She knows I like blue....

Suzy (age 11) painted watercolors on wet paper yesterday as part of her art lesson. She and I both selected some lessons from The Usborne Book of Art Ideas and she has been completing one per week.

This lovely piece of art was waiting on my desk after she had gone to bed last night.

In case you can't read it, the words say: for Mom Because of the Blue. I ♥ U.

I ♥ her too!

Choosing Kids' Activities

Something about standing in the shower makes me think. Maybe it's the fact that I really can't multi-task in there. LOL So, the other day, I was mulling something over in the shower.

I was wondering why parents give their kids so much choice over their activities. I don't intend to offend anyone here, so please reserve your judgment.

My kids don't get much choice over their extracurricular activities, nor over their curriculum - at least not in cases where I have a strong opinion. I know many families handle this differently, but for us? I feel that we as parents have the better perspective, including the wisdom to look back over our own choices and see where we might have chosen better. We also understand our schedules, our wallets, and our willingness (or non-willingness, as the case may be) to drive all over the county (or even the state!).

I don't have the sort of kids who want to sign up for everything. In fact, if I didn't sign them up for sports, art class, field trips, camp, etc..., then probably they'd just sit home. That's not acceptable to me. I want them to have cultural experiences, to be active, to make friends, to learn about the world.

As an example, probably only one, maybe two, of my kids would choose to play soccer if left to their own devices. But all 4 are playing this year. All have played soccer most years since they were five or six. The years they did not play, we ended up regretting the choice. Soccer works well for us, but it might not be the best choice for your family. My point is not to go sign your kids up for soccer, but find what works for your family and insist upon it.

This fall I've signed three of my kids up for gymnastics without even asking them. I want them to do something active over the winter since they won't have soccer to keep them moving and our climate is not conducive to a lot of outdoor activities from December through February (or more!). Other things we've tried over the winter haven't worked well for us, but I have high hopes for this. Anyway, my point is - I made the choice. They were not consulted.

At some point, kids must learn to manage their own time, desires, and money. I offer my older children a little more autonomy, as long as acceptable alternatives are explored. For instance, David chose not to do our monthly art class anymore. I required him to continue to explore artistic concepts on his own and he has. However, he also requested not to play soccer several years ago, so I gave him an alternative - be sure to include physical activity in your schedule two or three times a week in good weather. Just like soccer would require, you know? Did he do this? No, he did not. So he ended up back in soccer.

Some of you may be thinking - that wouldn't work for us. The kids wouldn't do it. Well, mine aren't usually happy about the idea either. Oh well. An opportunity for attitude adjustments.

They'll thank me later. Right?

Sketch Tuesday Report

Harmony Art Mom's blog presents a weekly Sketch Tuesday challenge that we are participating in this year as a component of our art curriculum.

Two weeks ago, participants were to sketch something you drink. All the kids completed this one quickly. Here is the Flickr collection of all the submitted drawings from that challenge.Suzy's drawing is the "cover" illustration! Here are the other kids' submissions: DAVID, EMILY, JAMES.

Last week, participants were asked to sketch something you would see in an art museum. Here is the slideshow and links to each of our drawings: EMILY, JAMES, SUZY. (David did a sketch but it was not done in time to submit. His was a nice sketch of medieval armor and weaponry.)

Want to participate? Go HERE for this week's challenge. Then send your drawings to her in email and she'll include them in the slideshow.

Sketch Tuesday

I found Harmony Art Mom's blog sometime in the summer and decided that we would participate in her Sketch Tuesday challenge.

Last week the assignment was to sketch something that starts with the letter R. Only James and Suzy actually finished the assignment. (David and Emily thought it was babyish, I think, though the finished drawings submitted to the challenge surely do not fit that description.)

Here is the Flickr collection of all the submitted drawings.

James drew a rocket. The photo of it does not show all the shading he did using the technique he learned from Don West.

Suzy drew a scene with rain and ripples in the water.

Want to participate? Go HERE for this week's challenge. Then send your drawings to her in email and she'll include them in the slideshow. My kids already did their drawings for this week - yes, all 4 of them. You'll have to wait until next week to see them though!

Unit Study for The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I've collected a number of useful links for THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan. We've finished reading it (and enjoyed it very much), so I thought I'd share the links with you. We didn't do everything on this list, but we did complete a fair number of these activities.

