A Week, Briefly (#11)
Monday--
Art lessons 3 and 4.
Lesson 3 was about color which we've been working on for several weeks so that we could have some in-depth experiences with color. We finished up the technical stuff about the color wheel and shared personal revelatory experiences with colors in God's creations. I was touched when Rose Red participated actively in this discussion.
Lesson 4 was about prehistoric art. We studied and mimicked the art from the Lascaux Caves (and some other sites in South Africa and Patagonia). Pixie's astute comment was, "I thought the art would be childish and easy to copy, but it's a lot more complex than I thought."
First we practiced on regular paper, but after that we drew on sandpaper to mimic a rock's surface; this was fun and challenging! (Of course the camera battery died, so I have no pictures of it!)
Tuesday--
History lessons 17-20 were all about Moses and the children of Israel. We read excerpts from Exodus, but mostly we just reviewed what we already knew about Moses because we've read Old Testament stories twice in less than a year, we recently finished reading Tirzah, and Rose Red has covered Moses in seminary this year. If I felt there were any points to be made that deepened the kids' appreciation for Heavenly Father's guiding care and extended their knowledge of the history of the time, we paused to explore those points.
The principle I cared most about exploring with the kids was that of each child having a personal mission to discover, prepare for, and complete. I felt our discussion was productive. I hope and pray the kids find and love their personal missions.
Wednesday--
History lesson 21 was about Sargon the Great and Sumeria. The attention activity was a game that allowed us to compare leadership styles. Rose Red was not as powerful a dictator as I thought she'd be, but the point was still made that tyrants are not desirable leaders.
Thursday--
Art lesson 5 continued our study of prehistoric art.
First we talked about texture as an element of art. We set a timer for 5 minutes and raced to see how many textures we could find using crayon rubbings as our proof. Some of the kids found a lot of textures!
The main lesson focus was on murals because some of the prehistoric paintings are huge! We started by studying how to make murals and ended up heading downtown to see 2 outdoor murals up close and personal. We were able to get out of the car and really look at the first one, but the second didn't have a good place for us to park, so we just drove by very slowly.
We stopped to pick up art supplies.
We had dance practice. I've decided that Little Brother is just too little to participate. It was such a sweet relief to have practice without him! Everyone else worked hard and came home exhausted.
Friday--
We drew pictures for individual "murals." Creating the 1:4 or 1:5 grids was very hard. We thought we'd paint, but we considered it good just to get the sketches finished.
Preschool--
In preschool this week we made rolls, did Behold Your Little Ones lesson 3, exercised (including yoga pose "child"), and began learning to sign the alphabet--we've done "A" and "B" so far.
Little Princess--
Alphabet Fairy Art/Stories J-N.
Nature Angel--
She's reading aloud The Hundred Dresses with me.
For grammar she's working on various rules of silent "e."
For geography she's memorizing oceans and some states.
She's really loving practicing spelling with the ASL alphabet. Her eyes simply glow as as she shows off what she's learning each week.
Rose Red--
Got her permit!
Driving lesson 1 was about starting and keeping a car with a manual transmission alive. Lesson 2 was steering the van when it was chock full of our family. The kids screamed and whooped and hollered with every stop and start. I think she did well under so much pressure. She was shaking but exhilarated. :)
Her communications class was canceled due to a family emergency for the instructor--even though she studied for the exam!
In math she's been working on multiplying, dividing, and reducing fractions, and she began learning about finding the area of a circle.
She's not succeeding at her LifePac science which was some basic chemistry. We've put it on hold while we work on learning with library books and some family experiments what was not learned in that first unit.
Ladybug--
Based on her case manager's estimate, I was planning for October 30th to be her last day at school, but now her case manager is claiming she's been unable to get a date set for discharge. I got a letter asking for my attendance at a staffing meeting for November 18th, which I will happily attend, but I have no desire to keep her in school that long now that I have official permission to withdraw her.
I struggle to find the balance between being her advocate and being polite.
We are so ready to be done with bus schedules and just have her home with us each day!
Art lessons 3 and 4.
Lesson 3 was about color which we've been working on for several weeks so that we could have some in-depth experiences with color. We finished up the technical stuff about the color wheel and shared personal revelatory experiences with colors in God's creations. I was touched when Rose Red participated actively in this discussion.
Lesson 4 was about prehistoric art. We studied and mimicked the art from the Lascaux Caves (and some other sites in South Africa and Patagonia). Pixie's astute comment was, "I thought the art would be childish and easy to copy, but it's a lot more complex than I thought."
First we practiced on regular paper, but after that we drew on sandpaper to mimic a rock's surface; this was fun and challenging! (Of course the camera battery died, so I have no pictures of it!)
