Maps

I was going to do a whole sub-unit on explorers during the Africa segment of the Babies Unit. First we read about the explorer Mary Kingsley. Then, we read through (skipping when it became too much info) Exploring the World: Da Gama, Vasco da Gama Sails Around the Cape of Good Hope by Robin S. Doak.

It is a really good book. The maps are very useful and the pictures are interesting. It is designed for middle readers so there were a few places where we bogged down. Certainly not the fault of the book--just the ages of my children. Then I pulled out an outline map that included Europe and Africa and had the kids add a line for da Gama's trip, with dots at all the places in Africa that he stopped.

It is the first time we've done a map to demonstrate something besides the location of places. It was fun, we enjoyed it, and I forgot to take pictures.

So that was all pre-Harriet. After Harriet, I thought I would jump back into things to help my kids stay happy and not bored.

Ha.

I didn't jump back into anything except exhaustion. Baby wakes up at 11:00 pm, 2:00 am, and 5:30 am (or 6:00 am--sometimes even a little later than that), so I cannot complain about her sleeping habits. She's an angel for a two-week old.

However, I'm still exhausted.

So rather than read Exploration Through the Ages: The Travels of Livingstone by Richard Humble to all my children and do a similar map of his travels, I just had Miriam read the book to herself and we chatted about it. I read the book (as did my hubby--we both enjoyed it) first so I could guide the discussion to exploration and what was cool about it and what would be hard about it and what the Africans probably thought about these white foreigners telling them to change their lives and become Christian. This leads into a discussion of our missionaries and why we tell people they should change their lives. Good stuff.

I definitely recommend this book for any studies on Africa, missionary work, exploration, or colonialism. It is a great read.

Dr. Livingstone, I presume.

Last Day Spent on Babies

Not much has been done by way of school around here. However, a baby in the house is a daily lesson. Since baby was here, I decided to read the last two baby books I'd checked out of the library and give a short lecture about being careful with the baby.

Hello Benny! by Robie H. Harris was a huge hit with all four of my older children. It discussed in pretty good detail what a baby needs and what it is like to be a baby. For example, one of our favorite pages discusses what a baby can see and then has two images of Benny's dad--one close-up and clear and one farther away and blurry. Great way to drive the point home. In short, I was impressed with this book.

Welcome, Baby: Baby Rhymes for Baby Times by Stephanie Calmenson was a hit with Miriam and Emeline. The rest of us lost interest pretty quick.

There you have it. Two more baby book ideas if you are interested in teaching your kids about babies.

book/make-up-your-own-curriculum review

the art book for children, book two.

i'd love to say that we tried book one of this series and that is was fabulous and we moved onto book two...but we didn't.

i ordered the wrong book and after thumbing through it and pondering the lack of obvious choices for kids to study, flipped to the cover and went "duh"...this is the secondary list.



this week we studied the unfinished painting, Happy Couple, by thomas gainsborough. I like how the book pointed out what made this painting different from other portrait work of its time. i'm a big believer in understanding historical context and precedent when it comes to studying art. (ie: the first canvas painted black was groundbreaking and said a lot - not just what our kid's grandfathers would call "that artsy-fartsy-mumbo-jumbo".



so, happy couple depicts a couple out of doors and surrounded by the things that define them, from their estate to their hobbies. after dialoguing about the painting for a few minutes, i had the kids set up their art easel and assigned them to both draw me a "happy family" portrait. and going along with the main elements of the book discussion, i told them to draw things that are relevant to their lives.



charlie drew our family and a bubblegum man. apparently, bubblegum is very important to her - not that she's ever had any.



luke decided to opt charlie out of the family and drew a "minion" in her place (which is relevant, in that he's on a "despicable me" kick). he also drew a dog with a trunk and his backyard play set on fire from a bomb. for those that do not know us, neither of those things nor "the naked man flying over us" are relevant.

anyhoo, we are really enjoying this book. it's goes into just enough detail to be interesting and informative, but not heavy and overwhelming. creating a curriculum from it is pretty straight forward. and bonus, your kids get to learn to recognize different elements of art, as well as renowned artists throughout history.

i highly recommend the art book for children, book two. i'll let you know about book one when i get around to ordering it.

over and out, becky
from
hellofromhades.blogspot.com

hello from hellofromhades.blogspot.com here

First and Foremost:

Happy New Baby, Andrea!
she's a doll.

Secondly:

reason #6,349 why homeschooling rocks -
when you rush everyone out to the car
and get in and look back
and see that your baby girl dressed herself
in gold rayon leggings that you bought for fun,
(and never thought would leave the house)
her brother's green fleece sweater and socks,
and her favorite purple shoes -
YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY
because only the clerk, the bagger and the old lady behind you
have to know your shame.
had i been rushing to get the babes to school,
this would have been a
"gone-down-in-history" sort of morning
where i would have had to go home
and eat my weight in bon-bons
and read romance novels
while i cried.

but because we homeschool -
piece of cake.



well, maybe i'll feel a little bit more shame,
now that i've gone and shared it with you guys.
so, no judgment!
pinky-promise.

We Interrupt This Unit . . .

To bring you a baby!

Harriet was born Feb. 12 at 7:30 pm. Four weeks early.

She only weighed 5 lbs 8 oz.

But she's doing great.

All schooling is being postponed until the kids return from grandma's house and Mom feels up to it. In the meantime, happy schooling to you!

