Posted by Cindy on October 31, 2009
Eli and I were home alone yesterday afternoon. He went into the powder room to wash his hands so he could help me fix supper. In the meantime, I buried my hands elbow deep in hamburger. The water kept running and running and running. I kept hollering, “Hurry up, Eli, mommy needs your help.” The only answer was, “I’m coming!” Once I finally had my hands clean, I stepped into the powder room to see this. Little stinker. All he said was, “I needed a bubble bath!”
Posted by Cindy on October 30, 2009
We’ve had a fun month studying Rodin (despite my preference for paintings over sculpture.) I’ve been rather slow posting our projects, so here are two weeks worth of projects.
After studying The Hand of God and other hand sculptures, we completed 2-dimensional abstract hand drawings. The kids simply traced their hands and used at least two different mediums to create an abstract design. I love these!
You can see the Ivory soap sculpting we did as one of the projects during our Presidents unit in this post. I didn’t get a close-up of the sculptures because they weren’t great, but you can see the small squares of Ivory soap in the two overall project pictures. They didn’t turn out as quite the masterpieces that I’d hoped, but it was fun anyway!
To end the study, we pulled out some clay and tried a little sculpting.
“Flowers in a Basket”
“The Creek”
Here are the resources that have been in the sidebar this month. I hope they’re helpful to you!
Francois Auguste-Rene Rodin
Artchive Gallery
The Thinker
Jean de Fiennes, Draped
Rose Beuret
The Hand of God
Lesson Ideas
Many Ideas for Drawing and Sculpting Hands
Posted by Cindy on October 27, 2009
Another unit bites the dust! 
We’ve been motorin’ on the schedule so far and it makes me smile!
This unit took only two weeks. We simply read a book everyday about past presidents, being the president, the White House and Washington D.C. Each kiddo had to choose five presidents to research and complete a project about each one. At the end of the two weeks, they presented their projects – short, sweet and simple for me!
They were able to choose from the following project choices:
- a file folder report
- a photographic poster
- a sculpture and mini-report
- a cereal box report
- a newspaper article
- a mobile
I gave them very little direction in completing projects this time around. After the presentations, we talked about each project and the good points. We also evaluated what could’ve been better. My children were pretty hard on themselves – harder than I would’ve been! But, it was good for them to notice what they might improve on next time.
On to the projects…
Below are the unit resources that have been in my sidebar just in case anyone’s interested in a study of the presidents in the future.
Presidents of the United States
Coloring Pages of the Presidents
Presidential Hangman
Posted by Cindy on October 26, 2009
Last week’s nature study compared a new pond structure to the older ponds we have been studying.
The kiddos observed the differences in plant life, animal life, general activity and sounds.
We also compared how the new pond was man-made, while the others we have observed were natural depressions in the land. You can see the bank created to hold in water in the picture below.
One of the old ponds we studied was fed by a constant stream and another by a spring from underground. This one, however, is fed only by water run-off after rain. You can see the sloping land above the pond in the picture below. The space for this pond was chosen specifically for all the run-off potential.
Besides many of the more obvious differences in fewer plants and animals, there was far more erosion taking place on this new pond that isn’t protected by plant growth yet. We talked about how this pond is being used frequently by cattle, which means plants will have a difficult time settling near the bank. This led to some super discussions of water conservation from the perspective of a farmer.
With very little to get in the way, this is a GREAT pond for skipping rocks! And my kiddos spent lots of time practicing their skills!
Speaking of nature study (or art, poetry, narration, handicrafts, character training, mother culture, short lessons, living literature, composers, etc.) I need submissions for next week’s Charlotte Mason Carnival!! There have been MANY submissions already, but unfortunately, only TWO that aren’t “junk submissions”. So get your creative fingers typing and pass along your posts to the carnival by visiting the SUBMISSION PAGE. Pretty please!
Posted by Cindy on October 23, 2009
Autumn afternoons are full of free time fun (and learning) for my children. Below are just a few pictures from recent days.
Mahayla spends countless hours caring for her horses and pony. She’s recently learned how to braid horse hair in various styles.
Another of Mahayla’s afternoon activities is photography. Eli happens to be her subject most often (and he loves the attention.)
Even afternoon chores turn into fun – sometimes.
We took a fun trip to the UK Arboretum one afternoon this week to get an autumn look at the many native plants and gardens. I couldn’t resist some fall-themed portraits.
Mahayla – 12
Caleb – 9
Eli – 2
