A place to share my thoughts as I home school my four daughters in New Zealand. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0600 Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0600 Today for her English, Emily had to write a poem - either funny or serious.  Discussion ensued on what she could write about.  Bethany was in the middle of a report on King Henry VIII's wives, so I suggested Emily write a limerick about him.  This is what she came up with: Henry's Wives by Emily   Two of the wives of Henry the VIII Had a very fatal fate (beheading) Two of them were forced, at the King's command to be divorced. Then one had died, and one survived, and that was the end of the wives.   ~ all because he wanted an heir! Silly Henry! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/742407/ Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/742407/ This week in our art class, based on Discovering Great Artists, we studied Matisse. Henri Matisse was born in France in 1869. Matisse is regarded as the father of the Fauvist movement.  His earlier paintings were in the Post-Impressionist style - still recognisable figures, but using strong, bright colours.  His style was considered quite shocking for the times.  The Rumanian Blouse, 1940.   When Matisse was diagnosed with cancer in 1941, leaving him wheelchair-bound, he started to experiment with paper cut-outs and collages. This is what we based our artwork on.       Matisse designed this stained glass window for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence. It is called the "Tree of Life".           This collage is called "The Beasts of the Sea":         This collage reminded us of sea-weed or a bush.         And apparently, you can't study Matisse without studying this paper collage: See if you can find the animal depicted!          If you guessed a snail, you're right!  If not, I can't blame you!  These are our collages inspired by Matisse.         Check out Kathy Barbro's great site, Art Projects for Kids, for some great art lesson ideas and a Mini Abstract Mural set.  This set contains a PDF file of three different abstract murals, inspired by famous abstract artists.  I used a page from the Marisse mini mural for a colouring page in the bottom centre of the photo above (I haven't finished yet!). Barb (Harmony Art Mom) also has a great entry on studying Matisse here, including links to activities and a biography of Matisse.   ******** http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/740238/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/740238/   Today we had our first art lesson with a friend of mine and her children.  We are using the book Discovering Great Artists.         and art cards from Child-sized Masterpieces:          The first artist we chose to study was Piet Mondrian.   Piet Mondrian was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1872.  Earlier in his career, he painted traditional Dutch landscapes, but after moving to Paris his style gradually changed to an abstract, cubist style, which he is more famous for:         We all had a go at our own designs, inspired by Mondrian's work, and stuck to using only the primary colours to fill in some of the spaces.   We used graph paper to decide where our lines would be, then traced them onto thicker paper with a sharpie pen and coloured random spaces with either felt-tip markers or oil pastels.   This is what we came up with:         When you first look at Mondrian's paintings, it is easy to think that they are just lines and bits of colour here and there.  But my friend and I commented to eachother on the different ways the girls (we have all girls of school age) chose to place their lines, and which ones to colour in.  Some were very symmetrical, some chose to do lots of little lines and others even chose to add in diagonal lines.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for our next art lesson.   For some more ideas on art lessons based on Mondrian's paintings, check out Art with Mrs Smith - there's even a Mondrian cake!   Barb at Harmony Art Mom shares how she uses Child-sized masterpieces here.   *****   And to complete the "Arts on Thursday" picture, we listened to one of our new Psalms CDs by Jason Coghill, whom we were so blessed to have listened to in person at church last night.         ******     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/738085/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/738085/ 1.  My favourite colour is purple 2.  I LOVE licorice, especially allsorts and RJ's Natural Licorice. 3.  I nearly finished a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in Zoology.       Maybe one day I'll finish it... 4.  I am the oldest of 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls) 5.  I have lived in 16 different homes, 7 before I was married, and 9 after. 6.  I have passed grade 7 practical piano, thanks to my parents providing me      with lessons and encouraging me to practice every day.  I love that I can      now sit down and play a piece for pleasure.  7.  I never play piano in church because I get too nervous. 8.  I lived in Australia for four years. 9.  I rode a camel in Adelaide, South Australia. 10. I love diagramming sentences. 11. I am scared of spiders, but I have held a giant weta. 12. I have only been to the South Island of New Zealand once, to a       youth camp. 13. I cannot figure out why homeschoolblogger doesn't let me space between lines on my blogposts when I change the font...   Thanks Jeanne, at A Peaceful Day, for nominating me with this award: Here are the rules: 1.  Thank the person who gave this to you 2.  Copy the logo and place it on your blog 3.  Link the person who nominated you 4.  Name 7 things about yourself no-one would really know (see above) 5.  