Last week's assignment was to sketch something you think you will do on your summer break. This will be our last Sketch Tuesday slideshow until September (see note below). Thank you to all those who have left nice comments wishing me a good summer break. I will still be blogging but not posting any Sketch Tuesday assignments until September 6, 2011. I hope you all continue to sketch over the summer!
As a reminder...here is my announcement from last week:
I have decided to take the summer off from hosting Sketch Tuesday. I really, really need a break and a chance to catch up on things both personally and professionally. I will be taking the months of June, July, and August 2011 completely off from Sketch Tuesday but I will be back on September 6, 2011 with a brand new sketch assignment for you and your family to complete.
If you would like to keep sketching, go back and find some of the older Sketch Tuesday assignments and work on those as you have time. I will have a Welcome Back Sketch Tuesday slideshow where you can all send in a few sketches from your summer months to a separate slideshow....I will keep you posted. You can find all the old slideshows with the assignments on Flickr: Harmony Art Mom Sketch Tuesday Slideshows.
What am I planning for the summer?
Recharging my batteries....so I can come back in September all ready to go.
Here is a short list of things I am hoping to fit in while we are on our summer break:
Gardening
Camping
Hiking
Painting
Reading
Going to new places
Listening to lots of wonderful music.....like this: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. (click to hear Sir James Galway play this on his flute on YouTube.....heavenly)
As part of our modern history course (Year 11 in Ambleside Online's plans), I included a number of speeches. The list I included in our plans came directly from the suggestions given on Ambleside's website. I decided that they are "living" records from the men and women that gave them. As the opportunity arises in high school with access to a person's own words recorded for us, I am so glad I didn't miss the opportunity to include speeches as part of our history plans.
You can read the list of speeches suggested for Year 11 from Ambleside's website HERE .
What did our speech study look like?
Each week that my boys had a speech, they would look up the material and either read it on line or listen to it on YouTube. The great thing about modern history is that they are able to hear the speaker in their own voice give the speech. For my auditory learner, this was much more meaningful than just reading the words.
After reading or listening to the speech, I would have my boys give a brief summary in their notebooks. These were rather informal narrations which included both a summary and many times a quote from the speech. These quotes often made their way into formal writing pieces. I loved the way it brought history and the people they were reading about in their other books alive for them.
Mr. A's list from his last term (Year 11 in Ambleside's Rotation):
JFK's Inaugural Speech
Edward Kennedy at Robert Kennedy's Funeral
Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Richard Nixon's Silent Majority speech
Richard Nixon's Resignation
Gerald Ford Pardoning of Nixon
Ronald Reagan D-Day Memorial
Ronald Reagan Brandenberg Gate speech (Berlin Wall)
Ronald Reagan Challenger Disaster
Ronald Reagan Evil Empire Speech
George Bush Announces War on Iraq
I love looking back at this list and remembering the narrations that came from these speeches. What a rich way to learn about history and how the media has played a part in shaping our world!
Don't skip the speeches or the narrations because you will be missing out on some great learning. They are part of a living history.
Our school year is completed and all that is left is for me to finish the paperwork. Since I have faithfully followed through with my weekly recording of data on Homeschool Tracker, my job is much easier with far less headache.
Mr. A is officially done with his formal homeschooling career and his graduation celebrations are completed. We had one big party with his friends and another with our families, both filled with lots of love for this great young man.
He requested a family trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and his sister made that happen with some discount tickets from her place of employment...which made it much more reasonably priced. Theme parks are a cultural experience for this non-city girl and I spent most of my time amazed at the variety of humanity that walks by as you sit on a bench. This particular theme park (which in the past was called Marine World) has lots of marine animal shows which were the best part of my visit but everyone else spent their time riding the roller coasters.
Here is the obligatory tie from Grandma T, a traditional graduation gift. I am loving the "Van Gogh-ishness" of it with its swirls of color. It is a Jerry Garcia brand tie.....I knew who he was but Mr. A didn't (YouTube is great for stuff like this since we could instantly bring up a video with his music.)