Tuesday--
History lessons 17-20 were all about Moses and the children of Israel. We read excerpts from Exodus, but mostly we just reviewed what we already knew about Moses because we've read Old Testament stories twice in less than a year, we recently finished reading Tirzah, and Rose Red has covered Moses in seminary this year. If I felt there were any points to be made that deepened the kids' appreciation for Heavenly Father's guiding care and extended their knowledge of the history of the time, we paused to explore those points.
 |
| This is a game in which we tried to match various Egyptian gods with the particular plague that would refute that god's power. It was challenging and engaging. |
Wednesday--
History lesson 21 was about Sargon the Great and Sumeria. The attention activity was a game that allowed us to compare leadership styles. Rose Red was not as powerful a dictator as I thought she'd be, but the point was still made that tyrants are not desirable leaders.
 |
| We were too busy during the game to stop for pictures, but Nature Angel was nice enough to pause and pose for me with her candy after the game so I'd have a reminder that we'd played. |
Art lesson 5 continued our study of prehistoric art.
First we talked about texture as an element of art. We set a timer for 5 minutes and raced to see how many textures we could find using crayon rubbings as our proof. Some of the kids found a lot of textures!
The main lesson focus was on murals because some of the prehistoric paintings are huge! We started by studying how to make murals and ended up heading downtown to see 2 outdoor murals up close and personal. We were able to get out of the car and really look at the first one, but the second didn't have a good place for us to park, so we just drove by very slowly.
 |
| The BOTs are picking up broken pieces of the mural that are in the grass. It seems to have been completed "fresco" style. |
We stopped to pick up art supplies.
We had dance practice. I've decided that Little Brother is just too little to participate. It was such a sweet relief to have practice without him! Everyone else worked hard and came home exhausted.
Friday--
We drew pictures for individual "murals." Creating the 1:4 or 1:5 grids was very hard. We thought we'd paint, but we considered it good just to get the sketches finished.
Preschool--
In preschool this week we made rolls, did Behold Your Little Ones lesson 3, exercised (including yoga pose "child"), and began learning to sign the alphabet--we've done "A" and "B" so far.
Little Princess--
Alphabet Fairy Art/Stories J-N.
Nature Angel--
She's reading aloud The Hundred Dresses with me.
For grammar she's working on various rules of silent "e."
 |
| Here she's writing words from a word bank that demonstrate a particular application of silent "e" rules. She wrote on 3 different balloons for 3 different rules. It kind of made a boring grammar lesson worth doing. :) |
She's really loving practicing spelling with the ASL alphabet. Her eyes simply glow as as she shows off what she's learning each week.
Rose Red--
Got her permit!
Driving lesson 1 was about starting and keeping a car with a manual transmission alive. Lesson 2 was steering the van when it was chock full of our family. The kids screamed and whooped and hollered with every stop and start. I think she did well under so much pressure. She was shaking but exhilarated. :)
Her communications class was canceled due to a family emergency for the instructor--even though she studied for the exam!
In math she's been working on multiplying, dividing, and reducing fractions, and she began learning about finding the area of a circle.
She's not succeeding at her LifePac science which was some basic chemistry. We've put it on hold while we work on learning with library books and some family experiments what was not learned in that first unit.
Ladybug--
Based on her case manager's estimate, I was planning for October 30th to be her last day at school, but now her case manager is claiming she's been unable to get a date set for discharge. I got a letter asking for my attendance at a staffing meeting for November 18th, which I will happily attend, but I have no desire to keep her in school that long now that I have official permission to withdraw her.
I struggle to find the balance between being her advocate and being polite.
We are so ready to be done with bus schedules and just have her home with us each day!
You are getting so much accomplished! I love that small, daily efforts really add up.
ReplyDeleteI think I tend to err a bit far on the side of being the advocate and being polite takes a back seat after a short, reasonable period of time. Ahem. Emphasis on short.
We're totally in a holding pattern waiting for this baby to make his arrival. For school the only plans are: daily scripture study, reading aloud Black Beauty, and spending time outside when the weather permits (we've had everything from 26 degrees to 76 degrees in the last two weeks, with some rain but no snow). I'm 8 days from my due date and the last 7 kids came before my due date (the last one a week before, others anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 days before. oldest was 2 weeks after my due date). I'm ready to meet this little man but not quite ready for the chaos of adjustments that come with a new baby. ;)
Oh! How exciting! I hope you're holding your newest little man as I type! And I hope that when you're up to it, you'll let me know of his safe arrival! :) I wish you well!
DeleteThese kids are remarkably advantaged! Congrats to RR! Wish I could have been with you at the foot of the mural downtown... brought tears to my eyes.
ReplyDelete