How To Sharpen a Prismacolor Pencil

I am often asked about what pencil sharpeners to use with colored pencils. I found this short video on DickBlick.com that gives some great tips.



I am not so sure about using the electric pencil sharpener but I do suggest the handheld sharpener she shows in the video.

Hope that helps!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Random Goodness

Primroses in January!

We have been experiencing amazingly beautiful weather. Warm temperatures have allowed open windows and doors, hanging laundry outside, and long walks with the dog. This has been the best January as far as moods go that I can ever remember. No winter blahs yet so perhaps that is why school seems to be progressing well.

Modern History: I spent the better part of a day this week reading through Mr. A's history book to glean topics for notebook pages and writing assignments, find speeches to read, YouTube videos to watch, and to decide on a few areas for further research. I've decided that 20th century history is something that you can not really dig into until the child is in high school. The issues and events are very complex and because they are not in the distant past they have a big effect on our everyday lives. Here are a few of the topics scheduled for the next term: Apartheid, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Civil Rights Bill, The Great Society, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK and MLK's assassinations, Vietnam War, Space Race with Russia, PLO, IRA, Watergate, Ayatollah Khomeini......yikes! Can you see what I am talking about? These are topics that high school age children really need to read about, think about, and then talk about, responding and making sense of it all. Hold on to your seats, it is going to be a rough ride.

Art and Music Appreciation: Both boys started new artists and composers this week. Although it is nice to listen long enough to one composer to become familiar with their music, it is always refreshing to start a new composer. Mr. A is listening to Francis Poulenc and Mr. B is listening to Franz Liszt.

Have to share a funny YouTube....Victor Borge playing Franz Liszt.

It is only 2 1/2 minutes long so gather the kids...they may like it too.

Creative Writing: I haven't updated you on our creative writing course in awhile. Since I couldn't find anything as far a pre-planned course that fit our needs, I am making it up as we go along. Do you want some examples?

• After reading The Cay, I assigned two short writing pieces. One was to write Old Timothy's obituary and the other was to write a travel article for the island Timothy and Phillip were shipwrecked on together. 
• After reading the first four chapters in The Giver, one assignment was to write a scene showing how it would be to have a "Speaker" in your house. (You need to read the book in order to understand what the "Speaker" is all about.)
• After reading the short story, The Minister's Black Veil, the assignment was to write the prequel to the story, explaining why Mr. Hooper decides to wear the veil. 

The process of pulling your own plans together is difficult. I try to come up with ideas that give jumping off spots and allow for creativity on my son's part. He is enjoying the assignments and I wish I could share what he is writing but he doesn't want me to share. :(

Here are some other images from our week.



Skateboarding on a beautiful afternoon



Astronomy Photo of the Day notebook page



Designing and building the wings for his new RC airplane



I have been teasing him that this is "recreational math".



Watching the videos that I linked to last week as part of their study of the periodic table has been wonderful!



Doodling for my visual-spatial learner is a big part of his watching Thinkwell's Government course.

So there you go...another week wrapped up and concluded. My thoughts are turning to my garden since I ordered some new seeds from Renee's Garden. She is having a 10% off sale through 1/31/11...promo code EARLYBIRD.

How do you like the names of these flowers?

• Watercolor Silks Dahlias
• Chocolate Cherry Sunflowers
• Bling Bling Zinnia
• Hot Crayon Colors Zinnia

Those are a just a few of the new flowers that I am planning on putting into my new garden boxes (yet to be built). I can dream can't I?

Hope you all had a great week...leave me a comment if you did a Weekly Wrap-Up and I will come over and see what you did this week!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Science Time

Last week's assignment was to sketch something ugly. I was a little hesitant to assign this topic but after I heard from many families about how much fun they had discussing and then sketching this assignment, I was glad that I gave it a try. Thanks for always being so positive about the ideas for sketching that I come up with for the slideshow.

Here is your slideshow: Something ugly.

This week's assignment due Monday, January 31, 2011: 
Sketch something you study in science.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, January 31st, 2011 and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

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Special for this week: Please read the updated Sketch Tuesday instructions on the tab at the top of the blog. Here is the LINK for your convenience. I have added some things to the instructions for Sketch Tuesday and I want everyone to please read them so there are no surprises.
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Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Zen in the Art of Writing

This book is giving me a passion that I thought was long over in my life. The passion to live like a writer. I don't think my great calling is ever going to be to write a great short story or to invent wonderful characters in far off places like Ray Bradbury but it has given a little spark to my current writing projects.

