Springtime Greens and Goodness to Refresh

"A child who makes a garden, and thus becomes intimate with the plants he cultivates, and comes to understand the interrelation of the various forms of life which he finds in his garden, has progressed far in the fundamental knowledge of nature's ways as well as in a practical knowledge of agriculture."
Anna Botsford-Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, page 20-21

This is the new garden area that my middle son built last year and we planted with tulip bulbs last fall. The two roses were gifts from my dear husband and my son lovingly has been taking care of them for me. They are full of buds already.


Our lilac was pruned back last year and we learned that it is coming up more lush than ever...we hope to have lots of blooms.


Our butterfly bush is all leafed out and ready for some more sunshine.


My youngest son has herbs in his garden box and his chives are growing taller every day now. He cleaned up his box and found that many of his herbs were hiding underneath all of the composting materials we put in the box last fall.


This plant is growing outside one of the garden boxes. We are not sure what it is but the purple flowers are quite lovely so we are letting it grow so more.
Edit: Lisa helped me out with this identification: Henbit or Giraffe's Head
Thanks Lisa!

As the boys are getting older and stronger, we work side by side in the garden. Each year our knowledge of plants and insects and birds and mammals grows because of our garden. Although two of us get sniffles from allergies this time of year, we try to spend some time each day completing some gardening task.

My daughter over at Hearts and Trees has some great ideas for spring nature study. You might like to pop over there to see her gorgeous wildflower photos and find some fresh ideas for your week.
A Few Spring Nature Study Ideas
I highly recommend her Spring Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt.....the link is in her post.

Have a great week and start thinking about your garden.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Dollars and Cents

The final frontier....outer space.....lots of imagination and creativity this week.
Here is your slideshow: Something in Outer Space








This week's assignment, due Monday, April 6th: Sketch some money.

You can sketch dollar bills, coins, play money, foreign money....you pick. Make your sketch and send it in by Monday, April 6th to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com

All sketchers are welcome.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

TOG Question from a Reader: How to Make It Work for a Large Family

I thought some of you might like to read what I wrote in response to an email I received from a mom who has 8 children and is trying to use Tapestry of Grace, Year Two. The three older children go to public school and she has five at home ages 9 years, 6 years, 4 years, 2 years, and 3 months. (Wow!)

She wanted to have some advice about how to make TOG work better for her family. I have mentioned specific books and topics, hopefully it is not too much information. :)

Here you go, it is long. :)
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First of all, year two has been the most jam-packed year of TOG I have experienced. I think that it is over the top filled with stuff to do and it moves extremely fast. No other year has been as hard to keep plugging along without feeling overwhelmed. Maybe that makes you feel better.

Another idea that I always tried to keep in my mind when the children were in the grammar stage was that they will cover this ground again and at that time they will start to put the facts, people, and places in order and connect them together during the logic and rhetoric stages of learning. The grammar stage was for fact finding and memorizing as much as possible. I used The Well-Trained Mind book to guide me with those concepts.

I also tried to follow the Charlotte Mason idea that language was taken as a whole and reading, writing, spelling, and grammar were all best handled in connection with your literature and history and science reading. I love that idea and have seen the fruits in our family.

So with those ideas in mind, I turned over to week 8 in year two just to get a feel for what is suggested for week 8 for LG and UG.
After looking over the teaching objectives, I would have trimmed down those ideas to a few basic concepts.
1. Introduce Marco Polo.
2. Mention Ghengis Khan and Kublai Khan.
3. Look at a map of Marco Polo's travels.

After that, I would turn to the Primary Resource page and decide what resources I am going to use to teach those concepts. Since it sounds like you are wanting to use SOTW, I would go ahead and substitute that for the history core reading. I looked at the chapters suggested to read in the SOTW and would only focus on chapters 21 and 22 since they help me with my teaching objectives. If you had the Internet-Linked Medieval World, I might read that along with my children if we found we had the time to fit that in after the SOTW was thoroughly covered. (I don't own that book but I looked it up on the Usborne page and it looked like pages 52 and 53 would fit your objectives. I really like the map and the image of Genghis Kahn to print out for the notebook.)