Unit Studies from Other Teachers
Read for NeNe - HERE
Scholastic Interview with Rick Riordan + Discussion Guides - HERE
Kathleen Joaquin's complete unit study on Rick Riordan's site - HERE
Louisiana State Library's Unit (.pdf) - HERE
Hyperion teacher's guide (.doc) - HERE

Empire State Building
Kids FAQ about ESB - HERE
Coloring Pages - HERE
Virtual Tour for Kids - HERE
Printable ESB model - HERE
Short kid-hosted video about ESB - HERE

ART PROJECTS
Storytelling vase (uses styrofoam cups!) - HERE
Greek pottery designs (no pottery involved) - HERE
Greek vase designs (uses pre-made pot) - HERE
Medusa mask (looks complicated) - HERE
Another (easier, but really ugly) Medusa mask + shield - HERE

ANCIENT GREECE PRINTABLES
Variety of printables - HERE
Greek god cards (use for games like Memory) - HERE

Winter Break to Shake Things Up

The upcoming week is going to be DIFFERENT here at Cornerstone. I am tired of the same-old, same-old, and so have decided to shake things up a bit.

Several schools around here had "Winter Break" and we usually don't do that enabling us to take off whenever we like in BEAUTIFUL spring and fall weather. However, I think this year, we need a break.

But I don't do well with unstructured time. So, I have chosen some fun learning activities to keep us moving forward this week but still allow us a break from the norm. Friday we have co-op, so we will have four days this week to enjoy this change. Then next week, I'm going to roll out some different learning activities to replace some of our boring ones.

So, this week will include:

MOVIES - aside from the normal entertainment movies, I've found a few educational videos to play (on our TEENSY television).

• National Geographic: Animals in the Womb (DVD from library)
• History Channel: Great Escapes of WW2 (DVD from library)
• Francis: Knight of Assisi (VHS tape we own)
• Ingmar Bergman's The Magic Flute (VHS we own, and I just realized it is in SWEDISH with English subtitles! That will be an adventure! lol)

GAMES - 2 per day, one chosen by the kids, one chosen by me.

ART PROJECTS

• Origami (found my book and origami paper in a drawer)
• Paper Snowflakes
• Water Colors (just painting)
• Creative Thinking Through Art (set of 2 books I own)

MAD LIBS

READ-ALOUD - We will begin a new book this week: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This will be the first book I've read to them in more than a year that isn't one I've read before.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
Sledding on Tuesday
Maybe swimming Friday night

We will probably keep our Bible routine going, since once we stop that, it's hard to get moving on it again. It's a centering way to begin our day.

Sketchup

David was planning to do a stop-motion animation class for art this year. (He is a freshman.) However, buying the materials we need has not been in the budget. So yesterday, when I read this entry on the Math-U-See blog, my interest was piqued.

So I went looking for Google Sketchup, thinking maybe it was something David would be interested in learning.

Wow! It's a FREE 3D computer modeling program. Of course, there is a Pro version that bears a hefty $500 pricetag, but the free version looks pretty darn useful.

David is enthralled with the idea of trying it out and designing some 3D models, starting with some cell phone prototypes he's been sketching on paper. This won't be the first 3D computer modeling he's worked with, though. Another great FREE program is the Lego Digital Designer. The car graphic to the left is a screenshot from LDD.

So, he will be practicing 3D computer modeling beginning very soon. The other kids will also have the opportunity to explore the program and what it can do. However, David plans to build a career around computer-aided design in some fashion, so this will be great experience for him.

As I was searching for some good illustrations for this blog, I noticed that a Google Sketchup for Dummies book has been published. I've just requested that at the library and hopefully it will prove useful.

Check out Google Sketchup. Even preschoolers can use this program, as evidenced by the winners of the contest referenced on the MUS blog. They had a category for children ages 0-5. See what you and your children can do with this program!

Paper Airplanes!

My parents sent James a stack of paper airplane sheets from a daily calendar they have. He was THRILLED to receive them and folded up EVERY SINGLE ONE. Here he is working on one of them and then with the bin full of the cute little planes.

And yes, he is wearing a cape. That's the norm around here.

From 05-19-2009

From 05-19-2009

From 05-19-2009

I think this is the calendar.

