Jocelyn's blog
Aug. 5, 2008
Who Owns the Sun? FIAR Volume One
Posted in Five in a Row
 If you have never encountered this book, I would say that you have missed something special. It is not my favourite Five in a Row book (FIAR) but it is certainly amongst my top ones. The story starts with a child, we find out later that it is a boy, asking his father who owns the sun, the stars, the flowers and so on. The pictures are stunning and the explanations given as reasonably good. The freedom of these natural wonders is there for all to see - no man can hold them captive. Although no man owns such things in creation, as a Christian, I would say that God does "own" these things. That would probably be the only difference I would have with the author. That "no man holds the works of creation captive" is the argument that is slowly built up, page by page, as this young son tries to make sense of his world. The trust, respect and love he has for his father shows through deeply as well. The book then shifts slightly, for the young reader. Older readers will pick where this supposed "aside" is going... The story then centres on the father, Big Jim and his work in the fields, the pride his son has of his father's reputation and finally, the betrayal and humiliation that is felt as this son realises that his father, and therefore, he, is a slave on a plantation, supposedly "owned" by a man. The father, somewhat bowed, is also courageous as he speaks to his son of the inner man that still is captive to no one. These truths are told simply and yet profoundly through the rich pages of this picture book. Whether you use the Five in a Row program or not, I would heartily recommend reading this book with your children and talking through the issues it raises about captivity, freedom and the spiritual side of our existence. |
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Aug. 5, 2008
Fiar in general
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I guess I haven't posted anything in the Five in a Row section for a while because we haven't had any magnificent art work to put on show. FIAR has taken a bit of a back seat this year but we have still been doing things quietly in the background. For instance, we read Make Way for Ducklings in preparation for going to Boston and did see some of the streets and landmarks of that book as we toured the city in May. I even took Maybelle the Cable Car by Virginia Burton so we could go through that while in San Francisco. Yes, it isn't officially a part of the program but you can use many of the ideas with any picture book once you get used to it. We bought another copy of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel with an audio CD and listened to that in the car with Mark as we travelled into the industrial north of the USA. That didn't mean much to him but we do read this book a few times in the one year and always seem to get more out of it. I think Andrew preferred not having the man reading the story or maybe it was just in the confines of the car??? We read The Hatmaker's Sign soon after we got back from our trip and that was great because we had been to Philadelphia and Boston so it made more sense to the boys with that context in the background. Adam appreciated the humour of this book and even Mark caught on to the diminishing sign as the story unfolded... I also thought it would be good to do Who Made the Sun? soon after we got back as we had talked about slavery and the Civil War, visiting Gettysburg in April. I will put up a separate review of that book after I post this. So, we are not doing a FIAR book every week and we are picking and choosing our way through books from volumes 1,2 and 4. This time is mainly for Adam & Mark and is about appreciating a good story. We just seem to have too many things on in the afternoon to allow the extra time for the art work. Each picture takes a couple of days and I guess it's all or nothing. I might try to build some of this time in as the days get warmer and we scale back on outside commitments. |
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Nov. 27, 2007
Papa Piccolo - Five in a Row
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As promised, here are the pictures from Papa Piccolo. It's taken us three weeks to get through this book as we have had a few things on and now, gastro in the house! These drawings were finished late last week. We took two days to do the pictures. The first day we concentrated on getting the shape and proportion of the figures right. The second stab was to do all of the detail in the coat, put in the colour and the finishing touches. Each part took about an hour. Even though it is extra work at the time, I think that we all do a better drawing that way. Zac said at the end of the first day, "I'll never be a good artist, Mum!" I thought he had picked one of the more difficult pictures and was doing well with it. I reminded him that the last bit of effort would produce the result, he just had to stick with it until the end! That extra bit of work has made his drawing come alive and I love it. I hope you like these pictures too. If you do, please leave us a message - I know it will encourage the boys. My picture Stephen's Piccolo One of the kittens - Marco or Polo?? Adam's kitten We also loved reading the book and learning all about Venice. There's great pictures throughout and the front and back end papers have interesting information about the city too. Next time, I'm going to get Vendela in Venice from the library all lined up to go at the same time as it's a great children's book on Venice as well. |
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Nov. 12, 2007
Our Five-in-a-Row World Map
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I know some of you are interested in our Five-in-a-Row (FIAR) studies. We took a break from this for a month and spent a bit longer on History. I have promised to put up our map of the world, so here it is: At the time of the photo, we had done 20 books. Each round disk represents a story that we have read this year. The rectangular ones are about animals of the world that we have looked at. This map is laminated and is at the end of our hallway. The first day that we read a new book, Adam has to go down to the map and place the disk on the story's location. For some, like How to Make Apple Pie and See the World, there were various choices. We decided to do Sri Lanka from that story as it wasn't going to be a popular location in other books! Others like The Story of Ping, tell you that the location is the Yangtze River, so it has to go on China. It's a fun thing to do and is teaching all of the boys how to find different parts of the world. Often the older boys will help Adam if he gets stuck and their general knowledge is quite good. We have started Papa Piccolo this week. Adam had to find Italy and then Venice. We might have another entry on that book a bit later! |
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Aug. 29, 2007
The Gullywasher
Posted in Five in a Row