I have been reflecting over the past week about homeschooling and "graduating" our children from our homeschool. If all we were doing was preparing them academically, then this would be an easy task....we could administer a test to measure if they had met the graduation goals. I guess you could count up credits and decide if they were academically ready for graduation as well. But after all my reflecting and meditating about Graduation (yes, a capital G), my husband and I decided that the intangibles were more important than anything else as far as deciding if a child is ready to graduate. The qualities and attitudes of the child in the end seem more important than any grade or score we have recorded in Homeschool Tracker. This is something to remember when I get caught up in particulars of texts and courses. Mr. B will reap the benefits of our new found goals in homeschooling.
Trying to be excited about being done for the year but part of me wishes it were just a little bit longer....crazy I know. I celebrate Mr. A's accomplishments and his hopes for the future. I look forward to seeing what this guy does in the next few years with all his ambitions and energy. He is not going away to college so I will have a front row seat.
Thanks for all your support over the past school year as I have navigated through this senior year.....only one more child to go.
I am working my way through my rewrite of Harmony Fine Arts Grade 4 and found the need for some very basic chalk pastel videos. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for so I decided make two videos of my own to post on YouTube and link to for the plans. Chalk Pastels Video #1
Hopefully someone here can benefit from learning a bit about chalk pastels and even a little artist study for Picasso. Side note: I think Jacqueline with Flowers shows her with blue hair and my kids think that she has a blue hat....you can leave me a comment and tell me what you think.
Last week we were to sketch a spice or a spice jar. I really love the way you all interpret the assignment your own way and come up with creative ways to sketch. Some of the submissions this week are still-life compositions and just plain beautiful. Thanks for inspiring me this week!
This week's assignment: Sketch something you will do this summer or your favorite summer activity (for those in the Southern Hemisphere).
All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, May 30, 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.
Now for the announcement!
I have decided to take the summer off from hosting Sketch Tuesday. I really, really need a break and a chance to catch up on things both personally and professionally. I will be taking the months of June, July, and August 2011 completely off from Sketch Tuesday but I will be back on September 6, 2011 with a brand new sketch assignment for you and your family to complete.
If you would like to keep sketching, go back and find some of the older Sketch Tuesday assignments and work on those as you have time. I will have a Welcome Back Sketch Tuesday slideshow where you can all send in a few sketches from your summer months to a separate slideshow....I will keep you posted. You can find all the old slideshows with the assignments on Flickr: Harmony Art Mom Sketch Tuesday Slideshows.
Somehow I got behind in posting our high school plans for poetry. Here is part 6 in the series and it actually features two poets, W.B. Yeats and E.E. Cummings. I didn't think Mr. A could take six weeks of Mr. Cummings so we broke it up with a totally different poet.
W.B. Yeats (three week mini-study)
Week 1:
Read the Wikipedia article for Yeats and make notes for your notebooking page. Listen and watch this YouTube.com video of Second Coming.
Read the SparkNotes page for this poem: Second Coming. Write a comment about the tone and the words used in this poem.
Week 2:
Read two more Yeats poems of your choosing. Print one and answer one of your poetry questions. Mr. A chose "To An Isle In The Water" and answered the question, "Who is the speaker and what is his tone?"
Week 3:
Same as last week (Guess I was in a hurry when I made up this section of study.)
Mr. A picked "In The Seven Woods" and answered the question, "What imagery does the poet use?"
Finish the author notebook page.
E.E. Cummings
Week 1:
Read the Poet.org information for E.E. Cummings. Take notes for your notebook page. Read five of his poems and make some observations about his form. Watch the following YouTube.com video for "Leaves Fall".
Week 2:
Creative Assignments: Buffalo Bill - add some words, capital letters, and punctuation to help the poem make more sense. I Carry Your Heart With Me - Pick an image to go with this poem. (See top of the post for his version.) If - Write one stanza in imitation of this poem.
Last week's assignment was to sketch something poisonous. I thought this ended up being a great topic and the variety in the sketches is really fun to see. Enjoy your really interesting slideshow!
