A Kiss from My Mother

Our current Charlotte Mason-inspired artist study

Yeah, I know. The cover of this book is a bit sappy. But you know what they say about judging a book by it’s cover.

We’re reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin as part of our Artist Study this term. In case you don’t know, and I didn’t know until a few weeks ago, Benjamin West was a famous American-born artsist from the 18th century.

Grimalkin gets billing in the title not to be cute, but because he did indeed make a contribution to Benjamin West's life as an artist. Well, it is admittedly a cute title, but there is a real story about the cat. Get the book and find out what it is.

You’ll also get a glimpse into Quaker life in colonial America, complete with thee’s and thou’s. It’s a fairly easy read with short and interesting chapters, just right for elementary-aged kids to read on their own.

Another book about West is The Boy Who Loved to Draw by Barbara Brenner. This is a picture book. My tactic is to read a longer (and "living") book first and then follow-up with picture books rather than the other way around. Many non-fiction picture books are lovely, but often they aren’t deep enough for the information to be retained or fully absorbed. But, if you read them after you know the subject fairly well, then the picture books reinforce the info and story.

And with that, you now have my Teacher Tactic Tip of the Day.

The current issue of Home Educator’s Tutor magazine features color prints of some of Benjamin West’s paintings. (One is even printed backwards! My kids loved pointing that out.) If you use the Charlotte Mason method, I highly recommend Home Educator’s Tutor. I use the magazine in combination with Ambleside and my own curriculum. Each term’s issue comes with a CD for composer and song studies and color prints of their featured artist. It really saves on trying to find these resources on your own. The website is: http://www.pyxispublishing.com/hetutor/index.html

“A kiss from my mother made me a painter.”

~Benjamin West

11:54 PM - Oct. 23, 2006 - post comment

Bread

Enjoy your homemade bread :) We are enjoying are loaves.

TrainingHearts - 12:55 PM - Oct. 24, 2006

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