This semester, I decided to better organize the work we keep from school. I liked the previous idea of large scrapbooks, but the "presentation" was too random and messy and the books wouldn't hold up. I looked for other options and didn't find any that weren't too expensive. So on to plain white notebooks and I have to say the result is so much better. Sometimes obvious things take awhile with me.
Our first two weeks back were just basic schoolwork and taking care of basic life. But finally we got to a subject I've wanted to do for awhile, The West!! A book a lot of people were reading was
Cowboy Charlie about Charlie Russell, the famous western painter and his life. We thought he was pretty cool. The kids weren't super interested in the art, but did love how he left his family at 15 to purse being a cowboy and succeeded. Above, we learned about Montana and did a basic chart of his month long trip from his hometown of St. Louis to the capital of Helena.
We take any excuse to use a map around here. We refer to maps constantly whether it's through school, general conversation, or current events. We have a world map framed on the wall with gold stars on the countries we've learned about. We pull out the U.S. map, we have small maps, road maps, and 2 kids' atlases. I'm directionally challenged and also feel like I didn't quite have a great grasp on the world map as a kid. I knew all the basics, but I'd like the kids to really have a culture and feeling attached to each country they see on a map. I'd actually rather the kids not memorize the states through a song without any meaning attached. At some point it might be necessary since we can't get to everything individually. Also I know many adults who have no clue where major countries are or even states in our own country, so we try to make it really important.
We looked up Montana's state bird and they copied the coloring on their own sheets.
They wrote simple "reviews" of 3 different works by Russell. We talked about how the people in the paintings might be feeling and what they were doing exactly. What was the time of day? How did Russell show expression and movement?
Since Russell focused on horses quite a bit, we looked at step-by-step directions on how to draw a horse. This was the first time the girls tried to follow such a thing. At first they were drawing very general copies of the lines given and it wasn't turning out great. Then they realized they had to be more specific and detailed. I think the final results were pretty cute. Chloe couldn't let the picture go without a few flowers to pretty up the scene.
One night driving home from a gig several months ago, I listened to a radio show that had a guest on speaking about hats. He talked for awhile about the invention/evolution of the cowboy hat and I thought it was so interesting. I guess we take the form and function of things for granted and forget every part serves a purpose. So the kids and I talked about what "function" means and discussed a few things we saw in our house. Then I had them guess the function of different parts of the cowboy hat, several of which they got right. We made a diagram of what we learned.
Somewhere I had a cowpoke math sheet that was at Hannah's level.
We learned about 2 infamous people of the "west" : Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill. I completely did not time this subject matter with my own performances, but it managed to line up again. I recently played
Annie, Get Your Gun with Lyric Stage. I listened to several versions of the songs online for reference, and the kids fell in love with them- My favorite is "The Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night" and theirs was definitely "Anything You Can Do I can Do Better." They laughed every time. Once we read about the real Annie Oakley, we discovered she was a fascinating character!! And since she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, we learned a little about him, too. The girls were asked to recall what we learned and write a few sentences about each.
We had fun talking about what an outlaw was and watching a few clips of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam in a saloon. The kids cracked up and I longed for them to have the same Saturday morning cartoons I grew up with. Such amazing music and illustrators- of course I had to explain the gambling, smoking, drinking, and shooting people in the face with pistols. No, I wasn't wise enough to watch it first, thinking my old cartoons were harmless. Well, they sure seemed like it back then and probably still do to my kids since they aren't exposed to the news and all, so we had a good time.
We also read a few books about the jobs of cowboys. I really wanted to cook an authentic cowboy meal and teach them to lasso, but we just didn't have the time for everything.
Last and let's face it, pretty much least, came our main art project. Sometimes I direct the kids a little too much, so this time I went all the way in the other direction. They received a source photo of a kid's art project- a round setting sun with cacti silhouettes. I put out paper, paints, scissors, glue, the works and told them to go about recreating it any way they saw fit. I was interested to see what they would do. No one copied one another or was even too interested in their neighbor's work. They all three chose black paper and hastily painted the scene. I had to step in and point out- a cactus has a unique shape, let's try to follow that.. The result was alright, but I had expected a little more attention to detail. Oh well! I'm sure their little brains learned things in the process my mom brain missed.
Chloe is still working on her art badge. We've really neglected those lately. She had to learn about texture, so we got out some drying modeling clay and I gave them basic tools to make some texture happen. They also collected a few things around the house and were happy to work at that for awhile.
Keeping Mr. Colin occupied is always a bit of a challenge. Mom gave us some beanbags recently, so I set out several letters and had him toss a beanbag onto the ones I called out.
I folded up tiny slips of paper with a number written on each. He had to unfold the paper and put the right number of marbles in hole. He liked this, too. Math and fine motor skills!!
I did have a conference with his teachers and they said he's doing great. He's really well-adjusted in class and follows directions. They said he could work on his scissor cutting because it was painful to watch him! Haha- they really meant that he was cutting decently but made it look very laborious. That sounds about right for most things he does. : ) He likes to make things seem extremely hard and taxing even when he's having a great time. In the meantime, he wins for being the best at holding deep conversations and he'll always be the most affectionate in this house.
Every afternoon, the kids get antsy. They beg for the ipad, movies, and get bored with their toys easily. I personally prefer they spend a little quiet time reading and not making even more messes for awhile so I can get some things done. So I decided to call that time "Special Interest Time." We go to the library each week and head to the Non-Fiction section. They choose any topic in the world they'd like to know more about and choose the books themselves. Most afternoons I announce it's Special Interest Time, and they are perfectly pleased. There's self-directed learning for you! I've been really impressed with their topics. I told them to stay away from princesses so that helped. They've chosen things like "Holidays Around the World" and Chloe told me all about The Day of the Dead in Mexico. They've chosen "Construction," "Sea Creatures," and "Castles." Even Colin chooses a topic and enjoys looking through the books. I think they feel a sense of ownership. One week Hannah chose "Doctors" and even though she is extremely squeamish when discussing hospitals or doctor's offices, she read through quite a lot of material and decided to make her own First-Aid kit from instructions she found. Chloe made her own, too. : )
When you aren't in a school building or riding a bus home, you can do things like take time out to go purchase a car! The kids talked with the salespeople and were driven around in a golf cart. They even delivered brownies with Dax after the deals were done.
Now we are the Middle Ages and having a good time with that. They also have a couple of fun field trips coming up.
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