Belated NOT Back-to-School Post

During August and early September, a lot of homeschool bloggers participate in NOT Back-to-School Blog Carnivals where they showcase their school rooms, their curriculum, photos of the kids and share favorite school supplies.  In early August we were in the Blue Ridge, and then we came home to a week of laundry, shopping and packing before sending off #1 Son to GMU (on my birthday – which was NOT a good gift).  After a quiet weekend recovering from all of the hectic getting ready, we opened the books and got started.

But we are excited about our new year, so I’ll share just a bit here.

We have moved up to the next Sonlight Core – World History Ancient to Medieval, and already love our books!  Although we are former Latin drop-outs, hope springs eternal, so we are starting again.  This time to make it more fun, Ralph and I are in class too!  (Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant)

Grace loves Life of Fred, so we continue with this uniquely compelling way to study math, along with the more traditional Horizon. Andrew Pudewa of Institute for Excellence in Writing is our hero!  We had the opportunity to sit in on several of his workshops at the Home Educators of Virginia (HEAV)  Convention, which in addition to being quite humorous, were also amazingly practical, and Grace is already comfortable yet challenged with IEW’s Biblical Writing Course for composition.  We do a little grammar and mechanics each week with the Sonlight Language Arts, and occasionally use their creative writing prompts.  I’m trying a Dictation-based spelling program this year.  GraceNotes spells beautifully “bee style” but has occasional flubs when she’s in composition mode.  The dictation approach (never a list – always used in sentence and paragraph form) helps with that.

We are gazing skyward for science with Apologia Astronomy, with an overview of Biology, Chemistry and Physics to follow.  To satisfy my love of Charlotte Mason philosophy, we are adding in hymn study, architecture study (pyramids and columns and arches and domes and castles), art study (hieroglyph, cuneiform, Hebrew, Arabic, pottery, mosaic, fresco, tapestry and illumination), and weekly nature study.  We are writing a classic prayer and a favorite poem in our journals each week, as well as composing a poem each week.

To satisfy my inner traveler, we are continuing the map work we fell in love with last year with Map Trek by Knowledge Quest.  PE for the fall will be bike riding, swimming at the rec center,  and maybe some Frisbee! Grace will continue with piano lessons, and goes to co-op for studio art and musical theatre.

As you see, we have been back to school.  We have finished our second week actually.  But for GraceNotes, who after all started out in brick-and-mortar schools, it isn’t really back-to-school until she’s been to her first class of the year at our co-op Homeschool Plus.  So today, was a “belated” back-to-school day with a photo and a new outfit!

Ready for another year of homeschool!

#1 Son meanwhile is having a blast (studying hard and responsibly) at GMU!  He has eaten sushi (on the dining plan), and watched football, and practiced with the Ultimate Frisbee Team, joined Underwater Hockey (who knew?) and gone to some meetings for a mission trip to Honduras.  Somewhere in there, he might go to class!

A Gallery of Studio Art

GraceNotes takes a Studio Art class at Home School Plus, a co-op in Norfolk.  Surrounded by other students,  in a room filled with paints, pastels, charcoal, tempura, chisels, brushes, colored pencils, and the art work of past and present students and masters, she works for an hour each Thursday on a project inspired by a period of art, a style of art, or an artist – and a Scripture.  It is an oasis of creativity.  Walking in the door the smell of paint, the riot of color, in contrast to the extraordinary calm exuded by the art teacher establishes a wonderful atmosphere for making art.

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Class begins with prayer; the students pray with and for each other and their families.   Projects may take one class period, or several weeks, depending on the medium in which they are working.  Over the course of the year, GN sketches, paints, carves and creates using charcoal, sometimes using found materials like duct tape, torn paper, old music, sand and rocks, even chicken feet.  (I didn’t post that picture…)  She tells me that she is much more confident using the various tools and working with the various media this year.  Now if only they offered a class for moms!

Home School Plus is a Christian co-op in Norfolk, VA.  Click here for the website.  There are a few summer enrichment classes scheduled through June, and the full schedule starts up again in September.  Studio Art classes are offered in the morning and afternoon on both Tuesday or Thursday! 

Getting Out

One of my goals when I started homeschooling Grace was to spend at least one afternoon a week on a field trip.  We live in an area rich with resources and seldom take advantage of them.   As a youth, my family lived in Fairfax County, a relatively short drive from our nation’s capital city, and I have wonderful memories of family trips to the Smithsonian, the monuments, the bike trail along the Potomac, and the many wonderful parks.

Despite the initial enthusiasm, it is all too easy, to get bogged down in the academic routine, and with Ian’s afternoon medical appointments (two a week for a while), and my over-committed volunteer schedule, the weekly field trip goal fell by the wayside, over and over.   On Monday, as I flipped my planning calendar to April and reviewed my goals for March, this one was again unmet.  With a sigh, I moved it forward onto April, and then determined it would be different!

