Meet the Masters - Joan Miro

KM was intrigued by this weeks artist Joan Miro and thinks that she may try some of the techniques at a later time, but right now our schedule is a bit PACKED, which has left little to no time for extra things like artwork at the moment. She did try a few sketches using the overlapping shapes and lines, but has become such a perfectionist that she only wants her pieces to be shown when she feels they are complete so I will be sure to post them if/when she decides it is okay to do so! I want to make sure she knows that I am respecting her privacy and only using things that she feels comfortable showing!

Meet the Masters - Wyeth

We completed Unit 2 of the Meet the Masters this afternoon with a unit on the Wyeth family of artists. KM enjoyed many of these pieces of art, but her favorite was one of the more peaceful ones by Andrew -

KM picked up on the loneliness in the other paintings and couldn't really feel connected, but this one was very calming to her. KM loves to draw hills, valleys, trees and flowers so this project was right up her alley...

Meet the Masters - Kahlo

KM was a bit intrigued by the work of Frida Kahlo, because beyond her interest in her self-portraits, she liked to do still life pictures, which is one of KM's favorites as well.

Here is the one that she liked the best -

Here she is working diligently on her inspired pieces of art!

Meet the Masters - Degas

KM enjoyed learning about the rather unpleasant artist Degas this week. Her favorite piece of his work was the Dancing Class -

She said that she really liked the candid nature of the painting. Since she really does not like to paint or draw people she opted out of this week's project. Though she is working on a few pieces that focused on techniques that were mentioned such as asymmetrical composition and perspective. I will be sure to post anything that seems to have been inspired by Degas's work.

Meet the Masters - Hokusai

This week we covered the life and work of Katsushika Hokusai. KM was very intrigued by the simplicity of this artists' works. Our favorite was The Great Wave -

She was also very intrigued by the stamps and created her own using the symbols for hearts and clouds - when combined would be translated to her heart is on a cloud, such an appropriate symbol for her -

We then made the Tempera Ink and tried out the methods that were outlined to make houses and bamboo trees.

KM is very excited to try some more of these methods on a larger scale this weekend - I will let you know how they turn out!

Meet the Masters - O'Keefe

We completed the unit on one of my favorite artists - Georgia O'Keefe this week. The image above is KM's favorite, which is entitled Red Canna and was painted in 1923.

We had a lot of fun trying out her techniques of shading, scaling and watercolors. Here are some examples of the works we did -

KM was a bit creeped out by the fact Georgia collected bones from the desert, but once we got past that fact, she seemed to really enjoy this unit!

Meet the Masters - Homer

Homer did not inspire KM very much at all. She did complete the worksheets, but just really was not feeling the shading project that was assigned for this artist - she says she NEEDS color!

I don't blame her! So she will be passing on this one, though we may try our hand at block printing - another technique that they described in the unit. Hopefully the next unit will go over a bit better!

Meet the Masters - Monet

KM's favorite Monet just happens to be the one that she has unknowingly been staring at a print of since she was quite little - as it hangs in my bedroom! I have always loved Monet's work, the fluidity of it all even though it really is nothing but spots. Here is KM's interpretation of his style -

Winter Session 7th Grade Curriculum Picks

As we are drawing our fall session to a close over the next week, I figured it was time to look ahead and finalize the choices we have made for the upcoming Winter Session! Since we are always changing things around here, this is of course a rough guess of what we will be doing. Most of our picks for the fall session worked out rather well, but there are some areas that we needed to tweak a bit. Here is our "intended" outline -

ELA -
We have swapped out our ELA system SEVERAL times in the past two years, but I do think that we have finally made a bit of progress in this area. KM worked through Levels 3 & 4 of Writing Strands rather quickly and decided to work through a few workbooks for latter half of this past session and the next.

• She has been working through 5-Minute Daily Practice Grammar, she tends to do all 5 lessons for the week at once on Monday, but she is getting them all correct, so I guess I can't really complain can I.
• Quick Practice Writing Skills is a bit more of a challenge for her - well it varies day to day. There are some things that she just needs a slight reminder on and others that have never been covered, so when we come to an area that needs to be covered completely we stop and cover it. It seems to be working and she is far less weary of asking for help.
• For writing itself we have gone back to the 3 minute non-stop writing and are using 350 Fabulous Writing Prompts. Some of the prompts are not so fabulous in my opinion, but we just skip those ones and take those days to go back over and review or edit her previous days writings.
• We will also begin working through the Grammar and then Writing on BrainPop.
• For literature we will be using Teacher Created Resources for Tuck Everlasting and The Island of the Blue Dolphin. As well as a Scholastic Book Guide for Around the World in Eighty Days which will coincide with our Geography. KM of course will also be continuing her free time reading - not that I have to worry about that.

