Homemade History - Week 1

Because I'm excited about our homemade history program this year, I really want to share it with you. I've gotten feedback from my kids, and they're happy with it so far. To be fair, we're only one week in, but I hope it's a plan that will stick.

Week 1 Topic: Prehistory

Monday and Tuesday: Reading and notes. I pulled readings from the Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 6-13), Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (pp. viii-7), and Usborne World History (pp. 10-82).  I also requested a couple of library books.  I did not require the kids to read all of this (most of the time we will have far fewer reading options with far fewer pages, but I started off with a big chunk o' history, so there were a lot of choices).  We spent these days discussing interesting tidbits from the books that the kids did read.  I wanted to give them a wide range of reading choices so they didn't feel stuck with something they considered drudgery.  M1 really liked the Usborne book; M2 preferred the library books that we picked up on Wednesday.  Perfect.

Tuesday: After we finished our reading and discussion, we looked at the world map from Map Trek and labeled continents, oceans, and a few other notable landforms and bodies of water.

Wednesday: We picked up our library books on Wednesday.  We also took a look into History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations - we briefly discussed the progression of ancient civilizations that we'll study this year and compared the length of each empire/dynasty to time in general, specifically prehistory and the millions and millions of years before humankind even walked the earth. We visited ChronoZoom and National Geographic and watched several videos about dinosaurs, pre-human earth, etc.

Thursday: The kids defined a few words (archaeology, nomad, artifact, evolution), and M1 also answered the question, "Why should we study history?" We also talked about what each child wanted to learn in history this year. I loved their answers. Technology Boy Loves Technology. Now I know even more how to cater to him. M2 is easy - she just wants to learn more about mythology!

Friday: Project day! I let the kids pick what sort of project they wanted to do, and true to form, M1 picked a mystery and M2 picked an art project.

M1 read about the Ice Man Otzi, compared hypotheses of his death, and formulated his own theory about how the mummy came to exist on the mountain. Then he read the link above and compared his theory to the facts known today.  (He was really proud that he deduced that the cause of death was the arrow.)

M2 wanted to do cave art, a la Cueva de los Manos.

I wanted her to add more color/handprints, but she was simply appalled at how dirty/painted her hands got just doing this much.  So we stopped.  I think it would be fun to add other hands to the piece and see if we can really get it going, but we'll see.  It's her project, and if she's happy, I'm happy.

First week of school is over and done.  What a ride! Now M1 and Oz are off on a weekend jaunt to tour a couple of caves, and the girl and I are going to get some boy-free time. Hope everyone stays cool and has a lovely weekend!

The First Day Back

So today was - IS - the first day of our 2013-2014 school year.  It seems surreal.  It feels like we've taken almost no time off at all, and yet it feels like forever ago that we launched rockets and ended our school year back in May.  It's a strange dichotomy.

The kids were both prepared and unprepared for today.   M1 fussed for a while about the amount of writing that was going to be expected of him this year (never mind the fact that it's still nowhere near the amount of writing that would happen in a public school setting and the fact that he was doing nearly this amount in May), but he's also looking forward to some of our history activities and science experiments.  M2 was very grateful for the math review, even though it frustrated her that she'd forgotten things, but she's excited about the history and science projects, too, with a major jones for the timelines that I hung this morning.

For our optional subject today, we tackled art.  This has been a subject I've struggled with over the last few years for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I have no artistic ability or history whatsoever, so I'm flying blind.  Secondly, I think I've been barking up the wrong tree curriculum-wise.  I tried using Artistic Pursuits, but nothing was sticking, I suspect in large part because while Artistic Pursuits features excellent images and great information about various artists, the projects simply don't match!  A project about African textiles doesn't really work with information about an Italian renaissance painter, does it?

Anyway, now that we're using Discovering Great Artists (giant thanks sent to my friend Kim who introduced me to this book!), I decided to take it easy.  Our first project?  Making art cookies.

First I made egg yolk paint.  The kids loved picking out their desired paint colors, and I enjoyed trying to make them.  In the end, we had red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and a purplish-brown.  Then I realized we didn't have time to actually make cookies, so we had to run to the grocery store to pick up a tube of the ready-made stuff.

Homeschooling - it's all about the improv.

While the kids painted, we discussed art that they already knew about.  They surprised me with the knowledge of artists, works, and styles that they've somehow picked up... from somewhere... or someone.  I dunno.  M1 painted himself a rough Mona Lisa and incorporated cubism into his version of a tree.  M2 painted a happy face - pop art! - as well as some abstract cookies and an Impressionist rainbow.

The best part?  Cookies.  We ate them.  And with that, the first day of the school year came to a successful end.  Only 179 more days till summer!

Rangoli

I got up yesterday morning painfully aware that our Christmas break is coming to an end.  Oz went back to work, and I realized that while I've really enjoyed our time off, the natives are getting restless and it's time to get back into our routine.  (I'd honestly enjoy getting back into the routine more if it was more staggered, and we didn't have everything starting back at the same time, but c'est la vie!)

While the kids were running through their morning routines, I asked them if they had anything they really wanted to do before the break was over expecting to hear that they wanted to go to the zoo or have a tea party or camp in the back yard/game room.  And M1 did say that he wished it was warmer so that he could enjoy more time outside.  M2's answer, though, surprised me.

"I want to make a mural!" she announced.

Well, all righty then.

I've had a roll of banner paper forever.  M1 and I used it to make an ongoing timeline for history, but there was plenty of paper left over, and it's been sitting in the school room closet unused for a while.  M2 had noticed it and decided it needed a bigger purpose in life.  She hauled it down, and we unrolled it and cut off a length of paper that she wanted.

