Sketch Tuesday: View from Your Window

This week's entry has been delayed because of a huge snowstorm and a power outage. I just had my power turned back on and have had a chance to gather all the sketches for the week.

Here is what my back deck looked like yesterday.

We are now warm and cozy inside with schoolwork open on the table. We took a big snow day yesterday and enjoyed lots of games and good hot food.

Here is our back deck this morning in the sunshine.


Now for the slideshow: Coral Reef

Next week's assignment, due Monday, December 14th: Sketch a tree you can see from your window.

As always, everyone is welcome to sketch and if you send in your sketches by Monday, December 14th, I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Please send your sketches to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com.

Have a great week!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Cookie Baking: Gingersnaps in the Cookie Jar

Now that my daughter has moved out on her own, my number one cookie baker is not around to keep us stocked in home baked goods. I have had to dust off my cookie baking skills and get busy!

Seriously, I am enjoying the cookie making activity. My youngest son has been my accomplice more than once lately and he may eventually take over some of the baking. Sometimes I forget that boys like to do stuff in the kitchen just as much as girls do, so I am working harder on including my teens as I work in the kitchen.

When my daughter did the baking in the house, she had her favorite recipes and stuck to those. Gingersnaps were not on her list, but I love a really fresh homemade gingersnap. This recipe came from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.


____________________________________________________________
Gingersnaps

A thin, crisp, spicy, crinkly topped gingersnap, easily made by hand or in the food processor.

¾ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar, plus extra to roll the cookies in
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease some cookie sheets.
Beat together the shortening and 1 cup of the sugar. Add the egg, and beat until light and fluffy, then add the molasses. Stir and toss together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon, and add to the first mixture, beating until smooth and blended.

Gather up bits of the dough and roll them between the palms of your hands into 1 inch balls, then roll each ball in sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the tops have cracked. Remove from the sheets and cool on a rack.

___________________________________________________________



These cookies are very easy to make so it takes me less than an hour to cook a whole batch (about 3 dozen cookies). I roll the balls for the next tray as the previous ones are in the oven, keeping ahead of the timer.


Coming out of the oven they fill the whole house with a spicy aroma.

I love my Pampered Chef baking stone and is the perfect way to get a terrific gingersnap.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: November Slideshow and New Assignment

The month of November proved to be just as busy as I expected and it was a nice change to have all the assignments planned out ahead of time.

I really did miss the weekly slideshows so we will go back to the regular format for the month of December.

The assignments that are included in this week's slideshow are:
Sketch a famous landmark.
Sketch a sunset.
Sketch something with ears.
Sketch a pie or something you make into a pie.

November Slideshow

Your next assignment, due Monday, December 7th:
Sketch something you would find in a coral reef.
(I just got back from snorkeling in Hawaii and I am inspired to draw something colorful that I saw on my adventures.)

All sketchers are welcome, moms and dads too! You can send in your sketches for the slideshow by Monday, December 7th and I will include them on Tuesday morning. Please send your sketches to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com.

Have fun!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Last Call for November Sketches!

Please send in any remaining November sketches by Monday evening, November 30th, in order to be included in Tuesday's slideshow.
Send your sketches to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com


Here are the assignments.

Sketch a famous landmark.
Sketch a sunset.
Sketch something with ears.
Sketch a pie or something you make into a pie.

Homeschool Family Fitness-Review

I recently wrote about our physical education activities with our high school age boys. I mentioned the Homeschool Family Fitness book and received some inquiries about it that I thought I would answer here on the blog.

First of all, if you read the reviews on Amazon.com you no doubt read the really long negative review that blasted Homeschool Family Fitness. I did not agree with a lot of what the reviewer wrote and felt compelled to write a response here on my blog.

Just some quick thoughts.

• We don't use this book every week. I pull it out to use the forms and charts shared in the book as a way to keep track of my sons' fitness progress.
• We only have the book and have found it adequate...no DVD required.
• When they were younger, I would use the book to remind me of games that I had forgotten about since childhood.
• As homeschoolers there are many games that are hard to play with just a few children and I think the book does a great job of adapting things to small groups or just a single child.
• I never expected this book to be the only book or source of information for our physical education plans. I supplement with first aid, nutrition, and general boys' health resources.
• I view this book as a great resource of activity reminders, games to expose my boys to over the course of their education, and as a source of great forms and record-keeping materials.