GOAL!!!

James SCORED a goal last night in his soccer game.

I missed that game due to an event the girls had last night. I was BUMMED that I missed it!

I asked him to tell me about it and he drew me a picture of it so I thought I'd share that with all of you.

I believe this is his third goal with this team. He's been playing better and better as the spring progresses. He has two more games - Saturday and Tuesday. I hope he'll be able to score again so I can see it!

GO JAMES!!!

Real Watercolors

I read once about using "real" art supplies rather than supplying children with cheap paints (like the ones at right) and other media. Have you ever noticed how frustrated kids can get when their paintings don't come out as they had hoped, through no fault of their own? Or how flimsy the cheap crayons are?

When I first read about giving kids the proper materials, I was reluctant at the thought. Won't they treat them badly? Won't they destroy anything nice? Well, perhaps, but their satisfaction in being able to create with responsive media may be worth it.

So, I went out in search of affordable watercolor paints. Why did I start there? I no longer remember. I was in a Charlotte Mason phase and reading nature journalling books, so that was likely the reason. Whatever it was, I came home with some small boxed watercolor kits, intended to take along on hikes, and eventually added some tube watercolor paints and some palette trays, along with some nicer (but still low-cost) brushes.

Several years have passed since that first exploration into "real" art materials and I haven't been sorry. We are nearly to the end of our second set of tube paints. I paid about $10 on sale at Meijer for the set of Reeves paints. Better brands are available at art stores, should you feel the desire to splurge, but for us, spending $10 on an adequate set of paints that will last a couple years is far better than spending $1 or so on those useless paint sets we all remember from our childhood. (The name brand ones (Prang, Crayola) DO work better than some of the off-brand ones, but in my experience, the REAL paints are far more effective.)

I encourage you to give it a try. For a small $20 investment, you can allow your children the freedom to enjoy working with materials that are far more versatile and potent than anything they may have used so far. Maybe I'll see you in the store! We need a new set of tube paints and some new brushes soon! (Mine are looking a bit squeezed out, don't you think?)

My favorite arts and crafts supplier is Miller Pads and Paper. They don't appear to carry Reeves, but they do have a nice selection. Here is a sampling of what they have available:
Jackson's Professional Tube Watercolors 12 colors $9.95 18 Colors $13.95.
Marie's Tube Watercolor Sets 12 colors $6.25 18 Colors $9.75.
Niji Tube Watercolors 12 colors $5.00 18 Colors $8.00
And LOTS MORE watercolor stuff - check them out!

Weekly Review - Week 27

This was quite an average week - lessons-wise - here at Cornerstone Academy. Five days of lessons, nothing unusual except Chess Club and a Friday afternoon visit with Michele to break the monotony of the days. The weather was rainy, really really rainy, for the first couple days and then COLD, quite quite cold for a couple more. Next week is supposed to warm up a bit! That'll be nice.

One thing that was different was the lack of any Bible study. I just couldn't muster the gumption to push everyone through it this week. Bible time often ends up being the time of the most complaining and unpleasant attitudes and I just wasn't interested in facing it. Isn't it odd that the time should be about praising the Lord and learning about his Word, but instead it ends up being CHARACTER BUILDING for all? :::chuckles, somewhat bitterly:::: Anyway, we'll do it next week. I promise.

Suzy is working on an art book. Several years ago, James did this art book at co-op. My friend Sarah is teaching it this year at co-op, but Suzy didn't end up taking the class for whatever reason. So, I decided to have her complete it here at home. She is enjoying it, perhaps just the attention from Mom and the opportunity to do "Art". Anyway, some of these pictures are of her mixing colors for one of the pages.

In History this week, the littles learned about St. Boniface, the Iconoclast Conspiracy, and Charles "Martel". I knew nothing about ANY of these before. One of the projects was to make crosses and decorate them, "icon" style. So I have some pictures for you of that.

David's been studying the Civil War this month and I found some DVD's at the library for him to watch. Emily sat and watched them all too, which surprised me, as I personally found them a tad dry - at least the parts I watched. They watched them in the afternoons while I worked on my writing.Civil War Journals: The Conflict Begins (from the History Channel) are the DVD's. I plan to have him watch some Civil War movies too - I had in mind Glory, Gods and Generals, and maybe Gettysburg. I'm not big on war movies, so anyone with suggestions there, please leave them in my comments.