Nominate 7 other bloggers and let them know they are nominated... I nominate: 1.  Dana at School for Us 2.  Barb at Harmony Art Mom 3.  Keri at Sunny Scholars 4.  Jimmie at Jimmie's Collage 5.  Tisha at Art with Mrs Smith 6.  Sarah at The Forest Room   7.  Renae at Life Nurturing Education   ********* http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/738084/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/738084/   Today in Story of the World, we learned about the beginning of the Renaissance, and how Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.       Here us a Youtube video explaining how the printing press worked:   Demonstrating the Gutenberg Printing Press   This is a post by Jeanne at A Peaceful Day about a beautiful pop-up story book of Gutenberg. ~~~ Bethany's Narration: Johannes Gutenberg made a printing press from an old winepress.  He stamped the letterblock with ink made from soot and linseed oil, and put it in a type of folder.  Then he turned a wheel and a lever to flatten it, squeezing the paper and the block together.  Then he turned the wheel back to push the folder back and took the paper out.  On it would be printed the words that were on the letterblock. ~~~ Emily's Narration: His printing press worked like this: taking raw cow hide leather he soaked it in cow wee overnight then rinsed it by hand.  Then using ink made of linseed oil and soot, and a roller, he rolled the ink onto the leather.  (This refers to the "pounders" he used to pound the ink onto the letterblock). Next he carefully placed a piece of paper in a folder-like thing called a frisket.  He placed the inked leather on his machine.  He then rolled the frisket with the paper in it over the leather and turned a lever to press the ink onto the paper. On the youtube video the man demonstrating printed a page of the Gutenberg Bible.  It had a space left for when it got illuminated and illustrated.  For Monks writing book by hand it would take years to print the entire Gutenberg Bible.  Johannes Gutenberg and twenty helpers printed 450 Bibles in one year.  The very first book he printed was the Gutenberg Bible.    ~~~   Gutenberg is credited with printing the first Bible.  He also printed paper indulgences, sold by the Roman Catholic church to pardon the buyer from of his sins.  This is what sparked Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses, which where 95 reasons why the church should not sell indulgences.  Luther had studied the book of Romans which convinced him that God promises forgiveness to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. ~~~ Here is a picture of a page from one of Gutenberg's Bibles:     ~~~   Gutenbergprinted the text, leaving a blank space for the illumination of the first letters of a chapter.  The illumination and decoration was completed by monks.   ~~~~~~~~~~~     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/737197/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/737197/       Several months ago, while reading Mary's blog, Owlhaven, I came across this entry about delicious home-made, no-knead bread.  It sounded so good, I gave it a try.  The secret to the success of this recipe is to mix up a VERY wet dough, let it rise overnight and then transfer carefully to a dutch oven to cook at a very high temperature.  The bread was delicious!  It had a crunchy crust and a lovely spongey, moist texture.         Then I remembered that I had read about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day over at Preschoolers & Peace, Kendra's blog.  I decided to splash out and buy the book.  I am so glad I did.  Ever since, I have been making artisan bread every day...it turns out just as delicious as the other recipe, but is much easier to handle.  The dough is mixed together very quickly, NO KNEADING is necessary, and after two hours rising on the bench, it is ready to be baked.  The result is a delicious crusty bread with a lovely "custard crumb" as the authors describe it.         I have also made the olive oil dough, which is great for focaccia bread or pizza, and the brioche, which is a delicious pastry-like dough great for caramel scrolls, or delicious just on its own.         You can find the basic "boule" dough recipe here, and the authors' website here.  You'll have to buy the book to get all the other delicious recipes though!     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/736322/ Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/736322/   A couple of weeks ago, I took the girls to see this exhibition:       The girls (grades 5-8, 9-12 years) from Carncot school had been to the Monet & the Impressionists Exhibition earlier in the year.   They also visited the Wellington Botanic Gardens to photograph water lilies to help them in their own artwork.  The girls had studied the effects of light on the water lilies and used Monet's paintings as inspiration for their own beautiful paintings.  The girls had started with charcoal & white paint, then progressed on to coloured pastel and oil paintings, all inspired by Monet's water lilies.     The paintings were absolutely beautiful and this was accentuated by the presentation.  The paintings were hung in groups creating a striking display of all Monet's favourite colours - purples, pinks & blues.  The coloured pastel water lilies were hung only at the top edge, so that they represented the ripples of the water.       The girls also made clay water lilies, which were lovely to look at in 3-D.   The girls had kept a scrapbook of the entire project, embellished with origami water lilies and full of beautiful ideas & commentaries on their art adventure.  They had designed their own brochure and came up with the name for the exhibition.   We had missed the official public exhibition, but I rang the principal and she graciously arranged for us to come and view it.   