Medieval History

So we are doing a condensed version of Beautiful Feet Book's Medieval History (but I have the older teacher guide that has the younger guide section [grade 6-8] and the high school combined in it-they now sell them separately).

image from Beautiful Feet Books

Anyhoo, we're just picking and choosing the books we want to cover so we can wrap this up asap.  My teen sort of did the Medieval era a couple years ago but didn't finish it-so since she had no other history program she was working on...we decided to pull this off the shelf and do a quick wrap up of it.

We chose to just watch the A and E version (2 disks, at about 2.5 hours each) of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.  It was not too shabby.  We simply didn't have the time to read it all and we kinda touched on it prior, so it was just an intro to the study and a mini-refresher.

Then we moved right into Marco Polo (completed just yesterday) and are working through the huge The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.  I am reading this aloud (so even the 10 yr old is hearing this story) and all I ask is that she listen (and pay attention) whilst I do so.  My dd will simply narrate back a bit of it so I am sure she gets it (and believe you me...uh, this woman [Jane Porter] was long-winded in some of her sentences so it is easy to start drifting off).  Fun fact: the Braveheart movie was spawned from her book/story line.

Anyhoo-it is taking some time to read through but I must say that the way this was written only confirms my feelings about having good literature for our kids to read-it is a must.  I wish I would have marked some of the lines that just jumped out at me because they were so eloquent and lively. We were able to imagine ourselves there with the characters and could "see" what she was describing.  Most of the junk on the market is completely devoid of such things...but alas-I digress.....

Scottish Cheifs*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

It is easy with the BFB study guides to pick and choose and still walk away with a decent understanding of the era you are studying.  Even when in a pinch like we are. :)  So if you are looking for a different history program, I have always touted and will continue to do so, the Beautiful Feet Books line.  I have used them pretty much since we started homeschooling and have thoroughly enjoyed them with the kiddos.  It fits the literature/CM way to educate. The emphasis is mostly on American history but there are the Medieval and Ancient study guides too.  Lots to look at on their site-I recommend heading there to see for yourself. :) 

Before you think I am a total devotee-let me just say-I have also used Bright Ideas Press (All Am. History, which was a review item and my teen loved), and Sonlight (Eastern Hemisphere and 20th Century World).  We will be venturing into the Heart of Dakota (Creation to Christ) for my 10 yr old as soon as I order it and have a chance to go through the guide to get acquainted with it.  

It is all about using what fits our needs, the era we want to cover, and changing it up a bit to stave off boredom.  :)  

Hope this gives you some history program ideas!  Feel free to ask questions about the above curriculum (except HOD b/cuz we haven't started using it so I am new to it)....I will do my best to answer them before you make a purchase for your family :).

It's all about Emma

Emma by Jane Austen that is.  So my teen is mid-way through the book (which I love) and I have discovered some interesting things and thought I would share them with you.

Emma (Fourth Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

1. When a teen balks at a reading assignment-say because it is not an era nor anything they thought would be "interesting"-persevere.  I wasn't expecting my teen to go all Jane Austen nutty on me, but I had hoped she would at least walk away with a broader sense of what good literature is, and perhaps a wee bit of "love" for Jane's writing style.  I wouldn't back down when the initial complaints started and I very glad I didn't. [I will get back to this in a moment]

2.  Austen's writing is still touching her audience generations later.

3.  There is something to be said about well-structured sentences, and delightful circumstances in one's writing that instantly draws you into the story and the time period. [and no I do not pen my blog posts like I would if I were writing a paper, etc.]

LLATL-Gold Brit Lit*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate Link

 Our oldest daughter loves, loves Jane Austen. In fact (this may sound odd to many) but she requested all the novels for her birthday last year (and she is 23)...she also read Emma in her literature class (I used the Gold Learning Language Arts Through Literature series) which I am betting started her love for Austen's writings.  Well that and the Wishbone episode where they did Pride and Prejudice (which is adorable-I miss that show. We watched it regularly and the kids were first exposed to Austen way back then)....anyway,  my heart is overjoyed to see my children actually want and request these "antiquities" because it points out the fruit of feeding our children good literature during their school years.

I am against giving children junky, poorly written, twaddle-type books (mind you I am not talking children's books that delight, or having a few fluffy pieces here and there. I mean for their main diet in their education, I am not a super purest but I do feel care should be taken in keeping the main course to good literature).

What is alarming to me is the destructive thought of "who cares what they read, as long as they are reading" which plagues the educational realm so much today. It does matter! The decline of our nation's children in regard to the exposure and knowledge of excellent literature is alarming and has great consequences-some of which are already rearing their ugly heads (have you looked over the national test scores lately?). I am speaking generally, as there are always exceptions within the PS/PS setting. Sadly too, even some homeschool families fall victim to this thought.  But if students are [continually] reading the hastily penned books that contain nothing more than "dumbed-down" sentence structure, poor grammar, weak plots [or no plot] and so forth-then more likely, that is how they will write and express themselves. They will be devoid of the skill because they have not had a solid foundation laid for them.  Charlotte Mason has a lot to say about this very subject-and I strongly urge folks to take the time to read her thoughts, and books from others who have studied Charlotte and her methods.  Even if you choose to not incorporate much of her style into your educational plan-this is one area that you should strongly consider adopting.

image from Wikipedia.com

That said-and back to what I mentioned in #1-my dear daughter has now been drawn into the world of Miss Austen. She delights in narrating to me the happenings of Emma and has even picked up a couple lines to toss around in every day life ("Badly done Emma." is one of them. When someone does something in error she'll [or actually any of us] will throw that line out but replace Emma with their name...it is funny). The key to my post here is that she has a new appreciation for this writing and has discovered a liking for this era and for the author. What a loss it would have been if I had caved and not asked her to stretch herself to discover Austen (and even if she walks away not totally enthralled-she still has been exposed-and that is important). I don't think she'll be quite as enamored with Miss Austen as our oldest, but she definitely has a new love for her and her writing.  Actually, this daughter loves The Great Gatsby [she likes this time period better] and has requested to read other books by Fitzgerald.  That again is testimony to my point here-"feed" them great literature and you will reap a harvest of a love for the well-written word.