Man, I DETEST working with pictures in blogger! Why don't they go where I want them? Argh!!!

Art Class

Art class happens once a month with Mr. West of Christian Art for Kids. He teaches the students step by step how to create a specific drawing, using skills that are transferable to drawing in general.

He calls the whole class up to his table to demonstrate the steps and techniques, then the kids go back and do it themselves. He also shows the steps on a whiteboard. After each child has completed the step, he brings it up to Mr. West for inspection. Usually he gives some very short encouraging statement to each child each time they come up. Lots of positive reinforcement and no one falls through the cracks.

I think the best parts of the class, however, are when Mr. West shares his stories and personal testimonies. He always guides the kids (and parents) to look to the Lord and always has a word of praise or encouragement!

David is on his third year with Mr. West, if I recall correctly. Emily is on her second year, and today was James's first class.

Their finished drawings from today (completed entirely in class) are below. Can you guess whose is whose?

Heart of the Matter - Extra Activities: Helping or Hindering?

Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online meme: Extra Activities, Helping or Hindering?

What is your weekly extra-curricular routine? Do your kids take music lessons? Sports? Are they involved in church activities? How much time does this leave for family time? Are you over-scheduled or relaxed in your outside programs? Share with us your thoughts on this!



This is an interesting survey idea. Extracurricular activities abound for home-educated children, although I know that was not necessarily the case a few years ago. Lots of options means choosing wisely. Here is how our family has decided:

MUSIC - I notice that a lot of homeschoolers do participate in weekly music lessons, but we do not. We tried piano for Emily and guitar for David at our homeschool co-op a couple years ago. Neither one showed a great aptitude for it, and we didn't continue past that year.

We do sing as a family several times a week (as part of our family worship time), usually a capella, so they do study music at least a little. We own a piano and I bought Piano for Quitters for my husband this year. I have considered having my children go through that at their own pace. My husband has not yet attempted it. I took piano lessons briefly as a child and always wished I had learned to play more proficiently. I did play flute in school band for 8 years. The money involved in private music lessons is more than I'd like to invest.

SPORTS - All of my kids have played fall and spring soccer. The younger two are playing this year - James is in his fourth year, and Suzy in her third year. Emily played for six years and David played for eight years. This year David is helping me coach Suzy's team and also unofficially referreeing her games. We have not been involved in any other sports; AYSO soccer meets all the criteria I have for sports.

Soccer involves 1 or 2 practices every week and 1 game (sometimes 2) each week from August-October and April-May. We play on a local league so everything happens within 15 minutes of our home - with the exception of David playing on a travel team last year. THAT was definitely a lot more driving, thus more commitment.

CHURCH - Church activities also play a big part in our lives. We regularly attend Sunday School and Sunday morning worship. During the school year, our elementary age children participate in a Wednesday night program. We mainly allow them to participate in this program for the social aspect, since they don't tend to learn a lot of Bible content or memory in this program. The stories tend to be the same ones over and over from year to year, in our experience.

Our teenage son participates in youth group, and this has been a topic of much discussion - is it a worthy use of time? Will it draw him closer to the Lord or closer to our culture? For now, we have decided to participate. It meets on Sunday nights, which we like in some ways and in some ways we do not. Our 6th grade daughter is "old enough" according to the church, but we are not allowing her to participate until she is 13 (or maybe 12-1/2). She is only 11 now.

We also would like to be involved in a small group at church, but we have yet to find one that matches our priorities (children welcome) and also meets at a convenient time. It might be "one thing too many". My husband has been involved in a weekly men's group that met on a weeknight throughout the past year and it has been VERY MUCH worthwhile. The kids went along because I had to work those nights.

OTHER ACTIVITIES - We do tend to participate in a lot of field trips. Our group has Park Days and Beach Days during the warm months and we make these a priority.

Art class is held once a month for 3 hours and my older 3 will participate this year. Drawing is something I cannot teach and I think these are important skills. The teacher is a godly man and his testimony alone is worth the time investment.

Chess Club is something we did for a while, mostly for relationship purposes. However, we discontinued it when gas prices began to rise and when our schedule became busier. None of the children was highly committed to chess as an activity, so no one really complained.