After reading the SOTW, I would ask my child to tell me something they found interesting from the book. Just expect a sentence or too. I would then take what they said and write it on the whiteboard or a sheet of paper and they would copy it into their notebook. After that I would have them maybe draw a picture to go with it.

So for these two chapters, we would read them, discuss a few points, and then they would do their page for their notebook. If you felt you had time and that you wanted to do more on Marco Polo, then pull out Famous Men of the Middle Ages and share the chapter on Marco Polo as a read aloud. Only use as many resources as you need to meet your weekly objective.

For literature I would do the reading as a read aloud. Honestly, this is the most satisfying part of homeschooling that I can remember from the grammar stage. Sitting on the couch with the boys on each side while I would read a chapter at a time from the literature book. (We did SL at that time.)

So for week eight, I would read The Door in the Wall to anyone who would sit and listen. I actually read this one aloud to my boys when they were younger and they *loved* it, begged for more each day. Just read and enjoy. If you feel like you want to have your son read a page every now and then, offer and see what happens.

I don't know how good your library is but I recognize the alternate literature suggestions so maybe you could use those for a "free reading" time for your son to work on his independent reading skills. Perhaps reading aloud to dad in the evenings or to a younger sibling.

As far as fun projects, I used to make Friday mornings our project time and I would try to do them first thing so they would be accomplished when everyone was fresh. For this week, I might take that time to play the Marco Polo game suggested on the blue activity page because it requires no preparation and even younger siblings can play if you help them. Skip the costume, the activity book, and the geography assignment. On Friday, if you feel you haven't met the objectives, find a way to review the ideas and the people. Ask your children to tell you everything they can remember about Marco Polo, where he traveled, who he met, what sort of man he was. Get out a map and see if they can point on a map to where Italy and China are and if they can't, show them again. Make it light and fun and not like a test.

I didn't ask you if your were using Writing Aids but I glanced over at the red writing assignments and if it were me, I might work on level one at the beginning of the year to review grammar stuff and then apply it to the week's work. For this week it looks like they are supposed to cover adjectives. I would take a few minutes either introducing or reviewing what an adjective is and then make a list of adjectives that the children come up with. You could have your nine year old come up with sentences about Marco Polo using adjectives and then write them in his notebook. "Marco Polo was a brave, fearless, and adventurous man" or something like that.

I have no idea how advanced he is with his writing but I know that at age nine, my boys would have a hard time coming up with a descriptive paragraph as described in level three. We would have worked on it together and come up with a group paragraph perhaps but certainly not until the end of the school year would they have been able to come up with a descriptive paragraph on a particular topic, all by themselves.

I would at all times include as many of the children in your schoolwork as possible and sort of "grow" them into more formal work. If you are teaching reading to your six year old, have your four year old join you sometimes for phonics work. Make it a game. Have your younger children practice sitting for stories or acting things out of the history book. Take some of the LG books for literature and have them as family read alouds in the evenings or have your older children take over some of the responsibility of reading to the younger ones while you cook dinner or give baths.

Projects are great but maybe this is not your season for too many projects. Pick one project per unit to complete and make it fun and positive and realize that most families are not even doing that much. Something that caught my eye in this unit was in week seven and that was to learn how to play chess. If you have a chess board, this is a great family activity. I have one chess kid that plays every week. This is something that an older sibling or their father could be involved in and take the load from your back.
Don't forget that you will be coming back to this year again with your older son and he will at that time be a more fluent reader and he will fill in the gaps then. Your objective during this time around is to make it positive and give him some highlights. Keep going back to your objectives for each week and don't try to cover everything that is listed. Pick what you think will stick and that he will be interested in. Better to cover one idea thoroughly than to cover too many things and not make an impression.

Hope that helps you over the hump and gets you going again. Remember Tapestry of Grace is a tool and not your master.....make it work for your situation and your particular children.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Why Include Art & Music Appreciation? Part 4: Waiting for Summer

Reposted from my old blog! (Finally!)