Math -

• We will be finishing up The Complete Book of Algebra and Geometry this next session so that she can feel confident when she goes back to the Teaching Textbook for Algebra in the Spring.
• I also thought that it would be fun and interesting to take a look at Women Mathematicians during this session. This book features 15 women and we will spread them out covering one or two a week for the 10 week session.
  

Science -

• We have decided to put off Story of Science again as KM wanted to slow down a bit on her Physics so that she could really investigate each area more closely. So for the next session she will continue with her Physics Workshop Kit from Thames & Kosmos. She will also continue to supplement with Brain Pop.
• We are also going to revisit Chemistry. She had done a bit of it last year at our co-op, but I think we will try to dive a bit deeper this time around. I have gotten a light textbook - Chemistry of Matter - from Paperback Swap and she has agreed to try it. I have the Periodic Table from Basher Science Books - WHICH SHE LOVES! - as a stand by in case the text flops. I have a lot of projects and kitchen chemistry things to add in as well as BrainPop - AGAIN!
  

Social Sciences -

• For history we will be working on Ancient Rome and finishing up volume one of Story of the World. This will also conclude our Giant Lapbook! I will be sure to post all the info on that when it is complete! This will be our final history pocket as well. KM is very happy that we will also be continuing with the Horrible Histories series, which despite mixed reviews from others, has been going over very well with her! We started out with the books, then I purchased the animated series on Ebay and now have been using the resources for the CBBC series.
• We will be finishing up Rand McNally's Intermediate Geography as well as doing a cultural study of each area as it is covered in the book. I am using several other resources for this including Global Trek, Hands-On Heritage series and Art Projects from Around the World.
  

Health -
KM really likes the Learn to Be Healthy site - though some of the content is a bit below her level, most of it seems to be sinking in and she is moving right along through it. They do have a high school level, but I don't think she is ready for that set just yet. She is also working through the Health topics on Brain Pop.


Electives -

• Staying with our strong Science focus - per KM's request - she will be studying weather and meteorology this session. I will be listing our resources for this in a separate post.
• For her foreign language she is going to be doing Spanish. We were lucky enough to get a FANTASTIC deal on Tell Me More by Auralog through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op last summer and she is REALLY enjoying the program. The voice recognition software is great and the homeschool edition has worksheets that you can print off to supplement with. I will be supplementing with two workbooks - Let's Learn Spanish Grades 7 & 8. I also picked up to sticker books that I thought KM & SC could do together. This would help reinforce the basics for KM and would introduce SC to a bit of Spanish as well.
• Music Alive! is still a big hit and we will continue with this through the next session. We also will be taking a look at some opera pieces from Opera for Everyone and will be going to the Boston Lyric Opera's presentation of Barber of Seville.
  
• Piano Adventures is working incredibly! She will be starting on Level 2 and I am amazed and awestruck by how well she is playing with no outside instruction. There was talk of an interest in Flute, but I am not too sure how serious that was...
• She will be continuing with Drama at our co-op and they will be working on another Shakespearean play with music and dancing, but the title has not been disclosed yet!
• We will be continuing to work through the Meet The Masters for our art practical and theory section. She will also continue on her cross stitch work and may start some sewing as she interested in working on her costume for the play this spring.
  

Again I can't stress enough how much of a guideline this is and it is in NO WAY set in stone. I am very open to changing things that are not working and try to make sure that KM feels that she can be honest with me about how she feels something is going.

Meet the Masters - Picasso

This unit's artist was Picasso and KM's favorite of the pieces that were covered was the Blind Man's Meal.

She did a great job on her abstract musical instruments in chalk pastel...

Meet the Masters - Mondrian

I think this week KM truly enjoyed the work and story of Piet Mondrain. The lines and simplicity seemed to really inspire her. I think that the musical aspect was also rather intriguing to her!
Broadway Boogie Woogie was her favorite composition-

She spent a long time working on the planning sheets -


and was very particular in the lengths, sizes and placements of the pieces to ensure BALANCE!



Hers is the one on the left and mine is on the right.