Co-op is one of our most enjoyed extracurricular activities and one of the biggest commitments. I won't say much about it here, since I posted about it recently. Co-op meets every other Friday from 9:30-2:30 during September-November and January-April. This is our fifth year participating in co-op and it is very rewarding!

[EDITED TO ADD}
Keepers At Home - My girls are involved in a twice-a-month Keepers At Home group that two friends of mine started. To be honest, I am wishing I hadn't committed to it. It's 25 minutes away and it's in the evening, which is something I try to avoid - evening commitments for the kids. However, I really think it'll be a valuable group and it will allow Emily to strengthen some friendships and make new ones, as well as learn more about being a godly young woman.[END OF ADDITION]

I think that's about it for extracurricular activities. I find that if we write our activities on our calendar and plan our lessons accordingly, we accomplish a lot and still get to participate in many activities. Gas prices have made a difference in some of our choices, and if the cost continues to rise, we may opt out of a few more things.

Family time is important to us too, especially considering my recent experience with working full time. We do like to have family movie night, family walks, and play games together as a family. We try to eat meals together whenever possible.

Art

OK, I have like 5 minutes, but I wanted to post the stuff I got planned for Art. Sorry, there weren't any links in last night's post and there won't be here either.

David is doing art by himself. He asked if he could be excused from doing cutesy craft projects and I agreed. If we do a project he is interested in, he joins in. He is working on the book Draw Real People by Lee Hammond. He also takes art classes once a month from Don West - christianartforkids.com. Emily takes those lessons too.

The other kids will be doing art twice a week, if I can handle that frequency. Once will be a drawing lesson from Creative Thinking Through Art: Drawing (Evan-Moor). The other art lesson will be more involved - either a seasonal art project (NEED some ideas, got any?), a project from Creative Thinking Through Art: Mixed Media (also Evan-Moor) or The Usborne Book of Art Ideas. I'll probably add in some other art too. Sometimes they just like to paint.

I have yet to do James and Suzy's language arts plans. They're fairly easy though, since they are both doing Alphabet Island Phonics and the book is all laid out for me. Will post more on that later, I hope.

Also planning to post my kids' new job chart. David and I collaborated on it and I am pretty pleased with it. He's photographing it right now.

Art Curriculum

I posted a few weeks ago about my art curriculum, or really about the importance of it. But since I planned out art for the year today, I thought I would at least mention it again and give a few details.

I use 2 main books to teach art.

How to Teach Art to Children - Evan-Moor Publishers (for grades 1-6)

and

Meet the Masterpieces: Strategies, Activities, and Posters to Explore Great Works of Art - Scholastic (for grades 2-5)
(I cannot find an online pic I can show you, but here is the amazon page - Amazon.com book page (It's apparently out of print now, but well worth finding if you can.)

Last year, we studied Line, Shape, and Color from the Evan-Moor book and Pieter Bruegel, Diego Velasquez, and Hokusai from the Scholastic book.

This year we will study Value, Texture, Form, and Space, as well as study the following artists: Winslow Homer, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso, and Romare Bearden.

I planned 83 art lessons. We do art nearly every day, but since we are adding history this year, I think there will be days when we do art in history or science and won't do it separately too. I schedule Art right after Bible, so it is our second subject of the day. I find that it helps the kids get "into" school and gets their creativity flowing, which in turn helps them academically. Also I can get the "together" work out of the way first and then they can do their independent work later, rather than me trying to gather everyone back at a later time, when someone might be in the middle of an important assignment.

The Evan-Moor book has two parts. Part 1 is the main section of the book. It includes the art lessons that are about Value, Texture, Form, and Space all are introducing an art concept to the children. Each lesson has either an art project or a small group experience to reinforce the concept. The art projects in this book are particularly eye-catching and attractive, in my opinion.

Part 2 is all art projects based on a famous artist, such as Edward Degas, or a famous art technique, such as Anasazi pottery. I have sprinkled these 24 lessons throughout the year, so we get a break from the normal routine. I also found examples of each of these famous works or techniques online and saved them to my hard drive, so I can show the children some examples when it's time for that lesson. No more jumping online while they wait, colored pencils in hand.

