Years ago I taught a homeschooling art class. I did crafts with the little ones; art history and intro to “real” media with the older ones. In prepping for the class, I went online and looked up art history. Made a list of the “greats” and found free images to print off of their most famous works. I then glued them to card stock and contact papered them. In my folder I made a timeline and divided the artists accordingly.
So, yesterday I decided my kiddos needed exposure to the real stuff. I pulled out my Van Gogh card, let them hold it and look at it, talked about where he painted some of his most famous paintings, looked at the brush strokes, talked about oil paintings, and then I went to my trusty map and drew out an Eiffel Tower, secretly stuck it to Paris – for them to hunt for, and then looked up the Eiffel Tower site online (awesome kid games, by the way). We read Madeline and looked for the Eiffel Tower in the pictures. Discussed their names and talked with terrible awesome French accents. Madeline led to a discussion of what scars were and what an appendix was. We talked about surgery and all things medical. We talked about why the other little girls were sad and wanted to have their own surgeries. We talked about being thankful and not wanting what others have or appear to have.
We had a great school day, I felt good about what I’m doing again, and hey, my kids learned something!
What a great reminder that God will not only lead us, but strengthen and enable us, to continue in this calling. I, too, freak out quite often. Yet, even the thought of my boys going to a school (public or private) flips me out even worse!! I have to stay the course, and I know that the Lord is faithful.
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I think everyone shares those moments. Thanks for reminding us to stay focused.
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What fun! We climbed to the top of the Eiffel tower this spring with our boys! That was fun!! We also visited the Louvre. Check out their website for the Mona Lisa – they have a FABULOUS interactive activity about the Mona Lisa! You can look at the front and the back in detail through a magnifying glass. My boys spent hours studying that one painting and then they got to go and see if for real! They were soooo excited and told the curator all about it! LOL! He was duely impressed – and so he should be! There arent’ many 8 and 6 year olds who are so up on the Mona Lisa!
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Sometimes those spontaneous days produce the best learning of all! It sounds like you have some great ideas up your sleeve~ I wish I would have been at your house for that learning adventure!
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My freak out days come everyweek. My poor husband. How does he survive it.
Great post.
Take care,
Amy
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I love days like that.
I like what you labeled it… “Homeschooling Freak Out” – too funny.
I love your art card idea. Beats having to spend a million bucks buying art books… but then… that is one thing we do when we go to the book store… sit on the floor or chairs and look through art books.
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I think you’ve coined a new phrase, “homeschooling freak out.”
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I am very familiar with the dreaded Homeschooling Freak Out! Fortunately, the frequency decreases in proportion to the number of years homeschooling– at least for me it has.
I think when we struggle the most, God loves us enough to give us a really great day as encouragement and a reminder of what’s important.
By the way, we had one of those awesome days yesterday!
Thanks for the great post!
Marsha
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That sounds like such a fun day you had!! I love days when learning goes like that!!
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I think that any school day where you sit and learn with the kids and talk and chat and relate, is a perfect school day, for sure!
Thanks for the encouragement!
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I can relate….I go through this. I just posted something on my blog about this just the other day. Thanks for sharing.
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