I am very happy with my purchase of this homeschool resource and the fact that it has stayed on our shelf for a number of years is testimony to the fact that I find it valuable and worth keeping.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

This is the Good Stuff: High School

It has been awhile since I wrote up a Weekly Wrap-Up post. November has been a very busy month with school, traveling, bathroom remodeling, and family life. Gratefully, my boys kept on track with their schoolwork even though I was distracted.

I will give you the highlights of our month along with a few photos.

Literature: Les Miserable has been a delightful book to share with the boys at this age (14 and 16). They knew the basic storyline from a previous reading of a junior book so this time through with the complete version, we are able to discuss and write about the themes and characters we discovered in this classic. We are taking this reading a little more slowly than our other reading so far this year.....thanks Charlotte Mason for the permission to do so.

World Geography: We researched and learned so much about Central American countries. Our public library had very little current information about this part of the world so we turned to online sources for this portion of our geography study. Our favorite online source for our geography study is the CIA World Factbook.


Art and Music: Both my boys chose Paul Cezanne for their artist during the month of November. Each week Mr. B puts up his picture study subject on my computer desktop and we enjoy it all week long. This is such an easy way to enjoy paintings with little fuss.

Writing: IEW is coming through again as a source of great teaching tips for our high school writing. I am preparing the boys to write a full-blown research paper next semester by working through Unit 6 of IEW. This unit explains and steps us through using multiple resources and fusing together an outline before writing the body of the report. We have done Unit 6 before but this is the first time I have completely left them on their own to pull resources and pick topics. My "big picture" plans are to complete another research report or two during the first nine weeks of the next term and then write what IEW calls the "Super Essay" during the last nine weeks. We'll see how it pans out in real life.

Physics and Algebra 2: Not much to talk about here except that the boys are plugging along. Mr. A keeps asking me if physics is more like science or math. Good question. If you look at the practice and review questions on his paper, you would swear it was math but the thinking is most decidedly scientific.

Electives-Robotics and Auto Shop: We are continuing to work on our robotics assignment from the Mayan Adventure book. Auto Shop is truckin' right along and I seem to be reaping the benefits with a clean car, the fluids checked frequently, the battery checked, and other maintenance type things that never seem to get done.

Those are the academic highlights of the last few weeks. We have three weeks left in this term so that will make two terms down and two to go.

If you didn't already know, NotebookingPages.com is having a huge sale right now and everything is 35% off until Monday, November 30th.

I wrote a post recently outlining just how we use notebook pages in our family.
Notebook Pages in a Charlotte Mason Homeschool

Note: Just so you know...I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and if you do purchase any pages using the above link, I receive a small commission. I only recommend products that I have personally reviewed and used for at least six months with my own family.

Hope you have a great week....
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Latest Edition: Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

Just a quick reminder about the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival over at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

Don't miss my favorite entries:
Charlotte Mason and Exams

Our Shakespeare Unit

Happy Reading.

Sketch Tuesday: Assignment Reminders for November

I have to admit that I am beginning to miss our slideshows. :)

We are still sketching each week and I hope you are too. Remind your children that they can send in their favorite sketches for the end of the month slideshow and we will look forward to a fabulous slideshow at that time.

Assignments:
November 10th Sketch a famous landmark.

November 17th Sketch a sunset with the added challenge to use oil pastels if you would like to try a different medium. (You can sketch from a photo if you would like.)

November 23rd Sketch something with ears.


November 30th Sketch something you make into a pie or the pie itself.

What I would like to do is to have you send in your very best sketches from the month during the last week in November and I will make a big slideshow to share on Tuesday, December 1st.

Sketches for the Month of November will be due Monday, November 30th. (Of course, if it makes it easier on you, you can always send them in at any time during the month and I will hold onto them.)

Send sketches to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com

"An Appreciative Look or Comment"

How to Use the Right Books (according to Charlotte Mason)

"So much for how to tell which are the right books. The right way to use them is another matter. The children need to enjoy the book. Each of the ideas in the book needs to make a sudden delightful impact on the child's mind, causing an intellectual awakening that signifies that an idea has been born. The teacher's role in this is to see and feel for himself, and then to prompt his students with an appreciative look or comment. But he needs to be careful that he doesn't deaden the impression of the idea with too much talking. Intellectual sympathy is stimulating, but we've all been like the little girl who said, 'Mom, I think I'd be able to understand it if you'd stop explaining so much.' One teacher said this about a student--'I find it so hard to tell whether she's really grasped the concept, or whether she just knows the mechanics of getting the right answer.' Children are like little monkeys. All they usually get from a flood of explanations is the trick of coming up with the right answer."
Charlotte Mason, Volume 3, pg 179

Sometimes when you are reading from Charlotte Mason's books you have moments where it becomes clear that you are in need of some changes in your own attitude. We can agonize over what books to offer our children and then mess it up by explaining them too much or by trying to quiz them to see if they know all the "right answers". We can train them to be like little monkeys....or so Charlotte Mason says.