This week's assignment due Monday, May 23, 2011: Sketch a spice or a spice jar.
All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, May 23, 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.
Recently, I wrote an entry sharing four of the habits that I thought gave our family a good foundation.
1. Keeping the habit of getting up on time.
2. Encouraging the habit of completing chores on time and with cheerfulness.
3. Growing the habit of starting each school day with a scriptural thought.
4. Perfecting the habit of planning ahead.
You can read more about the details HERE .
I thought I might continue my list of habits that have helped us to have "smooth and easy" homeschool days. How about four more habits?
Daily walk with our dog....We have several different spots to walk but this one is really close to home so it is very familiar.
1. Getting outdoors everyday. Can a few minutes outside really make that much of a difference in how your day goes? Absolutely. Once you establish this habit you will crave a few minutes outside even when the weather is not comfortable. Fresh air, room to move, time to look up at the sky, and a little diversion become like streams of water to a parched landscape. You can read more of my thoughts on nature study and the benefits HERE. Charlotte Mason volume 1 page 44
Mr. B is still working his way through different media and Van Gogh....this time oil pastels.
2. Keeping a balance between academic and more hands-on sorts of activities for my busy boys. Even as teens, this is an important habit. We allow the boys to complete academics at any place they wish, inside or outside. Then I try to build into each day a certain amount of "hands-on" time activities to balance the intense reading and writing they have assigned. Art appreciation, composer study, nature study, robotics, P.E. time, and other more active courses are sprinkled throughout the day. Charlotte Mason volume 1 page 142
3. Building organizational tools into our homeschool day: 3-ring binders and notebook pages. Written narrations of all kinds are worthy of keeping: notebook pages, maps, drawings, art copywork, and other projects can be easily stored in binders or spiral-bound for future reference. I am still working on instilling the habit of filing papers as soon as they are finished into the appropriate binder after we have met together and shared every single page.
Just a fun photo from a few years ago....time flies and the boys have really grown up. Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park
4. Giving our full attention to schoolwork and each other. This is a habit that can start with young children, giving them short lessons to hold their attention. In our family, as the boys have matured, I have tried to schedule enough work for them to keep busy but not allow time for dawdling or repetition of reading. Reading once with full attention is a valuable skill and worthy of our energy. My boys read their assignment and then are required to give an oral or written narration. (We use notebook pages for most of the written narrations. You can read more about notebooking in high school HERE.) Charlotte Mason volume 1 page 145
This post is going to be part of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival next week on habits. If you are interested in reading more about our Charlotte Mason high school, you can click over and read HERE.
(I had to repost this entry after Blogger lost it in their maintenance trouble last week.)
We had a GREAT week and I have so many fun things to share that I will get right to the wrap-up!
Mr. B found this painting made to depict Hadrian's Wall building and it was a great additional to our history study. It turned into a complete picture study, looking carefully at the details and learning more about the story behind the painting as explained in Wikipedia.
Mr. B has such a great sense of humor and as he studied his history this week, specifically about different Roman emperors, he came up with a comic/cartoon to go along with his research on Emperor Trajan. We pulled up one of the new 3-D templates from NotebookingPages.com and he used each page as one frame of his comic. He was trying to show how Emperor Trajan was really into building public buildings and putting his name on everything he could.
Here are the pages before we adhered them to the notebook page. (3-D Top-Tab Book Template)
First two pages: Trajan's Column and Trajan's Bridge- Mr. B insisted that the column had to go portrait and not landscape so I just let him make it work....love being flexible.
Third and Fourth pages: Trajan's Bath and Trajan's Lunchbox. Don't you just love it when your children make their study personalized like this and show how their own take on a topic. Mr. B does this a lot in his study and I am glad I could share this example with you.
Here is how they look on the notebook page, inserted onto one of the blank rectangles on the notebooking page. We used tape to put the book together and to adhere it to the notebook page. (We had trouble because he accidentally did the written notes on a page that didn't have the square for the 3-D book. I just cut the top off the other page and adhered it to the correct page....need to plan ahead better.)