I was so grateful to be able to visit this exhibition with my children, and it has certainly given me lots of new ideas for art and an even greater appreciation for Monet's paintings - and ultimately, God's amazing creation!   The Carncot girls had produced a calendar featuring their work.  Here are some examples:         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/734281/ Thu, 8 Oct 2009 01:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/734281/   My blog-friend Jeanne, is celebrating the first birthday of her wonderful blog, A Peaceful Day.   Jeanne's blog is a wonderful source of Charlotte Mason inspired homeschooling methods, great posts about her home country, Australia, and much more.    Jeanne has had a month of great Aussie book giveaways.  I was priveleged enough to win this book:     This is a lovely living history book about Matthew Flinders, one of the Australian explorers.  I am looking forward to reading this story with my girls.   Jeanne's latest giveaway, a beautifully illustrated book about Koonaworra the Black Swan is still open until the end of Tuesday 29th September...wherever you are in the world!  So get on over to A Peaceful Day, comment on Jeanne's giveaway post and you never know...!         ~~~~~~~~     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/731476/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/731476/   Well, Spring has begun here in the Southern Hemisphere.    Lately during our Circle Time I have been reading aloud to the girls from this lovely book:       Portrait of a Garden is New Zealand's answer to The Country Diary of and Edwardian Lady, albeit a more modern version.  Kerry Carman has produced some beautiful watercolour paintings & sketches of our native plants and flowers along with many of the common species.   Kerry suffered a spinal injury and spent months in hospital rehabilitating.  Consequently, she spent a lot of time watching the seasonal changes of the tree outside the hospital window.  This began her life-long appreciation for the natural world and inpsired Kerry's nature journalling.  The book Portrait of a Garden is a combination of the nature journals she kept between 1970 & 1974   Here is an excerpt from Kerry's entry for 13th September:   "The name 'Daffodil' comes from the French.  In early Greek it was "Asphodelos', in Latin 'Aspholdelus', and, to the French, it was 'Asphodile'; the first English name for it was 'Affodil'.  Pliny wrote that they grew on the banks of Acheron, where the blossoms delighted the spirits of the dead, who called them 'Asphodels'. "    She goes on to tell the story of Narcissus, which I had never read, but apparently one of my daughters had read it somewhere before.  But is was nice to read, along with Kerry's lovely sketches of several Narcissus species. Here is another excerpt from the same entry:   "There are three flowers on the group of N. 'Dove Wings" - a very pretty cyclamineus type of palest cream.  I love these reflexed petal types - all the cyclamineus varieties have the endearing habit of turning back the petal surrounding the trumpet in the manner of a graceful dancer posing her arms;  or, in some cases, as in N. triandrus 'Angels Tears', like Piglet's ears streaming in the wind, from that much-loved book House at Pooh Corner by A.A.Milne."     Imagine our giggles when Piglet's ears were mentioned.  Off the girls were, down the street to see if they could find a narcissus whose petals resembled Piglet's ears!  They came back with some pictures of daffodils, we think most of them are the basic variety Ebony.  We're not positively sure of the variety, but we learned that the central part of the daffodil is called a "trumpet" (or corona) and that "cyclamineus" means that the petals are folded back like a cyclamen and we learned the story of Narcissus.          Kerry has several sketches of the Magnolia or "Tulip tree" and it's flowers, which happen to be dropping all over our lawn from the neighbour's tree at the moment.       and just for a bit of fun, this is taken from the top of one our little Mexican Orange Blossoms - I would never have noticed the symmetry in those leaves, had one of the girls not taken the photo from directly above the plant.     One of the girls managed to take a beautiful close-up of this daisy (I can't find a name for this one)       For a child's view of our daffodil study, Emily would love for you to  visit her & Bethany's blog, Notebook for Girls for Emily's entry on the daffodil.   And for an Australian Country Diary, check out Jeanne's post at A Peaceful Day.   ~~~~~     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/729001/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/729001/   If you came to visit us today, this is what you would see on our dining room school room wall:     1.  "Bodies" we are putting together from Considering God's Creation 2.  Brochure for next Tuesday's Diana Waring conference 3.  Invitation to my sister's and my brother's joint engagement party (they are twins who just had their 21st last March)   4.  To the left of the board:   My list of things to memorize - 3x tables,    Questions from the Shorter Catechism,   Key to Diacritical marks for Vocabulary from Classical Roots    Grammar rules to memorize from First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: Level 4 5. To the right of the board is our new Timeline of World History,  using timeline figures put together by Hannah at Hannah's Homeschool helps   6.  Above the board are various pictures sketched for Sketch Tuesday   What's on your School room wall?   ~~~~~       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/724845/ Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:27:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/4kiwigirls/724845/