It was meant to be something to inspire my son and his creative writing but instead it touched my heart and lit a little fire, inspiring me to write a little more than I have been lately. Creatively I mean....to tell a story. So as I write some accompanying assignments for Mr. B to go along with this excellent book, I will be completing them myself in my own creative writing journal. For fun. Yes, I said for fun.

If you are looking for a quick read to inspire you or your high school age children in their writing of any sort, I highly recommend this collection of short essays gathered into one book. It is encouraging as well as entertaining.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Short and Sweet Version

This week has been perfect weather for getting outdoors and we have taken three hikes out in the bright sunshine. It certainly has lifted the mood around our house. :)

As noted last week, we are in our "exams week" which for our family is not all that big of a deal. Week 18 brings the close of a few books and the culminating of a couple big projects. My boys continually blow me away with the level of quality they are producing in their schoolwork this year. This is not a brag but rather an assurance to others that you can get great stuff from teen boys when you keep them interested and that is the trick.

Update on Chemistry: Sarah sent us THIS LINK and it is awesome! Just the sort of thing I am trying to find for my boys to make chemistry alive and real. There are short videos in a sort of Mythbusters style for every element on the periodic table, down by a few very passionate and interesting British scientists. Thanks Sarah!

Robotics: Mr. B finished his self-parking car and got started on his new project from the Lego Mindstorms NXT One Kit Wonders book. This video shows how the robot uses sensors to park itself between the two boxes.

Videography: Mr. B wrapped up his videography project from the last eight weeks which was a video report on Ancient Egypt, tying in his research on this topic into a visual narration.


I am putting together a new Squidoo lens for this course and you can see what I have together so far here:
Videography for High Schoolers.


Baking: Last week Mr. B surprised us with an extra baking project from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, Lava Babies. (This recipe looks very close to the one he used.) I will not be exaggerating if I say that these were my all time favorite dessert ever. Warm chocolate oozing out all over the place....yum!



Art: This week is the final week for our current composers and artists.
Mr. A = Pablo Picasso and Gustav Mahler (He made it through the six weeks with Mahler...extra credit!)
Mr. B = Thomas Eakins and Edvard Grieg


YouTube.com Arthur Rubenstein playing Concerto in A Minor, 1st Movement. This was Mr. B's focus piece for the six week period...enjoy!

Astronomy: Mr. B is working from The Self-Teaching Guide right now as his main source of information for this course. He likes the no-nonsense approach of this book. He is also looking up the Astronomy Photo of the Day, picking something to research related to the photo, writing an entry in his notebook about his research, and picking a current event for the week to print out and share at our Friday meeting. This week he researched crepuscular rays.....click over and see what they are. I know you will be surprised. (We call them God Rays.)

We spend informal evening time viewing the sky together....nice.


We also found a series of DVDs on Netflix that he is going to work his way through, one each week. The series is from The History Channel and is titled The Universe. I am having him watch, record his notes and three questions to research for each episode on a notebook page. I like simple and this way he is really teaching himself by asking pertinent questions and then answering them by doing all the work himself. :) 

I am off this weekend to spend some girl time with my sister. We are packing up the snowshoes and scrapbooks and heading for the mountains just the two of us. Funny thing is that my men are all looking forward to this weekend without mom around. They have plans to do some guy stuff while I am gone.

We have officially reached the halfway point of the school year. Did I mention lately that I have one graduating this June? I am trying not to think about it too much.

Hope you enjoyed our short and sweet edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Chemistry - The Monkey on My Back

I have struggled with this course from the beginning. I have agonized over the content, the goals, the mechanics, the expense, the abstractness, and the frustration of labs that do not go as they should. I've thrown money and books at it and it still is a beast that won't be tamed.

I will forever look back on this science course as the single worst failure of our high school experience.

There I said it.

Failure on my part to wrap my brain around exactly what we needed to do to make it ours.

A friend said that I should just get the Apologia text and use it and forget it. Does she not know me better than that? Can she not see that I am not the "hand over the text" sort of mom? Besides, I already own the Apologia Chemistry book and have had it on the shelf since my oldest son used it five years ago when I did just hand over the text and leave it at that.