Very clever and I could see how you could really use this idea to enhance your written narrations from history, literature, art, and science. (There are science notebooking pages which are included in the Treasury Membership.)
Don't miss her special coupons, gifts, and extended memberships that areavailable right now. If you receive her newsletter, you have BIG coupons. It is very much worth subscribing to her newsletter for all the goodies she sends your way. CLICK over and join her email list to receive her newsletters.
Look at this selection of Modern Times notebook pages! We are really enjoying the research and discussion that ties in with so many current events in the news. (These pages are from History Scholar and History Scribe.)
Mr. B picked his last artist of the year for his picture study and art appreciation. His choice? David Hockney. Wow, I would have never picked this particular artist but now that I see his work and how he uses technology for art, I can see the attraction. Here is the lesson plan for this project: David Hockney Inspired Chair.
Mr. B made a wild rice dish this week as part of his cooking course. It made a wonderful side dish to our baked chicken night. (Taking photos of food seems weird but it is fun to see all the delicious recipes he has made over the past year.)
So there are some of our fun highlights from the week. This weekend we are having a big graduation party with Mr. A's friends.....when you homeschool it is a lot of fun to come up with ways to celebrate these events. I will share next week.
Hope everyone is enjoying their last few weeks of school!
We found this YouTube video interesting and a totally new way to view a painting. It really gives you a close look at the brushstrokes and colors that Monet used in this painting....gorgeous.
Last week's assignment was to sketch something that lives at the beach. I am already dreaming of our beach vacation coming in June and these sketches gave me some good reminders of days at the beach. Thank you!
All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, May 16, 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.
There is nothing like a good timeline to tie lots of subjects, people, places, and events together.
Sonlight Book of Time with their sticker images from Homeschool in the Woods.
Our family has been a family of timeline makers since our early Sonlight days. We used Sonlight's timeline book when the boys were younger along with their timeline figures. It was a handy way to get started with timelines.
3-Ring Binder with images from Wikipedia and short typed captions to go along with Tapestry of Grace.
Along with our Tapestry of Grace studies, we started making our own timeline pages and the boys found their own clipart and images.
Spiral Bound Sketchbook with pages adhered for each year...Mr. A's choice.
Mr. A preferred to make pages on the computer with images and then to print them out and adhere them into a spiral bound notebook.
Now that Notebooking Pages.com has introduced their new timeline product, we are using these Book of Centuries pages to customize with our own images. Debra does offer a growing library of pages to go with your timeline and she is releasing more images each month if you are a Treasury Member. You can see a free sample HERE and HERE.
In our high school study we are not using a large timeline that incompasses all our studies like we have done in the past. Instead, I am assigning shorter sections with a particular focus.
Modern Times Base Pages from NotebookingPages.com with images from Wikipedia for Modern Art. She also has divider pages that you can use as a cover or a marker....ready to be colored in with colored pencils or markers. Love it!
Mr. A is using NotebookingPages.com's Book of Centuries base pages to make an art timeline of the 20th century.
Mr. A found this to be an easy way to make a narration showing his research...images from Wikipedia.
The pages available make it easy and does not take up a lot of his study time to put a beautiful timeline together in just a few minutes a week.
Ancient Times Base Pages from NotebookingPages.com. Mr. B wanted to sketch from his history reading.
Mr. B sketched up a timeline showing various helmets used in warfare during ancient times. It was super easy to pull up the Ancient Times set, print off the required number of pages and have him complete the project as part of his history study.
I love that he is able to easily personalize his narration to fit his mood.
He said that he really likes this kind of project and requested more pages for next week. I would say that is recommendation indeed coming from a high school age student. Do you think I will provide some pages? I am already thinking that his study of Paul needs a timeline of his travels. I will share when he finishes.
I highly recommend the Book of Centuries set of notebooking pages which are included in your purchase of the Treasury Membership. The Book of Centuries and Timeline System that she has put together is much more than just timelines. You get spine labels, divider sheets, title pages, and additional pages which will make your timeline more like a unit study of the time period under study.