We are currently reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I actually am reading this book for the very first time and trying to experience what my boys go through as they read a well written novel with wonderful characters and a plot that keeps you wondering what will happen next. I am making notes in the margins and marking sections to share at our meetings, not answering a list of predetermined questions with each week's reading but rather just savoring the tale and talking it over on Fridays.

Here are some of the things we discussed last week.
1. Why is the book called Les Miserables?
2. Why does Jean Valjean reveal his identity to save another man only to be arrested? What would we have done?
3. What is Javert's problem?
4. We talked about why Fantine gave up her hair and teeth to send money to Cosette and how a mother's love is so strong that it compels them to do things that seem so heroic.
5. Jean Valjean makes some huge changes in this section of the book and we discussed how and what makes people change for the better.

These were topics that came from our hearts as we read through this section of the book. Without the need for questions and answers from TOG, we managed to have a really good discussion with things that had been on our minds as we read. As usual, I gained some insight into the character that is developing in my children. Homeschooling allows us more of an opportunity to see into their hearts and great books help us to see life's struggles through another person's experiences. We can intertwine our spiritual beliefs into our discussions this way too and to relate our life's problems to perhaps a situation in the book.

This is a far better way to read and share a book with our children.

I am trying hard to develop the "appreciative look" and to make "appropriate comments". Getting out of the way and letting the real learning happen is something that I will continue to work on as long as I have children that are at home.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

We are really enjoying this edition of the book with its notes for words that are either in French or are more difficult vocabulary.

Writing with IEW:Random Thoughts and Suggestions

I am still working on a complete review of the Institute for Excellence in Writing program but felt the need to record a few random thoughts about IEW's Teaching Writing: Style and Structure course. This program is too good to let it sit on your shelf so hopefully something here will help those of you who already own it to utilize it more fully.

Random Thoughts and Suggestions
This is not a program that you can put on the DVD and walk away with your children watching and you doing something else. You really need to be there and interact with them as they work through the lessons.

The trick is to take the lessons and jump off from there into your own personal homeschool plans. Take the concepts from each unit and apply them to pertinent data from your science, history, literature, or fine arts plans. Customize the lessons to meet your family's particular studies.

Move through the units and don't get stuck in one unit for too long especially if you are starting the program with older children.


****The IEWFamilies Yahoo Group is an invaluable source of inspiration and encouragement. The Files Section alone is worth joining the group. If you join, look in the Files Section under IEW Explained and Reviews and then look for the file named Any Assignment PDF. This chart helped me the most to understand how to take a subject and fit it into an IEW unit. This idea allows you to take your child's interests and studies and incorporate them into the IEW plans.

Require all the dress-ups and decorations as soon as you cover them in every writing piece. At first it seems awkward, but I found with my boys that they soon incorporated the concepts as they went along writing their assignments.

Watch the DVDs at the beginning of every year, skimming the topics to refresh your memory. I recently purchased the Tips and Tricks DVD and decided this would be enough review for me for the remaining years of high school.

IEW gives me confidence to guide my children in their writing. I did not always feel that confidence because believe it or not, writing was *never* my favorite subject in high school or college, dreading and avoiding it at all costs. I decided the reason for this distaste in writing was because I either did not have a passion for the topic or I had nothing to say. IEW takes both those barricades to writing down for our children. We can allow them wiggle room when it comes to picking topics and we can help them find resources so that they have plenty to talk about in their assignments.

Another barrier that IEW breaks down is the process of grading a writing assignment at the high school level. The clear-cut grading charts make grading a breeze. It takes the emotion out of the grading system, either they have the required elements or they do not. We can skim down the rubric and visually see what still needs to be incorporated into the writing piece before they can file it away. I am more of a coach than a teacher at this point.

I hope to sometime soon write a more complete review of this awesome writing program. With its hefty price tag, it took a lot of convincing to get me to take the plunge but I have not regretted the money or time invested in implementing this program with my boys. Perhaps it would help another family make the decision to use this program if I outline our journey. Stay tuned....

Barb-Harmony Art Mom