Here are my issues with the Apologia Chemistry text:

• The labs are either boring or we have done a variation of them in the past. They seem like exercises and not like "real" science.
• The text is very math oriented.
• The text does not inspire much thought or curiosity. There is a distinct lack of passion about anything.

So when is "good enough" good enough?

My husband (the ever great sounding board) and I laid out all the options over the winter break. He had me explain what the boys were getting out of the materials we were using. He had me voice the frustrations I had with the way the course was turning out for the boys. Lastly, he had me list what I would do if I could change anything.

You know what....I decided the biggest stumbling block that I had was the "what if" thinking I was going through. My dear husband shed light on my faulty thinking and made me give voice to the failings I was living under.

• What if I wasn't offering the right materials?
• What if there was something better out there?
• What if I should have sought out somewhere a chemistry course outside the home?
• What if I missed something that would be a glaring hole?
• What if we should have just skipped chemistry all together and done something else?

So where did I arrive at thinking that I was supposed to know all the answers and be the filler of minds? I have trained these boys better than that over the last few years. Get back to the basics Barb!

• Offer excellent materials.
• Make them ask questions.
• Point them to answers when needed.
• Provide opportunities for exploring.
• Have them respond in some way.

With those points firmly fixed in my brain (and on paper), I set out to make a few changes.

We will be adding:
Apologia Chemistry- not the full-blown course but select modules as determined by the video series we are using (see below).
Disappearing Spoon- sort of a free read.
The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry- this is heavy-duty and we will be only using about six of the experiments from this book because of expense and lack of time. 

We will be keeping:
The Joy of Chemistry - applying to modules in Apologia as they fit together.
The Elements-Visual Periodic Table - our favorite book of the year.
The Teaching Company - High School Chemistry DVD course -this is intense and well done. Way too much as a supplement. 

I am in the process of building a Squidoo lens for high school chemistry that has lots of resources gathered into one place. You can view all the resources and ideas and links I have used this year so far:
Chemistry for High Schoolers

I will keep you informed of the progress we are making in a few weeks. I am already feeling a little more successful with this course even if it is not exactly the way I would wish it to be for my boys.

Better than "good enough".

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: U is for Ugly

Last week's sketch assignment was to sketch something that you make with water. Wow! There are some creative ideas for the slideshow! Thank you all so much for your effort and participation.

Here is your slideshow: Something you make with water.




This week's assignment due Monday, January 24th, 2010:
Sketch something ugly.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, January 24th, 2011 and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Poetry for High Schoolers Part 4 Robert Frost

Here is the next set of poetry assignments that I pulled together for my high school age boys. Mr. A likes me to assign specific poems to focus on each week so for most weeks there are assigned poems to read. He would always end up reading more selections but the assignment gave him a starting spot. We used the two books listed at the bottom of the blog entry as the foundation of our study. (If you read in a reader you will more than likely need to click over to the blog to see them.)


We are featuring the poetry of Robert Frost (six weeks).

Week 1

From Lemony Snicket's The Slippery Slope.
"A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled", describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used. The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be on the road more frequently traveled and so couldn't hear him as he cried for help. Sure enough, that poet is now dead."

1. Read "The Road Not Taken". Start to memorize this poem and prepare for presenting at the end of six weeks. You can hear him read the poem on YouTube.com. (Work on this each week.)
2. How are the roads in this poem a metaphor? I know you could write a complete essay on this one metaphor but just give me a good paragraph explaining how you see the two roads as metaphors.


Week 2
1. Read "Birches" as you listen to the YouTube audio.

2. Read the information on blank and free verse.
3. Print out Birches and mark the syllables to see the iambic pentameter. (We have previously done work on this sort of exercise so it was a review.)

Week 3
1. Read "Mending Wall". Then read the SparkNotes.com information.
2. Find some examples of assonance.
3. Notice the blank verse. We used this website as a quick review.
4. Listen to the YouTube recording. 


Week 4
1. Read "The Tuft of Flowers".
2. Notice the rhyme scheme.
3. Pick three of the questions to answer from your poetry analysis page.

Week 5
1. Read all of the winter poems in Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost. Choose one to print out.
2. Watercolor a scene to go with the poem.

Week 6
1. Complete an author biography page for Robert Frost.
2. Present your recitation of  "The Road Not Taken".

My Latest Squidoo Lens: Grade Ten Curriculum Plans for High School

I just finished putting together a page with our tenth grade high school plans all gathered into one place. I also included some thoughts and ideas about using Tapestry of Grace.