The Book of Centuries notebook pages are just a small fraction of the pages available if you have a Treasury Membership.
One last product that NotebookingPages.com has that is new....3-Dimensional notebook pages. These pages bump your notebook pages up a notch, giving you a way to add another layer to your study. This is another exciting part of your Treasury Membership if you haven't discovered them yet. Click over and see some samples that you can print out and try. I am working on a project using Top Tab Book Template.
Plus!
Use discount code = discount5 to save $5 on your $10+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
Use discount code = discount10 to save $10 on your $20+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
Another week has gone by and it is truly amazing how the days can go by so fast once the weather warms up! We are focusing on finishing all our courses over the next three weeks so the boys are working a little extra hard. On top of that, we took graduation portraits for Mr. A and ordered his announcements. I got his diploma in the mail...already to go once we finish and are ready to present it in front of family and friends.
Exciting.
This edition of my weekly wrap-up has a theme that I found woven throughout: Independent learning. My two sons have come to the point in their education where they are beyond my body of knowledge. I have let them loose to explore their own educational paths. This has happened in just about every area of our courses: literature, science, history, and art. If you are a classical homeschooler, this is truly what the rhetoric stage is all about, at least from my point of view. The boys are going beyond assignments and spending lots of time researching and writing about topics that come up. The shape that their final projects come to me are exciting: videos, inventions, writing, and lots of discussion. See if you can find the theme in the rest of this entry.
Exciting.
Key Word Outline: Yes, it is messy and has doodles.
Writing:
Mr. A is working on that final research report and he tells me he finished the key work outline this morning. He spent a few minutes trying to explain to me what white dwarves and super novas are and how he is going to pull a writing piece together featuring these two subjects of interest. Let's just say that these topics are far beyond my field of expertise. I guess I will learn something and see a topic through my son's eyes.
Glimpse into one of the "self-tests" that come at the end of each chapter.
Astronomy:
Mr. B is focusing on finishing Astronomy: Self-Teaching Guide over the next few weeks. He actually likes this book and the format is great for independent learners. I noticed he takes the book and sits at the computer and looks things up on Wikipedia when he wants to learn more. I love that he takes that extra step.
Robotics:
Mr. B is designing, building, and programming a project of his own choice. I am pretty sure he decided on a self-serve cat food dispenser for the black cats who inhabit our home. I guess we will all have to see what he comes up with.
Videography:
Mr. B is polishing his last video of the year which was a also a project of his choice. He researched a science topic and has pulled together a video with narration, still images, titles and captions, and of course live action video. The topic is Schrodinger's Cat (thought experiment). Don't ask me how he arrived on that as a topic. I hope he gives me permission to share the video.
Poetry (and why it is an important part of your literature and history study):
Langston Hughes has been the topic this week and Mr. A has shared quite a bit of his poetry aloud with me. I think he likes this poet because of the sounds and the subjects. It really is very different than most of our other poetry this year. Nice change. This week he supplemented his poetry study with a short mini-lesson on the Harlem Renaissance. We have been watching several YouTube videos for Langston Hughes...here is one from the Library Congress.
It is a little long but one that we liked because of the balance of story and his poetry. The reason I think this study has been successful? Not only are we reading and discussing the poetry, we now have a whole area of history that can be explored through the eyes of someone who has a very different point of view than we do...that of a black man in the early 20th century. I did not realize the extent of Langston Hughes' writing and its variety including short stories and music. You can be sure we will explore this more with Mr. B when he gets to this poet. So many poetic devices to discuss with Hughes' poetry.
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
Driver's Education:
Mr. B started his online driver's education course this week. Sigh. I know what is coming now....the critiquing of my driving as we go around town. I have been here three times before with the older children, getting to know the rules of the road makes them more active passengers. Using an online course helps us fit the study in when Mr. B has time and it is self-directed.
I will finish there and leave the rest for another time. Hope you enjoyed seeing some of our week and hearing my rambles of a homeschool mom who is feeling like her role is ever-changing. If I can do this, you can do this.
