Van Gogh's Sunflowers

As I mentioned in a previous post, I purchased Discovering Great Artists to use this year with the boys. There are so many neat projects to choose from. Seeing this particular project completed by another homeschool family sold me on the book, so I chose to do it first.

Here are our paint color concoctions...tempera paint mixed with flour for a thicker consistency

It was such a gloriously sunny day, we moved class outside under the shade of our trees.

Elijah's interpretation

Luke strayed from the intended painting idea...but I did tell him that since he was the artist, he could do it any way he wanted.

"See mama moe pait...I do it, mama...see...I pait wed...moe wed...moe wed, mama..." He sat for atleast 1/2 hr. painting with us. Impressive!

Mama painted, too...I didn't want to miss out on the fun!

All in all, we spent over 2 hours outside painting over 20 pictures. The boys loved it! I had to make them stop in order to finish other school work for the day. Can't wait to tackle the next project!

Books! Books! Books!

I love buying books for my boys. I have a long list of books I'd like to purchase from a variety of subjects...but this shopping spree was an effort to help us with our study of Fine Arts.

For Art this year, I am using How to Teach Art to Children published by Evan-Moor. The first few lessons have been about Line - recognizing and drawing vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines in varying widths thick, thin and dotted. After each lesson, we've looked around our house to find the different lines and follow that up by looking at examples of artwork through our borrowed library books Museum ABC, Museum Shapes and Museum 123 (all published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art). I love these books because they are appropriate for ANY age - everyone in our family can look at these books and come away a little more knowledgeable. They were number one on my shopping list and I'm sure the other patrons of the library will be thankful that I'm not holding those copies hostage any longer.

Can You Find It? is a search and find book using art work. Elijah and Luke love these types of books, so that was a extra purchase. It's turn out to be a treasure as well.

I am planning to study a different artist each month. I found Discovering Great Artists many months back, but wasn't sure about it. Then I happened upon a blogging mom who is using it with her little ones and I loved the projects her children were doing. Check out this Van Gogh project that finally sold me. Maybe it's just because I love sunflowers...

The rest of the stack is for Music. Both Elijah and Luke will be taking piano lesson together with Miss June. They will focus on the piano as the main instrument, but will try a variety of rhythm instruments and music "play." I am hoping to teach them about the different sections of the orchestra and listen to a variety of classical musicians. Again, I've borrowed these Classical Kids CDs from our library and love them. We occasionally watch Little Einsteins on TV and the first time I put in one of the new CDs, Elijah said, "Hey, I like this music...it's from Little Einsteins!" He then proceeded to "fly" in his rocket around the house, joined within seconds by his brothers, humming along with the music.

This treasures below are a stack of well loved books I picked at my local library sale. My favorite of the bunch is Jamberry. I love the rollicking flow of the words about a little boy and a bear picking berries for jam...

"One berry

Two berry

Pick me a blueberry...

Trainberry

Trackberry

Clickety-clackberry...

Raspberry

Jazzberry

Razzamatazzberry

Berryband

Merryband

Jamming in Berryland..."

Of course, you can't beat classics like Madeline and Babar, too! My only problem now...my only problem always is...I NEED MORE BOOK SHELVES!

Good Start

We've had a great first week of school...lots accomplished and a great field trip, too!

Elijah working on copying his spelling list

Field trip to Brown's Berry Patch to pick apples, take a wagon ride, and play!

There's nothing as tasty as a NY State apple

Isaac on the Jumping Pillow - a trampoline type activity that's connected to the ground on all four sides. Isaac loved sliding down the sides into the sand below.

Elijah and Luke on the big slide


A dear friend Shannon and her boys, Luke and Jadon

A new friend, Wendy and her daughter, Abigail, from our homeschool co-op. (And little Peter...my friend, Carole's youngest)

One week down, 35 to go...

First Day of School

First day of school smiles from the whole gang...so far, so good! It's only been two days, but I am even more convinced that I've made good curriculum choices this year. It's not been hard to get the boys going each morning...they've been asking to start school for several weeks now. The only tough thing is feeling a little more tired out from getting back into the school routine again.


Here is our shelf of notebook binders for each subject we're studying. Luke has one notebook for the various things he joins in on with Elijah. I have one acting as my lesson planner, grade keeper and idea file. The rest are Elijah's. I'm sure I'll be thankful to have a place to file papers as the year continues. It was fun to get these ready...the boys chose scrapbook paper from my stash and I printed the subject name on each of them on the computer.


With one year under my belt, I am more confident and relaxed in our homeschool endeavor. I am thankful that Mike wants to help out more this year than he did last year. I am hopeful and excited about the year to come!