Click over and see some of our projects from a few years ago too....maybe it will inspire.

Harmony Art Mom's Grade Ten Plans

I will put this link up on the "Homeschool Plans by Grade" tab on the top of my blog. If you ever want to see what we use for each high school grade, you can refer to that tab and click over to read all the specifics.

Enjoy!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Fresh New Year

This was our first week back after our long three week break. It went much more smoothly than I anticipated. Both boys were ready to get back to work...even if I was still dreaming of one more week. :)

We are finishing up Week 17 today so next week is our "exams" week...Charlotte Mason style. It doesn't mean too much this time around but I will be doing notebook checks and making sure all assignments are done and filed.

Mr. A finished his high school math courses before the break so he is "math free" this term. Mr. B is still plugging away on his text.

Chemistry was totally revamped over the break. I have sweated over this course and it finally clicked into perspective after much thought and debate with myself. I am striving to stick to my goals and not get overwhelmed with everything we could be doing. This was a great week balanced between text, research, and a lab. If only every week could be this meaningful.


Modern History is not a big focus this year for Mr. A but everything we do complete has meant something. This week he completed research on the Iron Curtain and the Marshall Plan....working on notebook pages for each. He listened to Churchill's Iron Curtain speech and recapped it at our Friday meeting.

Ancient History for Mr. B is still based on Bible reading, this week on David and Saul. High schoolers are so much better at seeing the strong and weak qualities in history makers. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts from his notebook page and the discussion on Friday.

Literature included the Iliad for Mr. B. He read a few pages out loud to me on Tuesday because he wanted me to hear the gory details from Book 16. (I will spare you the recounting of the battle tale.) Mr. A is still working The Crucible and The Chosen. We both were very animated in our discussion of Act 3 of the Crucible. This was a great scene to epitomize the character of Abigail. Mr. A is going to write a character analysis paper covering Abigail when we wrap this book up so he gleaned lots of great images and quotes from this section of the book.


Poetry continues to focus on Robert Frost but this week I assigned a little different sort of activity to complement one of the poems. Mr. A was to pick a winter poem and then make a watercolor to go along with it. Nicely done.(He made purple snow! How can you not love that?) I do have plans to post our six week Frost plans soon and we are still working our way through a very creative writing course.


Our baking/cooking course is going well and Mr. B is now volunteering to make a variety of things for the family. This week though his specific recipe for his project was Pasta Pizza (similar to THIS recipe). He baked the noodles into a crust and then added toppings, heating again in the oven. Yummy...we are already thinking of variations to this recipe for future meals.

I think those are the main highlights from this seventeenth week of school. We were able to fit in some snowboarding last week with the boys and they are itching to go again but it may not happen for a few weeks. Next week I will catch up on our astronomy, robotics, art, and videography courses since we are in the middle of finishing up a bunch of projects and it will be much more interesting next week. Oh, I totally forgot that Mr. A started his Thinkwell Government video course this week! I will be sure to talk about that soon too.

Thanks for reading our recap  and I hope it has given you some good ideas for your homeschooling, now or in the future.


Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Quick Note: NotebookingPages.com Winter Sale! Special Code for My Readers

Please click over to read more about the sale and the $90 worth of bonus gifts from many homeschooling sites that are included with your purchase of a new Treasury Membership.

For an additional 25% off, enter "snowflake" as the promotional code at checkout.

Making a Mosaic Project Together (More Greek Art Projects Too)

Spur of the moment projects are sometimes the best fun! I had planned for Mr. B to research some Greek mosaic projects online and then write up a notebook page but it was a long afternoon with not much else planned so we decided to make some real mosaics.



We "Googled Greek Mosaic patterns" and we found a few that would work. This one was our favorite: Examples of Greek Key Roman Mosaics. We each printed something out that we thought looked interesting. I had some 4" by 4" tiles sitting on the shelf that were supposed to be painted for another project but I donated them to the cause. I also had a tub of little ceramic tiles left from a project that we did two years ago which were gathering dust in the supply cupboard.



We used ordinary Elmer's White School Glue to adhere the little tile squares to the big tile.


Mr. B placed his tile pattern all the way to the edge which turned out better than mine. He adjusted his design and found some of the little tiles that were a bit smaller to make it work.


I am fairly sure that I purchased this tub of mosaic tiles at Michael's art store.