After every section from the Evan-Moor book, I have scheduled a section from Meet the Masterpieces. This book has a short section on the artist's life, which will be our Day 1 of that section. We will add the artist to our main timeline and find out more about him/her if we so desire. On Day 2, we take a close look at one of the artist's works. The book gives some excellent questions to ask the students about the work, and even gives you the answers, which is great for those of us who did not study much great art. (Apparently this book originally came with posters of these works, but I do not have those. Therefore, I searched the internet for copies of the works and printed them out. I put them in my lesson plan binder, along with my lesson sheets for art and I'm all set!)

For Days 3-5 of these lessons, the book has differing activities that build on the concepts learned about the artist and/or the time period. Some of these I like, and some I don't, but I have chosen the ones I want to do and listed them on my plan sheet.

Something else I did to make all this easier was to list out all the supplies needed for each lesson, so I can quickly look ahead and make sure I have the 12x18 white paper that is needed, or stop at the store for dried beans.

I think Suzy and James will be doing art with us most days this year and I am looking forward to something else that we can all do together!

If you do not schedule art regularly, I encourage you to do it. It has made a big difference in our homeschooling!

I was conversing with my friend Jen the other day (:::waves at Jen:::) and we got to talking about art. She said she feels people are either born with artistic talent or they aren't.

While I do agree with that to some extent, I also feel that everyone can attain a certain level of competency in art. I think the main problem is not a general lack of talent, but a deficiency in the education process.

Most of us started school loving to create things, to draw, to express ourselves with color. Somewhere along the line, we realized we "weren't good at it". We may have even had teachers or other adults denigrate our abilities and make us afraid to try. But what this really boils down to is that most of us were not given the basic tools that we needed to succeed at art.

A person who is intrinsically good at art may discover some principles of art on his own, or he may have people around who notice his special aptitude for art and who then provides him with specialized instruction that nurtures his gift.

In contrast, the student with an average art ability probably doesn't discover many art techniques on his own. The art classes provided in most schools don't have a K-12 scope and sequence. In my experience, most art teachers love art and do what they like or what they find interesting. Most school districts do not have a cohesive plan for allowing each student to reach a basic level of competency in art. The basic attitude seems to be "Let the students explore all kinds of art and learn to appreciate art and that's good enough."

An analogy may help me explain this better. We all know that there are some students who are mathematically inclined. I have a friend who is studying higher mathematics at the graduate school level and I am completely lost whenever she describes the things she is studying. She is obviously gifted mathematically and I would never dream of achieving the mathematical understanding that she has mastered.

However, does that mean that because I am not "mathematically inclined" that I should not expect to achieve a basic level of competency in math? No. We expect that all students will become competent enough to balance a checkbook, understand taxes, and other common life skills that involve math. When people achieve these skills, do we say that they are "so mathematical!"? No, we expect that. It is a basic level of competency and when someone doesn't achieve it, we are often shocked.

Art should be thought of the same way. The unplanned method of teaching art ISN'T good enough. We must provide incremental art instruction for students so they can achieve basic skills in art. Everyone can learn to draw, as well as master other basic art skills.

Case in point. I have NEVER been artistic. I cannot draw. Really. I have never been considered creative artistically. However, in the spring of 2003, after reading about nature study and nature journalling, I was inspired to learn a little about watercolors. So, I did some reading about it and tried it out.

Here are my attempts at watercolor painting. (May 2003)
(Images have been removed)

Now, when my friend saw these, she said something about how "artistic" I am! LOL I am certainly NOT artistic. My point in showing you these is that if *I* can learn to do this, then ANYONE can. I don't expect to be Monet, but I would like to be able to draw or paint something recognizable.

How do I work this instruction out in my homeschool? Last year, I watched a video by Barry Stebbing that stressed the importance of art instruction. It only solidified my resolve. We do art nearly every school day. I find it important enough to do right after Bible most days. Getting the creative juices flowing really helps my children to concentrate on their academic work afterward. It does take a little longer, but I find that the payoff is worth it.

I have been using Evan-Moor's How to Teach Art to Children, which offers instruction on the seven elements of art: line, shape, color, value, texture, form, and space. The book is easy to use and includes lots of fun art projects and instruction. It's a great way to begin planned art instruction. After this, we will probably do some basic drawing lessons. Mom will be learning right along with her children!