As part of a series, this is the fourth and final installment in:Why Include Art and Music Appreciation? In this last blog entry in the series, I try to explain how to get started with your own study of art and music appreciation and not postpone it any longer. All the installments are listed on the very bottom of my left side bar on the blog.

We Will Do Some Projects Over the Summer

This excuse is really just a form of procrastination. How many summers roll by and you still have not done a single art project or viewed a single piece of artwork? What are you waiting for? Sit down and make a short list of artists and a short list of composers for the year. Take it one step at a time and stay flexible.

It takes very little planning or time to give your family the opportunity to be exposed to great art and music. The effort you put into finding ways to use your art supplies in your every day routine are well worth it.

Incorporating art and music into your child's life reaps immeasurable benefits. Problem solving skills, heightened awareness to the world around them, a sense of well-being, and increased motivation are all gained when you expose your child to great music, artists and creative opportunities regularly.

You need to provide the opportunity, the inspiration, and the enthusiasm and if you do, your children will be greatly rewarded by becoming well rounded in life as well as their school subjects. Don't let another year go by, there is no excuse!

I have loads of resources listed on my sidebars of my blog. You can pick a composer from my list and listen right from the blog. You can pick an artist and follow the easy and flexible ideas to get started.

If you need additional help, my art and music plans over at Harmony Fine Arts are easy to get started with. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at any time. I love to help families get started with their art and music appreciation studies.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Why Include Art and Music Appreciation? Part 3 No Talent

Reposted from my old blog! (Finally!)

As part of a series, this is the third installment in:Why Include Art and Music Appreciation? In this series of blog entries I address excuses and reasons that families postpone a study of art and music. This installment will try to get you over the fact that you think you have not inborn talent for art. All the installments are listed on the very bottom of my left side bar on the blog.

I Have No Talent In Art

This is the easiest objection to overcome. Very few of us are blessed with the background in art and music that would make us "experts". Honestly, we don't need to be experts. Just like any other subject we teach in our homeschool, if we don't know about something, we find a resource and learn right along with our children. My best suggestion is to get out the paints, the colored pencils, the colored chalk, or anything else you have on your shelves or in your cupboards and play with the materials alongside your children. It actually is a great experience for children to see their parents learning along with them. Model how to "mess up" and how to give new things a try. You may surprise yourself. View artwork together and share what you feel when you look at each piece.

Learn to enjoy classical music with your children. Share with your children which compositions you like best and which ones you don't care for. My children love to see me pretend to play the organ every time "Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" starts playing. As time goes by, you will become your own expert and you will know what you like and don't like. I have learned not to be intimidated by others and their opinions.

This is an area where there are no right and wrong answers and that gives you lots of freedom to just enjoy the experience.

Have fun!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Why Include Art & Music Appreciation? Part 2: I'm Behind

Reposted from my old blog! (Finally!)

As part of a series, this is the second installment in:Why Include Art and Music Appreciation? The whole series deals with reasons or excuses that families put off a study of art and music appreciation. This installment will give you some practical suggestions for weaving art activities into your more academic subjects. If you would like to read all the installments in this series, you can look at the very bottom of my left sidebar on my blog.

I am So Far Behind In My Core Subjects

Art and music need not be separate subjects or boxes to check off on your schedule. In our family the art supplies are easily accessible and that reminds us to use them in many of our core subjects.

Try some of these ideas and see how easy it is to be "art aware" when you are working in language, math, science and history.

In the early grades, my children always enjoyed drawing a picture and then writing a story to go along with it. As they grew through the grades, their writing pieces would include an illustrated cover or a picture to illustrate the story.

To supplement our math lessons, we used picture books with colorful illustrations as a gold mine for things to count. As you read child's literature make sure to point out the beautiful illustrations and allow them to use that artwork to copy on their own. Copying great artwork is fun for children and literature is full of inspiring artists like Eric Carle and Tomie dePaola.

During your science time, have you started a nature journal? We start a new one each year and fill it with sketches of objects we find outside or animals we observe in our yard and from our window. Any topic in science can be made more interesting by drawing what you are learning, making diagrams of experiments, including sketches of concepts, and cutting pictures from magazines.