In my life this week…

Ah…a week without deadlines!  Nothing to do but homeschool, CLEAN, and think about getting back to blogging!

In our homeschool this week…

We are learning about late 19th century – early 20th century immigration;  reviewing fractions, decimals and ratios;  writing three point paragraphs and thank-you notes (now if I can just remember to get them in the mail);  learning about the food shortages occurring all over the world; and starting a chapter on cartilaginous sea creatures – sharks and rays!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We were excited to get out this week and visit the Life of Christ Exhibit of watercolors by  James Tissot at the Chrysler Museum of Art on Wednesday.  Perfect for Lent, because this well designed exhibit of Tissot’s beautifully detailed watercolors truly carry one through the Life of Christ, from the annunciation, the birth of Christ, the childhood of Christ, the baptism of Christ, the teachings of Christ and finally the Passion of Christ.  We visited just the first gallery of the exhibit, which focused on Christ’s birth and childhood, and the calling of the disciples.  Next week we will move a little further into the exhibit, the next week a little further until by Holy Week we will be looking at the Passion works.  We also slipped upstairs to see Grace’s favorite painting which is the gigantic Thomas Cole (American, Hudson River School) oil painting of “The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds.”   This painting was used as the inspiration piece for Grace’s Christmas artwork by her Studio Art teacher at HomeSchool Plus.  I sat on the bench taking in the immense work while she explained to me the significance of the poses of the three shepherds to whom the angel appears, the contrast of light and dark… Wow.

Friday, after working very hard to get caught up on our grammar, we visited the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.  We had visited earlier this year on a Saturday when studying pinnipeds (seals, sea-lions, walruses).  It was so crowded, that it was hard to really take it in.  It was much better on a Friday afternoon!  We focused just on the Shark and Ray section, and plan to go back in a few weeks for crustaceans and coral.

My favorite thing this week was…

Getting out!  It breathes fresh new life into study!

A photo, video, link or quote to share…

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
 Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

I have links embedded in the post above.  And here are a few photos (taken with my phone – so the quality is iffy)…

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Homeschool Plus Open House

A recurring bit of advice for new homeschool moms is to look into homeschool support and co-ops.  In addition to giving parents a break, a homeschool co-op enables children to experience different teaching styles, make friends, and learn something that perhaps mom can’t or doesn’t want to teach.  We are fortunate to have the Homeschool Plus Co-op in Norfolk.  The class schedule at Homeschool Plus is deep and wide, offering academic as well as visual and performing arts for elementary through high school ages.  Knowing that I wanted to cover the academics for at least a year to get a better grasp on Grace’s strengths and weaknesses, we looked at the schedule for enrichment opportunities.

Grace, like her Grandma Honey, and Papa Garner loves art!  As a child, she would draw, and draw and draw.  If she was happy, she would draw.  If she was sad, she would draw.  If she was mad, she would draw.  (Mom often didn’t look too good in the mad drawings…) If she was penitent, she would draw. 

I love art, and enjoy my layout and design freelance opportunities, but Grace and I sometimes disagree on creative efforts.  It seemed to me that perhaps a professional would know better how to handle Grace’s creative choices and expression. So, once a week Grace goes to Homeschool Plus for a Studio Art class taught by an enthusiastic teacher with a real art degree!  We are also grateful that Ms. Sawyer shares her love of God and His creation through her teaching and assignments.  Grace has done some wonderful work in this class and we are quite proud of her!  Here is her Christmas piece – note that the angels have formed a rock band called “God Rules.”

In the category of what mom “can’t teach,” would be any form of dancing.  However, the choice of Worship Dance on the schedule right after Studio Art made us curious!  After checking out the class, we decided to give it a try.  Grace enjoys the class very much.  Her first homework was to choreograph a verse from the Bible, and she chose the first 3 verses of Psalm 103!  (It was lovely!) Also, being Grace, she loved the flowy outfit!  Thanks to K-Love ,Grace knows quite a few praise and worship songs, so imagine our excitement when she mentioned that her group would be performing an interpretive dance to “The Lost Get Found” by Britt Nicole at the Homeschool Plus Open House in November.  Find the text to this song here.  Grace’s group, which incorporated girls of different ages, and levels of dance experience (Grace with none!) convincingly and beautifully conveyed the text.  A group of older girls performed a more complicated dance with moves requiring attention to timing and group awareness.  It was extraordinarily compelling.  All of the Worship Dance offerings were very moving and very worshipful. My hands were not the only ones searching for a tissue in handbags or coat pockets!