Africa/Namibia: Day Three

Day Three was about African culture. Not its now culture so much as its more ancient culture that still exists in various forms today.

We started by reading a book called Talking Drums of Africa by Christine Price. The book was so boring I was secretly hoping Miriam would complain and give me an excuse to stop reading it. She didn't. None of them did. So we read the whole boring thing. I don't recommend it, except that it did have some really interesting information about African drums. For example, in the pic below is a "talking drum." The drummer pulls on the strings to tighten and loosen the drumhead to raise and lower the pitch of the drum so it sounds like African languages that are based on pitch. Cool! So, it might be a good idea to scan this book as drums go with Africa like baseball goes with the USA.

Besides, after reading the book, you get to watch youtube videos of African drummers and dancers--and that is awesome!

As a sidenote, this past summer our library put on a series of free activities. One of those activities was an African dancer and drummer. Neither of the people were actually from Africa but both had lived and studied there and both were awesome!!! The dancer, Deja Mitchall, had everyone get up and try it and I did and I loved it. Loved it. Loved it enough that I made learning African dance one of my life goals. I kept her card to remind myself of this life goal. She teaches African dancing at the Eccles Art Center in Ogden, Utah. When my children are a wee bit older, I plan on taking a few of her classes.

If you are studying Africa and live along the Wasatch Front and want to know where you can see some actual African dancing and hear live African drumming, she'd be a good go-to person. Remember, I'm in the lazy end-of-pregnancy mode, or I'd have contacted her and set up a field trip myself.

Here's her info according to her business card. Deja Mitchell: Dancer/Choreographer/Teacher African and Modern Dance. Weekly classes, workshops, Performances. 801-458-6335, tribalovedancer@hotmail.com.

If you look her up on google you'll find her website, which has some great pics of her trips to Africa and the dancing she did there. Also, she puts on a few workshops every summer at the Egyptian Theater for kids wanting to learn African dance. I fully intend to put Miriam in one when she's nine or ten--hopefully Deja will still be around then.
After watching youtube for a long time, we returned to the couch and flipped through the DK Eyewitness Book: Africa by Yvonne Ayo. Great pics. We focused on the various art work more than anything else. My son, of course, wanted to focus on the weapons so we spent some time with those as well.

I made sure I pointed out pictures of carved gourds like the one in the pic below. They are cool.

After we looked through the book, I pulled out some clay and some skewers and had the kids practice carving. Granted, clay carving with skewers is not as cool as cleaning out a gourd, drying it somehow, then carving it and dying it--but my kids still seemed to like it!

I carved for awhile, then worked on supper. My kids spent the rest of the afternoon carving and creating with the clay. The DK book proved inspirational for my kids in ways I hadn't anticipated (they copied statues and weapons and houses, etc.). In the end, I wished I had given them play-dough for the activity as the clay stuck on my rolling pin and cookie cutters much worse than play-dough. Grr.

Good times, though.

As a side-note: in my previous post I mentioned that reading plants ideas in children's brains that they later use to make connections. I have an example. (Yes, I am sort of bragging about how smart my son is, but mostly I'm reiterating the fact that READING IS CRITICAL to expose your children to lots of ideas that they can use to connect other information. I'm an English teacher--I can't help myself.)

While we were looking at the DK book, we turned to a page that had a Zulu shield like the one pictured below.

Without saying anything, my son (5 yrs old) leaped off the couch and went racing downstairs. Miriam and I looked at each other with our eyebrows raised then went back to looking at the pictures.

A few minutes later Cowen came back upstairs with an old Childcraft book with a collection of stories in it about battles. One of the battles, you guessed it, involved the Zulu people and the British. Cowen has never read the story because he doesn't read that well yet, but he has studied that book over and over because it is all about fighting and has lots of pics of weapons. He recognized the shield and knew that the battle must be about an African tribe--so he ran off to find it to have me read it to him.

Amazing connection. Amazing memory.

Thanks again, Mom, for giving me the Childcraft books when all your children wanted them. To all my readers: if you ever see any Childcraft books (you know the ones--they look like encyclopedia's almost, each hardbound book about a different subject) buy them. Just do it. They are awesome and keep my children fascinated for hours at a time.

GO TO THE BYU ART MUSEUM

Remember my last post about the field trip to BYU? Meeting with Dr. Crandall wasn't all we did while visiting Provo.

After our discussion about Africa, the kids and I returned to Aunt Kami's house where we were fed lunch and otherwise entertained and amused until it was time to go to the BYU Museum of Art. Some of you might be familiar with Carl Bloch, the Danish painter being featured at the museum currently.

The exhibit was amazing. A must see for anyone who can get themselves to Provo. Be aware that you need to reserve tickets, which you can do online. It is free, of course, and you can pick up your tickets at the front desk.

There is also a modern art exhibit that involves a mat and some sort of technology. I don't really understand why it is considered art, but it was sure fun for the kids to play on/with.

Another current exhibit is a photographic essay by Dorothea Lange (took the famous 1930s picture of Depression-era mom and children) about three towns in Southern Utah. I really enjoyed the photos.

A highlight for me was the exhibit called: At War! The Changing Face of American War Illustration. I studied a lot of wartime propaganda for my masters thesis, so this was right up my alley. Loved it. Loved it.

Despite having seven small children between us, Kami and I both enjoyed the museum immensely. I think part of it was the company. :) Thanks for letting us visit, Kami!! And a lot of it was the excellence of the current exhibits. Go. If you can, go. It is worth whatever efforts are required.