History gives you the opportunity to draw maps, sketch an event, and draw, paint or color illustrations for reports. My younger students would draw a picture of a historical account. I would write a caption that my little ones dictated to me to go along with the artwork for their journals.

Hope that helps you with some practical ideas for including artwork into your school day. There are two more installments in this series and I hope to get those reposted this week.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Out of This World

Last week's assignment was to sketch a barnyard animal. I think everyone did a great job and I loved the variety of animals sketches. Lots of great imagination.

Here is your slideshow: Barnyard Animals

This week's assignment is due on Monday, March 30th: Sketch something you find in outer space.

I can hardly wait to see what you come up with this week. All sketchers are welcome, all ages so don't be shy. Make your sketch and send it in by Monday, March 30th to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

ABSee Photo Meme: G is for the Green of Spring

Spring must be close-by. My new tulips are just about ready to bloom......


Join the fun!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Benjamin Franklin Invention-Glass Armonica

We are studying Benjamin Franklin right now for history and my son found something of interest to all of us. Did you know that good ole' Ben Franklin invented a musical instrument?

Glass Armonica-I highly recommend that you read this article on PBS before watching the video.

Here is a YouTube video showing how it works...sort of like rubbing your hand on the top of glasses of water. The person is playing a piece of Mozart's music.


Very cool....something new to learn about.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

ABSee Photo Meme: W is for Water Drop

The dew was like crystals on the bleeding hearts this morning. I had to try to capture one.


Join the fun!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

TOG Yr 2 Unit 3 Celebration

Saturday we had our Unit Celebration for our Unit 3 work. For the very first time we invited a group to share with us. As you can see by the above photo, it was a rather large group of family and friends who joined us on Saturday afternoon. The set up was minimal. We put out samples of our projects and some special displays that the boys had worked on over the course of the last nine weeks. I put out some chairs and we just enjoyed seeing more of what the boys learned over the unit. I was the narrator and kept the presentation moving.


Art projects, musical performances, and a skit were the highlights of the event.

We served Boston Baked Beans and had apple and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Here are some photos of the event.
(Big thanks to our friend Char for sharing her photos of the event since I was too busy to remember to take even one photo myself.)

As part of their literature study for Pilgrim's Progress, I asked them each to write an additional episode in Christian's journey. They chose one of the episodes to make into a skit to perform for the unit celebration. Christian, on the left, is meeting up with Gluttony during his quest for the Celestial City. The boys really enjoyed giving this performance and I considered it a form of narration of their reading in Pilgrim's Progress.

One son read the Mayflower Compact and one shared interesting facts about the Mayflower voyage.


This unit also included a study of Antonio Vivaldi who lived and wrote music during the time period we learned about. My son performed Vivaldi's Concerto in A Minor, First Movement. Everyone in attendance thought it was a wonderful way to learn about history...to mix history, literature, music study, and artist study all into one big unit.


Another Vivaldi project that we completed during this unit was to listen to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then use oil pastels to make drawings for each season inspired by the music. The boys made small drawings and then mounted them on black paper to display.


We also shared our some of our science knowledge by putting out their marine biology collections and a poster board that my oldest son painted of the coral reef. My younger son wrote a tri-fold brochure with the names and descriptions of the creatures featured on the display board.


He used watercolors and acrylics to paint a coral reef scene. I found that he had to do a lot of research to make an accurate depiction of the reef. This was a great follow up activity to the actual textbook work.


We displayed our art projects, the boys' robots and the literature books we read on the display as well.

I received two sweet thank you notes the next day from families that had attended. They expressed their gratitude for being included in the boys' school presentation for this unit. I loved how they gained a deeper understanding of exactly what it is that we do all day long in our homeschooling. I actually had two adults come to me at the end of the event and say that they wish they could come to my "school". I considered those expressions, in the notes and in person, to be the highest compliment to our homeschooling efforts.