"What sort of mural are you going to make?" I asked.

"I think...," she paused before going on.  "I think I'm going to make a rangoli."

I nodded, but M1 was confused.  "What's rangoli?"

M2 was quite exasperated.  "YOU know, rangoli.  Like from the book that I get at the library a lot."

Romina's Rangoli by Malathi Michelle Iyengar

It's true.  M2 has checked out that book a few times now, and she really likes the story.  I can't say I'm surprised, since it's about a little girl who struggles with her art, but I'm glad she's been inspired.  We talked a little bit about what rangoli was, and M2 disappeared up to her room to work.  I snuck up behind her a few minutes later to check in...

She was a busy little bee.  She stopped and started the process several times throughout the morning before coming to get me right before lunch.

"Want to take a picture of it?" she wanted to know.

Of course I did!

Her rangoli now adorns part of her wall.  I'm not entirely sure what it's meant to be and haven't asked, but she's proud of it.  And if my girl can actually finish an art project and not hate it, that's good enough for me.

Teaching Something You're Not Good At

I am not an artist.  I'm not crafty, I'm not creative, I'm not artistic in the least.  My idea of artistic is finding something at the store that happens to match something else that I already have and putting them together.  Tada!  Once in a while I will do a cross-stitch project, but it's not a project *I* invent or design; I do what the pattern says and have done with it.

So teaching art isn't my thing.  Different mediums, different techniques, different periods in art - all of that is like a foreign language to me... and yet I want the kids to be able to appreciate these things.  I want to expose them to art in all its forms.  I want to teach art.  I'm just not good at it or knowledgeable enough about it to teach it with any degree of confidence.

That's where the books step in.

This is our second year using the Artistic Pursuits series.  Last year I used Book One in their K-3 series; this year we're using Book Two.  This means that M1 is theoretically doing stuff a year behind where he should be and M2 is right on track, but really, these books seem to be designed for the entire age group.  I've never had a single complaint about something being too easy or too hard (though Little Miss Perfectionist sometimes gets her panties in a wad because she thinks she's messed up a project... more on that in a minute).

Most of the time I can figure out what we're doing with very little effort, and I can explain projects easily.  This week, though, we were doing something that I had never even considered doing before.  We made prints.

Water-soluble ink on wax paper that's been taped to the counter

 I've toured a screen-printing shop once, years ago, and I used to work at the newspaper, where the presses ran for hours each day, and yet it had never occurred to me that I could transfer those techniques to anything I could do at home.

Roll the ink out with a tool called a brayer until it covers the area you want 

The kids, though, thought this was one of the best projects we've ever done.  I didn't hear one peep of frustration.  They were enthusiastic and really, really enjoyed the entire process.

Use a pointed tool to etch an image into the ink - we used skewers

Don't forget that the final print will be a mirror image, so don't write words! 

Press the paper firmly over the ink, making sure to rub every square inch 

The best part for me was that clean-up was a breeze.

Click on the images to enlarge

The end products weren't quite as good as the kids had hoped, but they were still enthusiastic and plan to make more monoprints later.

The fact that M2 was able to be somewhat disappointed in her final product and let it go is huge.  She really gets upset when things don't turn out the way she had planned. Thankfully, when we were on vacation in Kansas City last month, we got her a book that seems to have helped alleviate some of that anxiety.  It's called Make Art Mistakes.  When she looks through it, she realizes that mistakes in art aren't always mistakes.  You can still do something with those pages.  They aren't trash because one little dot was placed in the wrong spot.  They are still art.  Letting go of preconceived notions about art has been very liberating for my little girl.  M1 doesn't care - to him, art is fun.  He enjoys the projects, happily picks out his favorite paintings at museums, sometimes sketches random diagrams of things he wants to make, but really... not his thing.  M2, however, perceives herself as a rising artist and sometimes thinks that her pieces should look like they're on an adult level at the ripe old age of 7.  I'm very glad she's realizing that nobody is perfect and that she is doing just fine for her age.  As she gets older, I'd like to get her this Daily Creativity Journal so she has even more ideas.

I may not be good at art.  I may never be able to instantly tell the difference between a Monet and a Rembrandt.  But if I can have my kids love it, then I must be doing something right!

The Presentation of Art

Art.  M2 loves it.  M1 tolerates it.  But both of them despise the idea of 'sculpting.'  If I ask them to sculpt something, I can guarantee that there will be tears.  I have no idea why.

Today, though, I learned that at least for my kids, there is a major difference between 'sculpting' and 'carving.'

Carving isn't nearly as scary.

M2 took to it right away.  She was thrilled to sculpt carve a face.

Her favorite parts were the eyes and lips.  She even spent a good 15 minutes making sure that the face was going to be the right shape - oval, not round or square.

M1, who is desperately looking forward to Halloween, decided to create a pumpkin.

They decided on their own tools, too.  M2 chose a kitchen knife so she could create bigger indentions and not worry about her tools breaking.

M1 was perfectly content with a plastic knife.  They really worked hard on their ... carvings.  I was even more impressed when they stuck around afterward to clean up their mess.

And look, Ma!  No tears!  M2 was very proud of her face in the end,

and M1 was very proud of his pumpkin.  (They would also like you to know that these are three-dimensional shapes and that on the back of the pumpkin it says, "BOO!" and the back of the face will have hair when it's dried and painted.)

Apparently art is all about presentation.  Renaming is a powerful tool.