Mosaic Stones on Amazon.com


So here are the two finished projects, mine on the left and Mr. B's on the right. I think they will be used in the kitchen as trivets....functional art projects always make me smile.

We took advantage of the time we worked to listen to an audio book of Greek Mythology which turned this ordinary mosaic research project into a full-blown mosaic experience, complete with a little Greek culture mixed in.

Tales From Greek Legends on Amazon.com

Here are a few more photos of his Greek art study.

Ancient Greek notebook page from my Ancient Art ebook.


Greek vase project done with pencil and markers.


Athena sketch for art notebook.


Column styles done from memory.

High school is still a time for having a good time with art. Mr. B and I decided to initiate a regular Friday afternoon art session together even if it is just to view some art online and discuss it together.

Savoring the moments......

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Just Add Water

Last week's assignment was to sketch something that starts with the letter T. It is always interesting to see what the children come up with when I give a really open-ended assignment...so many great ideas. There are tigers, trees, turtles, and lots of other creative sketches in the slideshow this week.

Here is your slideshow: Terrific T



Next week's assignment, due Monday, January 17th, 2011: 
Sketch something you make with water.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, January 17th, 2011 and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Post-Impressionists Exhibit and Charlotte Mason

With eager anticipation, two of my children and I set out on the road to San Francisco last week to view the Post-Impressionist Exhibit at the De Young Museum. The day was gray and the Bay Bridge was enclosed in fog so there was no great view of "The City" but it didn't dampen our spirits.

We were on our way to see some of Van Gogh's famous paintings and that was enough to cheer us up.

That was ten days ago and I have purposefully left off writing about my experience because I have been really mulling over the experience I shared with my children that day. It deeply impressed on me the value of introducing art in our homeschooling. What a joy it was to have shared the journey with my own children!

Art is such a big part of our lives and we spend probably spend more than your average family talking about artists and composers. Stepping into a museum like the De Young for us is like attending the World Series or the Super Bowl for sports fans. We don't often get to visit art museums and I know for myself that being in the presence of so much great art  makes me a little giddy and light-headed.


We were early for our exhibit reservations so while we waited we were able to visit the American Art gallery upstairs which was filled with many familiar artists and paintings. It was like visiting old friends as we stepped quietly from room to room. We saw one of my favorite paintings, California Spring by Albert Bierstadt. The colors in this painting in real life, up close are stunningly beautiful. It is like seeing the image in technicolor.....I wanted to pull up a park bench and just sit and look at this one for a long time or better yet, jump on a horse and ride off down into that valley to explore the riverbanks you see there in the distance. Amazing.


I must admit that not all of the artwork thrilled me but it did make for great discussion with Mr. A as he viewed the more modern pieces of American art. It reminded me of something I read recently about what defines great art. The person said that great art is art that you think about after you leave the gallery. It effects you in some way either positively or negatively. That definition explains why there is so much art that sort of leaves me scratching my head....it does make you think even if you don't think it is beautiful. I think this concrete slab sculpture sort of fits that category....or maybe it is just a hunk of concrete....it is all perspective I guess.


We had time after the American Art gallery to grab a bite in the museum cafe. By this time the fog had burned off and the sun was out so we sat in the outdoor seating area to enjoy our sandwiches and salads. We chatted about our favorite paintings from the morning, what we hoped to see in the Post-Impressionists exhibit, and how great it was to have the opportunity to view so many paintings from the Musee d'Orsay here in San Francisco.

Finally the anticipation was over and we entered the first gallery of the Post-Impressionists exhibit. Since we were not allowed to take photos I have to work from memory but I will share some of the highlights and then a few of my rambling thoughts.

Starry Night Over the Rhone

I have a friend that visited this exhibit some time ago and he fell in love with this painting. I was eager to see it up close and see the brushstrokes and the amazing colors. Funny thing is that when I got up to it...standing where Van Gogh would have stood to paint it with an outstretched brush....it made me sad. I don't mind that it made me sad but I was a little surprised that it did.



Bedroom in Arles
As Robert Browning said,
"Keep in mind, we're designed so that we only come to appreciate and love something we've passed by a hundred times, only after we see its beauty in a painting."

I stood in front of this painting and said to myself, "I could paint that." But after standing and studying it a bit, I realized that I couldn't paint it.....the colors, the very simplicity of his space...it was beautiful. I wanted to throw open those shuttered windows and see the view. I wanted to sit in the chair and have a chat with Vincent the Painter. It was so alive.