I absolutely think that Unit Celebrations or Open Houses are very much worth the effort. I see the pride that my boys have in their work and it feels good for them to share what they know with others that are appreciative. I also see a rise in support for what our family is trying to achieve in homeschooling. One guest said that she would love to come and be a "guest speaker" during our next unit and share her knowledge of antique buttons....she has a collection of buttons from Colonial times as well as buttons from military uniforms that she would like to share with the boys. Wahoo! Sounds great to me and the boys were interested as well.

I hope this inspires you to come up with your own way of sharing with your family and friends a little of what you are doing in your homeschool year. We have been successful this year for the first time in having a Unit Celebration for each unit but you could just as well do one big "open house" sort of event at the end of your school year. Ask your children what they would like to prepare for the event...you might be surprised how motivated they get when they know that others are coming over to see what they are up to.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Going to the Farm

Last week's assignment was to sketch a boot. I really got a "kick" out of these sketches. (I can't resist.)

Here is your slideshow:
Sketch Tuesday: Boots

This week's assignment, due Monday, March 23rd: Sketch a barnyard animal.

We haven't sketched an animal in a long time so have fun with this one. Make your sketches and send them in by Monday, March 23rd to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com. All sketchers are welcome to join in and you do not need to sign up.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Making the Invitations: Quill and Ink

Our Unit 3 Celebration required some fancy invitations....quill pens and ink were also required. This was our first time to use an actual quill pen and it took some practice.

The boys wrote out their invitations and they are all delivered as of yesterday.



We have lots planned and I will share how it all turned out next week.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: These Boots Were Made for Walking

Last week you were to sketch a power plug and I found this to be a difficult assignment for some reason. On the other hand, everyone else seemed to jump right in and get the sketch done. Great sketches this week! I noticed quite a few dads participated this time around....I love that!

Here is your slideshow: Power Plugs

This week's assignment, due March 16th: Sketch a boot of any kind.

Make your sketch and send it in by Monday, March 16th to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com. All sketchers are welcome and you do not need to sign up ahead of time.

Have a great week,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

"Listening to Music with Understanding and Enjoyment"

"Of course, music appreciation has nothing to do with playing the piano. It's often been thought that 'learning music' can only mean that. So it was assumed that children who showed no special talent for playing the piano were simply not musically inclined and wouldn't like concerts. But music appreciation is different from playing an instrument in the same way that being a natural actor is different from enjoying a Shakespeare play, or being able to paint is different from enjoying a painted picture. I think that all children, not just the musically inclined ones, should learn to appreciate music. It's been proven that only three percent of children are actually tone-deaf. If children are started early, it's amazing how even those who seem to have no musical 'ear' can develop one, and can learn to listen to music with understanding and enjoyment."
Charlotte Mason, Volume 6, page 218

Not a day goes by that we can't take a few minutes to listen to a great composer. It takes just a little planning ahead and then seizing the opportunity to expose and then get to know one composer at a time.

In addition to these informal listening times, our family has one official music appreciation time each week where we have a certain composer or group of composers that we listen to intently. We use this time to set aside all other activities and listen to the musical selection. We try to listen with no other distractions during this period. This is one time in the week that we are not playing the music as background music....it is the focus of our listening time.

Just like we have our children narrate a selection from their literature or history reading, you can teach your children to narrate their expressions after listening to a piece of music. I think it actually adds to our enjoyment to stop everything and listen with our whole hearts and minds to a piece of music.

For my high school age boys, I schedule a composer or a style of music to be listened to for a period of time. They look forward to this part of the week where there are no right or wrong answers. They just listen and record their thoughts.

Please excuse the bad handwriting....he has six stitches in his right hand from a fall at the skatepark.

As you can see from his comments, he doesn't always enjoy listening to certain selections from each composer. I think that it is perfectly acceptable to write that he thinks a piece is "annoying" if he really has taken the time to listen and respond. I don't always enjoy every piece of music either. The boys use these log sheets to then write a biographical summary of the composer and respond to the music they listened to as part of a written narration.

