This week, on my other blog I am hosting a fun giveaway... feel free to go check it out!

Collecting the Moments... one by one. GIVEAWAY!

Seahorses

Logan has a basket on his table that has a few library books on it, and usually some coloring sheets. He isn't required to do anything with them unless he wants to... but every now and again, he asks to 'do school' and so I try to always have something 'schoollike' for him to do when the kids and I are working.

This month the basket theme is Sea Horses. He LOVES Sea Horses. One of the books I have in the basket right now is Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse, and I have read that book to him about 10 times already.

I figured that a trip to the zoo's Sea Horse exhibit was in order. He is never required to remember anything from this stuff... but he loves having a little bit of the education focus turned to him.

This picture and the one above are 'Quarter Horses'. They are TINY. Probably smaller than a dime. I love watching those little guys get around. They are so neat to see!

This one was playing with Alex. Not sure what he thought it was, but he would follow Alex's finger along the glass.

This is the king of the Sea Horses.

We finished off the learning part of the zoo trip at the touch tanks. Logan asked all kinds of questions about the Sea Cucumber, which he loved to pet. We even got to see a Brittle Star flip it self back over from it's back... which was actually complicated and really cool!

Then we met friends for lunch and played for the rest of the afternoon.

Homeschool room mini makeover

This week we have been working on making the space we spend time in each day perfect. The kids and I had a few things to adjust to make things move more smoothly and we found ourselves able to address those issues pretty easily. First, was the tables. We had two full sized tables in this room because the kids really need their own space to work. That took up the entire room! So when at Ikea, we found these smaller tables that could be pushed together, or separated, and were a great 'over sized' desk size.

They work amazingly well. :)

Another step into the workbox system. I made them 'check in' and 'check out' pockets. I thought that this was a little silly... but they love them. Like a lot. Who knew? Sue Patrick says the visual idea of 'going to work' is really important several times in the book.... But I didn't honestly believe it, until I saw my kids get their work done in half the time because they were mentally ready to work and had 'checked in'. It was pretty fantastic. :)

We have some pretty big lighting issues in the homeschool room. One side of the room is bathed in harsh sunlight, and the other side is dark. Really dark. So I softened the light on the door side with out taking a lot from the rest of the room with these thrifted curtains (that just so happen to be the same color as the wall!) mounted on sticks over the sliding glass door.

Our workboxes. Alex has 12 and Cyan has 6. It will not be long before she has 12 as well. I bought them... now to figure out where they go. ;)

Because the new tables use much less space in the room than the old tables, I was able to bring my Papisan in from the garage to create a reading nook for silent reading during our school day. The kids (and the kitties) love this spot! Cyan sat in it the last two mornings, snuggling with her kitten and reading her newest thrifted adventure book.

All in all, the new changes are working out well. And look really beautiful too!

Book pick ~ I'd Really Like to Eat a Child

My newest Goodwill book find! This book is adorable! About a tiny alligator named Achilles and his trials with not liking what he has for dinner and always wanting 'to eat a child', this book is very well done. It has very gentle morals about eating your breakfast to grow big and strong, but is mostly for entertainment.

The setting is the Nile River, so adding this book in when reading about ancient Egypt, or even current Egyptian culture, would be a cute and funny break from the more serious social topics.

I am very glad I bought it... we have read it many times already in our bedtime book rotation.

Wordless Wednesday

Mini Ecosystems

I thought a good finishing project for the last day working with the Story of Creation would be making our own mini ecosystems.

A how-to on my other blog. :)

Creation Story day 6

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." and God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Cyan

Alex

Me

That's the end folks. :)