My favorite painting of the whole exhibit is probably this one.

Entrance to the Port at Marseilles by Paul Signac. 

The colors in this one are amazing! The water and reflections are a myriad of colors. The painting is also quite large and is impressive that way too. It shimmered with color and life. It is not pointillism but is divisionism- where the paint is applied in parallel splotches. The paints are not mixed on the canvas but the colors are side by side which when viewed up close is quite striking.

As the afternoon progressed, rounding coming after corner, I would see another artist friend from our studies. They were all there....Renoir, Gauguin, Seurat, Cezanne, and so many others. My children and I each spent time standing in front of some artwork we loved and some we hated. We experienced art and felt some sort of connection. While our bodies physically were in San Francisco, in the De Young Museum, in an art gallery, we were some how connected with each of the painters....time travelers. 

I realize now that I could share dozens of paintings from our day with you but it is not the same as seeing them for yourself.  I encourage you to make some opportunities for you family this year to view art up close. We are looking forward to this summer when there will be another exhibit to visit....Picasso!


It was a really long day but we stepped outdoors at the end and were revived by the peacefulness of Golden Gate Park. We sat on the bench watching people, listening to the water in the fountain, and again we chatted about our experiences. What did we like? What didn't we like? What surprised us? It was after all just paint on canvas...how could we be so emotionally attached? We were inspired. I was inspired to keep on doing what I do with Harmony Fine Arts so that some other homeschooling mom can someday have the same sort of experience with her own children in their local art museum. It makes my efforts with Harmony Fine Arts seem valuable and worthwhile.

I was inspired by Charlotte Mason to offer exposure to great artists and their artwork many years ago. The simple process she outlines in Volume Six of her writings really works. If you haven't taken the plunge yet....I urge you....don't hesitate. If my Harmony Fine Arts plans can be of a help to you in getting started, please put a year plan on your schedule for next year.


That is one happy Harmony Art Mom who loves sharing this sort of experience with her sweet smiling daughter....now that she is twenty-five years old I am no longer the teacher but the fellow art enthusiast.

"The six reproductions are studied one at a time so that the students learn to not just see a picture, but to look carefully at it, absorbing every detail. After looking at the picture, it's turned over and the children narrate, telling what they saw, perhaps, 'a dog driving a flock of sheep along a road all by himself. No, wait, there's a boy, too. He's lying at the river, getting a drink. You can tell by the light that it's morning, so the sheep must be going out to graze in the pasture,' and so on. The children don't miss any details--the discarded plow, the crooked birch tree, the beautifully formed clouds that look like it might rain. There's enough to talk about to keep the children busy for half an hour, and afterwards, the picture will have formed such a memory that the children will recognize it wherever they see it, whether it's a signed proof, an oil reproduction, or the original itself in a museum."

Charlotte Mason, Volume Six.

Busy, Busy, Busy Organizing Information For You

I have been busy organizing a lot of my homeschooling posts on Squidoo for you. You may find these are helpful now or when you begin to start planning your next year's courses.

Harmony Art Mom's Freebies
Build Your Classical Music Library
Notebooking For High Schoolers
Lego Robotics for High Schoolers
Harmony Art Mom's Top Five Art Picks with Reviews
Top Ten Educational Games for Kids
Charlotte Mason High School

If there is something you are wishing I would organize from my blog, please email me any time to let me know and I can put it on my list of things to do.

Hope you find something here that helps you out!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Terrific T

Our last assignment was to sketch something we do for winter fun. Our winter has been filled with more rain than snow but we do look forward to a little snow fun soon. Thank you to all who participated and I look forward to next week's sketches.

Here is the entire slideshow: Winter Fun




This week's assignment due Monday, January 10th, 2010:
Sketch something that starts with the letter T.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, January 10th, 2011 and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Free Gift With Purchase of My New Winter Wednesday Ebook!

I just have received word that I can offer a FREE set of North American Birds Notebooking Pages with any purchase of my new Winter Wednesday Ebook! This is an $8.95 value!

So click over and order your own copy of the Winter Wednesday OHC ebook and I will send you along with your ebook the link to download a wonderful set of notebooking pages you can use for the years to come.

If you already purchased the Winter Wednesday ebook, I will be sending you the link in a separate email soon.



This offer is good until Saturday, January 8th, 2011.