So for one afternoon a week, we focus on one composer.......forty-five minutes on the average. Think of all the great music you can listen to in those short few minutes. It adds up over the course of a year and a lifetime and is well worth the effort.

Ambleside Online has composers selected along with particular pieces of music for free. How much easier can it get?

My Harmony Fine Arts plans also include music appreciation for each week in all twelve years which is another easy solution for getting started with listening to great composers.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Harmony Fine Arts Updates for 3/4/09

Here are a few updates for those that use Harmony Fine Arts.

Grade One-I have discovered that the edition of the book that I recommend for the Oxford First Book of Art is out of print. Amazon.com does have the paperback edition available and you may use that as a substitute. If you email me, I will give you a link to substitute for the broken link in week 20. If you have any questions, please email me.

Grade Two-I have had to make a few substitutions for grade two to make up for the Masters of Classical Music-Box Set which is no longer available new on Amazon.com. If you email me, you can request the suggested CDs to substitute. Also the Child-Size Masterpieces Level 5 is no longer available from Amazon.com but you can order it from Rainbow Resource. Please email me if you have any questions about either fix.

Grade Five-I am currently working on updating the plans because of the out of print books in option two and the instrument CDs from Amazon that are hard to find. Please email me if you would like the update when it comes out.

Also for grades 2, 6, 7, and 8, if you did not receive the supplemental chart for Artistic Pursuits second edition page updates, please email me and I will get those out to you. If you ordered from me recently, you automatically received these charts as part of your plans.

Grade Nine Art Appreciation- I just finished converting these plans to an eBook and they are available for immediate download from Harmony Fine Arts. I reduced the price for the eBook to $8.95. You can find them here:
Harmony Fine Arts: Grade Nine Art Appreciation
These plans use The Story of Painting and the Annotated Mona Lisa to cover art from prehistory to the third century CE.

For more information on any of my art and music appreciation plans, please see my website.
Harmony Fine Arts You will find explanations of the plans, sample pages, and book lists for each grade.

You can also visit my Squidoo Lens for more information on Harmony Fine Arts.

Please email me anytime if you need help with Harmony Fine Arts.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Power Plug

Last week we tried something new and I think this was one of my favorite Sketch Tuesdays ever. Thanks for giving it a try an then sharing your results. We will do this again sometime.

Here is your slideshow: Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest: Rousseau

This week's assignment, due March 9th: Sketch an electrical power plug.

Sketch the part of an electrical appliance that you plug into the wall.

Make your sketch and send it in by Monday, March 9th. All sketchers are welcome and you do not need to sign up. Send your sketches to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com

Thanks for your participation.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Almost Spring Edition

Welcome to this edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival.

This past week I have personally spent quite a few hours rereading through volume one and volume six of Charlotte Mason's homeschool series. I always find some gems to spark my interest when I take a few minutes to review and renew my vision of how Charlotte Mason's ideas can help my particular family with my particular children.

For our family, we view Charlotte Mason's ideas as a buffet. We don't accept all of her teachings and ideas but only those that fill a need in our overall homeschool plans. I know that those that develop the Ambleside Online plans are more fully immersed in her teachings and I appreciate that they share their hard work with so many families. I have learned so much from their website and their experiences.

As the author of Harmony Fine Arts, I can fully relate to the hard work and research that goes into putting such detailed plans together and then maintaining them for those that use them each week and year. I think that is why I have supported this particular carnival since the beginning, it seems a way that I can help give back to other families trying to glean practical suggestions from other homeschooling families. We are all different and we all have different needs so sharing as many thoughts and ideas through the carnival helps keep the ball rolling.

So whether you are a veteran Charlotte Mason family who sticks strictly to her methods each year or you are new to the method and/or use bits and pieces....I think you will be happy and satisfied with the entries shared this week. When you visit the various links, please leave a short comment for the author. It is always so nice to know who reads your entry and hear a kind word or two of encouragement.

Enjoy this edition of the Charlotte Mason Carnival and thank you for letting me host this time around!