 Normally, these books are meant to be read in a week and the projects/ art work/ lessons are done in that time. Partly because I was getting tired a couple of weeks ago but also due to other distractions, we only finished the art work for this last week. The Gullywasher is a lovely story about growing old and is told in a humourous way. A "gullywasher" is a huge, torrential storm. The boys liked the craziness of the Grandpa and the lovely drawings. I'm not a watercolourist (though I appreciate watercolours) so we did our pictures using watercolour pencils. I like having more control and a pencil will give that to you more than a brush. As The Gullywasher was done in watercolours, I reluctantly submitted and we gave it a go. Here's mine: Green stick trees were mentioned in the book and there were a few on one of the pages. We all decided to do landscape scenes and leave the people out. Stephen wanted to use pastels. I had them on hand as well for either using on their own or with the watercolour. I was half tempted to use them myself...This scene captures the "gullywasher" coming. Zac's picture took a while to finish. After the first session, he had done the shadowed part of the old building. The brick/tower part on the end and the shading on the ground were done last week. It doesn't look like it, but this picture actually took him a long time. He has at least 8 colours in the shadowed sections and had more intricate work to do than the others. In the book, there's a lady grinding up some meal and chillies hanging on the side of the brick tower. I let Zac finish before putting in a few others details like pots and chillies as he had spent so much time on it. He wanted to stop after the first session but the picture was only half done at that stage. I gave him a couple of weeks break and then we had another go. It was more a lesson in persistence for him but I think he is secretly pleased he was "encouraged". He knows it looks better now and was proud to display it to Daddy. |
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Aug. 22, 2007
Roxaboxen becomes Stix'ngrassen
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Well, this is part 2 of Roxaboxen, which we looked at in our Five in a Row studies. Friends of ours also use this program and thought it would be nice to let our children build a town of their own. Here's the scene for our town. Stephen decided we should call ours "Stix'ngrassen" and there are plenty of sticks and grass to be used in construction. After a few inspiring words from Kim, they went their separate ways and began to build. Indy had already made her house. This area is a short walk from their house. Keira had her spot picked out - high on the range, overlooking the dam. Prime real estate, if you ask me! She's the mayor and was working with the boys to make a lovely dwelling. They had the borders marked out by sticks and bark (not the stones of Roxaboxen). A plank of wood served as the kitchen bench and Keira prepared some tasty treats to keep the workers happy. Later on, they decorated the whole house with some wattle. Adam has a pile of Stix'ngrassen money beside him - gum nuts. They are so plentiful in this area and make a good choice for currency. Gum nuts are the coins and gum leaves are the paper money (worth $5 each leaf). It was great to see them taking pride in their work and thinking of all these add-ons! Stephen decided to go higher on the range and become the town policeman. As the scrub was thicker under his tree, he got some renovation help: Later on, things got serious! Zac was caught stealing some gumnut money, so was marched up to the jail. I think his punishment was not going to bring about a contrite spirit, what do you think? There was still time left to explore, enjoy and have some lunch. We had a great time there and will go back soon to check on it and add more! |
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Aug. 2, 2007
The World of Roxaboxen
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This week, we read Roxaboxen for Adam's Five in a Row book. When he first flicked through the book, he screwed up his nose. He thought it would be boring... As each page turned, he got pulled in by the story of this make believe town the children created and played in. When the bandits fought against the girls in "Fort Irene", he was hooked! In my perfectionist way, I wanted the boys to do a drawing from the book. So, I led from the front and did this one: It was fun to have my pastels out again and they liked watching me make different purples (I didn't have a ready made one in the set). I suggested that after they had done their sketches of their own Roxaboxen, they should have a go. Little did I realise how their imaginations had taken off with the idea of making their own town. I read two chapters of our read-aloud book while they kept working on these plans. In the end, I decided (with some coaxing) that this could be their art work this week and they could try pastels next week instead. Here's the fruit of their labour: Zac was so enthusiastic about his that he showed Andrew when he got home. Dad had to hear where everyone lived, what amenities were there and what went on... |
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Jul. 11, 2007
The Raft - Five in a Row
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Last week, while I was reading The Raft to Adam, the older boys were finishing up some other work at the table. After hearing about this unusual Grandma who carved wooden bears, was called a river rat and liked to draw, Zac came over and said, "I want to see what she looks like." It was nice to see his curiosity piqued. The boys did some drawings this week, based on pages in the book. Stephen did an otter: Zac liked the picture of the boy jumping off the raft into the water. It did look like a fun thing to do: and Adam really stuck at his drawing this time. He took on board my suggestions and changed the antlers as he originally had them double the thickness. He also drew in a whole eye as he thought it should be there. When I pointed out you could barely see the actual eye, he changed it. I helped him smooth out the colouring but it is essentially his own picture. |
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Jun. 21, 2007
And the winner is...
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I usually don't run contests in our household but this one was an exception. I knew my brand new Volume 4 manual for Five in a Row was on its way, I got some books in from the library and they just sat there...and sat...and sat... Instead of taking them all back to reborrow another time, I thought we would read Hanna's Cold Winter this week. It's such a heartwarming story so if you just want a great children's book to read, check it out from your library! Part of the FIAR program is the story disk to place on the map of the world. This time, the story was set in Budapest. Well, of course we didn't have a disk yet so I thought we'd have a contest to see who could come up with the best design. Zac and Adam decided to focus on the straw mats which were collected and taken to the hippos in the Zoo:
Although Zac put more effort in than Adam, he still didn't spend much time on it. I guess Stephen saw an opportunity and took this task seriously. He drew a picture of the Zoo front entrance. It did take him a while and when he was done, I proclaimed his to be the story disk we would use. Drum roll please...
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Jun. 4, 2007
Focus on Japan - FIAR
Posted in Five in a Row
The focus on Japan has changed that we ware doing this week in other areas. For Adam's FIAR book, we are reading A Pair of Red Clogs. They actually had a wooden pair on display at the Japanese Embassy and we were able to hold them and feel how light they were. After the first read through today, Adam appreciated the weather-telling game a bit more! |
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