Emma (2009 BBC Version)*
attached to my Amazon link-
but this is spendy. Check your local library!

And for an extra boost-we have watched 3 versions of Emma now on DVD.  We have found the BBC [2009] version to be the best.  It stayed the closest to the story line, and had the most believable actors.  I love it when she can say, "Hey, that isn't in the book." or "They skipped a lot here." and so forth too.

Also-a visual way to help out:

One of the difficulties in reading the "literature of old" is the complexities of them.  Lots of characters and situations abound in Miss Austen's stories-so we decided to use the white board as a diagram station to note the different (main) characters and situations in the story line.  If you need a way to help your student figure out the plot or to just simply follow the intricate craziness of it all...this is a good visual option for you and your student.

You can see how we put Emma in the center and branched out the family members and suitors, while adding little symbols to highlight the love triangles or should I say none love triangles?  LOL.  It is definitely helping in keeping everyone straight.  The pictures are for our Renoir study.  :)


Ah yes, "Well done Emma, well done."

Cross post from my CM blog-Our little art section

So I took down the poster above the white board and taped up these 5 pics the kids have done.  These are my favorites ones from their projects so far.  I will hopefully find some white frames to really draw attention to them and also, as ya know-we have to be matching with the room decor-LOL...

Oh, the writing on the board is for my teen's study of Emma.  We have so many characters and crazy love triangles that we figured it best to plot out the story characters and some interesting facts on the board to make sense of it. :)

Left to right:  the two Renoir mixed media paintings (DD decided not to add lettering to the can), the Pointillism project my DD did a couple years ago and the two 6 step paintings the kids did with our CM co-op. 

I love how the kids art makes our room so cozy and personalized.  I love being able to look back at what they have done too.

Art project-Renoir inspired

To go along with our Renoir study, we did a Mixed Media Still-Life art project found on page 45 in the book: Discovering Great Artists.

For those of you who do not have access to this book, I will give you the directions for completing it. :)

Gather your materials:

for each artist you will need-

*cardboard or matte board 

(size up to you-I used the cardboard backings from some

yellow note pad pages-those were pretty good-altho, having something

 slightly thicker would have been best-

but look at those cardboard backings under

your paper pads-good way to recycle them!)

*white tempera paint (I found white poster paint and it worked)

*painters tape 

(get FROGTAPE by Shurtape (green), if you can-it works better than

the blue painters tape-I found mine at Home Depot which seemed

to be the cheapest I could find. It was about $4 which is the same price
 as the blue tape. THIS IS THE BEST tape for painting-

it does not leave those little boo-boos like 

the blue will-let me tell ya...

and yes, we have used both-will not use blue again)

*pencil/eraser (altho try to not erase if possible)

*paint brushes, water container 

*water colors

*real or fake flowers/twigs/etc. for your still life 

(be creative-look around your home for fun things to use)

*type of vase

(again be creative-I used a tea pot and a container for coffee)

Process:

1.  Tape the cardboard to something-painter's board, drawing board, etc. I used two pieces of white board. I had extra from when we cut down the large piece we bought/used for the classroom. Maybe even a clipboard will work-anything to secure it to so the cardboard doesn't slip.  Yes, you can just place on protective cover/paper, paint it and then just do this, but I find that you'll get a better result when the paper/board is secured to something larger and hopefully, waterproof or not so absorbent as the paper. 

2. I like to create about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch trim-depending on how big your project is.  Will this show when I frame it? Probably not on this one because it is an ugly brown cardboard, so I will try to cover it with a matte...but with a white board/paper it looks very pretty when you have an edging.

3.  Paint the cardboard white (tempera/poster paint).  I did this twice to be sure the cardboard was covered nicely.  The poster paint may not have given us the result the lesson wanted (for it to bleed with the watercolors) but I wasn't about to drive to the mall area to just buy one bottle of paint...so we used what the local Meijer store had and it was just fine.  Let dry before you begin the drawing/watercolor part.

4.  Set up your arrangement, and have student lightly sketch the image.

The boy was more focused on creating a background, and I think that jetting out image on the right side is a window sill, I think. :)  This just goes to show how everyone sees/does things a bit differently. :)

5.  Use a light color to wash color into the background coming close to the image.

6. Use watercolors and paint-try to let it bleed/blend together.

  

7.  When dry, have the artist sign their name and frame it.  

The teen still needs to put the writing on, but we had to let it dry first and then she had to leave to babysit, so once I have these framed, I will post them (and obviously, there will be their signatures and the writing on the can in this picture).

And there you have a Renoir inspired art project-and hey-you don't need to be studying him to do this.  It is just a great, fairly easy project to do with your kids.