Our lovely carnival owner, Jamie from Rose Cottage, also spent some time with Charlotte Mason this week. She includes this quote in her entry:

"Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking––the strain would be too great––but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest..." Charlotte Mason

Please don't miss Jamie's entire entry titled, "Life Should Be All Living". You are in for a treat.



Amanda at Hearts and Trees has put together another one of her fantastic online art shows for you to share with your children. The theme this time around is trees. I picked my favorite-Avond; Red Tree by Piet Mondrian. I am sure she would love to hear your favorite too. Click over to the art show: Trees Art Show Thanks Amanda!

Cindy at Our Journey Westward shares her post with ideas for an artist study of Renior. I am sure you will be inspired to add this artist to your future art plans with so many great suggestions for study. Always great to see an entry from Cindy. :)

Angie put together Art Lesson: Showing Size, Proportion and Perspective on her blog THEONETHING. She uses two different paintings to help her boys get the main idea and then they try their had at drawing showing size and proportion. Great job!

At Higher Up and Further In, lindafay shares her ideas and practical experience with art appreciation in her family in her post titled, How to Get Children to Appreciate Great Art or Mamas, Throw Out the Lessons! This helpful post will encourage beginners and veterans as well to keep offering this worthwhile endeavor. She has included some suggestions for children's picture study right in the entry. I appreciate your entry lindafay...thanks.



Angie in GA shares their Outdoor Hour: Nature Close To Home-Mammals: Beavers and Rats posted at All About Him. Angie always has a way of drawing her boys into their weekly nature study. If you haven't been over to her blog, you are missing a treasure. Scroll down her sidebars for a bunch of really great ideas. I feel privileged to share their nature study journey through the Outdoor Hour Challenges. Thanks Angie.

Rock Collecting is posted by Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. How did she know that we have been collecting rocks from our hikes all winter long? I have a whole dish full of rocks we are getting ready to identify and put into a collection. Thanks Kris.

Jill writes about a topic near and dear to my heart. Her entry titled Winter Nature Study posted at Praiseworthy Things gives a new and unique idea for learning about nature in her part of the world using the archives of a local radio show along with YouTube videos. What a great idea for a resource.

Although it is past the time for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I wanted to share our follow-up entry to our participation this year. I hope that more homeschooling families participate next year in this worthwhile activity. All levels of birders are welcome to participate and you can spend as little as fifteen minutes looking for birds in your own yard...even from your window. I also share a great free link to Cornell's free bird coloring book...which is more than a coloring book. So pop over to my nature blog and view my entry, Birds in Winter: Our Winter Wednesday Bird Study.



Brenda has put together a great post titled, Friday's Picks - Literature Guides posted on her blog The Tie That Binds Us. Have you ever felt like you needed a little extra information to go along with your living books studies? Brenda has some great links for additional help. She also has her favorite literature books linked in this entry so don't miss the Widget at the bottom of the post. Great job Brenda....welcome to the carnival. :)

Tammy has a problem and she shares it in her entry, Aspirations Of A Bookworm, Or Six posted at Adventures On Beck's Bounty.This is what happens when you feed your children on Living Books right from the start. Tammy shares her plan for adding in some additional Living Books to her Tapestry of Grace plans for the year. Love this post! Happy reading!

"When a child hears or reads a story and then narrates it, that story mixes with what is inherent in the child and it also becomes something new. Yes, the child makes the story his or her own by narrating it and is nourished through that process. "
I love this quote from Leslie's entry this week! You must read the whole entry on her blog, The Lionsgate School: Our Little Viking Narrates in Song!



Molly outlines how her family is enjoying Whatever is Lovely: Poetry, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens on her family's blog, Counter-cultural School. She shares specific resources and their family's experience with poetry, Shakespeare reading, and a little on Charles Dickens. There is a lot to glean in this post so don't miss reading it for yourself.

That concludes the current edition of the carnival....so many great ideas and reminders from everyone were shared. I know you found something to encourage your endeavors to homeschool using a little or a lot of the Charlotte Mason methods.

Start thinking about the next carnival coming March 17th at Song of My Heart. Here is the link to submit an article:
Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival Entry

Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!
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