Meet the Masters - Cassatt

We finished unit 2 of Meet the Masters which covered the life and works of Mary Cassatt. One of my all time favorite paintings is her Breakfast in Bed -

It always reminds me of how cuddly little ones can be all snuggled up in bed! I miss the days of waking up to a snuggling toddler.

KM worked on the techniques for making plaids and sketching faces...


Mary Cassatt was also extremely famous for painting pictures of women in incredible hats, so we decided - since neither of us are really comfortable trying to draw people - we would focus on the hats. We also choose to collage the hats using remnant pieces from our scrap box! Here was our outcome -

KM choose to do a few smaller samples and I choose to do one large one.

Meet the Masters - Van Gogh

We starting using the Meet the Masters Art Series this past week and KM is really liking it. We got a TERRIFIC group buy price on it through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

The first artist that we started out with was Van Gogh and we made our own renditions of Starry Night using oil pastels.

We will be working on this program every other week or as time allows and I will be sure to post pics of each her own masterpieces.

7th Grade Curriculum - Preliminary Decisions

As most of you have probably figured out - as I know I have stated it SEVERAL times - I am a HUGE planner, I need to feel like I have a game plan and though I am open to flexibility and wiggle room, I NEED to know that I have something set and ready to go! So before the warm weather gets here for real, I want to make sure that I have everything planned out for next year.

For the most part I have known for a while what we would be doing, but there were some final choices that I think I have committed to. So here is what KM's 7th Grade Curriculum will look like -

Summer Session - Yes we do continue our lessons during the summer, but it is on a much lighter scale. KM and I sat down and tried to figure out what she thought would be manageable and what I would agree to as enough. Here is what we came up with:

Daily:
Summer Bridge Activities - This is a review type book that has different activities each day, but helps you kinda stay on track. Most of the things are fun activities and she has been doing them for YEARS now so she figured why change something that has worked for such a long time.

Egyptian Study - if we keep at the pace we are right now with our History timeline study we should be right at Egypt when we start the Summer session. I have TONS of projects, resources, sites, kits and books for this which I think I will list separately. This will be an ongoing thing throughout the summer that I didn't really want to schedule in so we will be working on this bit by bit throughout the session.

Mondays:
Cooking - We will be using the Usbourne Internet Linked Children's World Cookbook - to travel the globe through food. We will also be going to our local farmer's markets to get local produce of the season to cook with as well as using the bounty from our own garden!

Tuesdays:
Geography - along with our world food travels, we will be using Brighter Child Geography Grade 6 which we did not have a chance to get to during this last year's studies.

Wednesday:
ELA - we have been using Scholastics Scope Magazine since last fall, but we could never manage to get to all of it, so we decided to save the reader's plays and the extra worksheets for the summer.

Thursday:
Science - I don't know how long ago it was, but at some point I picked up a copy of Homework Survival Guide: Science and I came across it when we were cleaning out our books over the winter. We decided to use it as a review and do one chapter a week for the summer. We will also be incorporating lots and LOTS of projects to go with each one so be sure to swing by for Science Thursdays starting in July. I think that this will really bring KM up to speed with the basic knowledge that she was SOOOOO lacking from her time at PS.

Fridays:
Math - another book that we just didn't get to as much as we would have liked was Fast Finishers Math so we thought this would be a good time to finish it up!


Starting in the Fall she will be doing -

Math - Teaching Textbooks was such a HUGE hit this year that I will stray from it! She will be starting Algebra 1 in the fall.


ELA - She will be doing 5-minute Daily Grammar - which should help to straighten out some of those things that really just need some repetition to get down. Also upon recommendation by a very good friend, countless internet searches and a LONG discussion with KM we have decided to give Writing Strands a try. We will be starting her off at Level 3 and she is very excited about the way that it is truly written to the student. It also has VERY little prep work for me! I also have on the back burner, Writing Survival Skills for the Middle Grades - which the same friend recommended and I lucked out and found on Paperback Swap! Also a great Paperback Swap find was World Smart Junior which will be in place of a formal vocabulary program.

Literature/Reading Comprehension - For fiction we will be using literature units from Teacher Created Resources. To start we will be doing The Cricket in Times Square, Island of the Blue Dolphin, Bridge to Terabithia and Tuck Everlasting. For non-fiction we will be using a workbook called As a Matter of Fact which seems like it will be a very good fit.

History - We will be continuing our timeline study using the Complete Book of World History as our time-line spine and we will probably begin with Ancient China in the fall. I will list these resources separately as well.

Geography - Our coop group is thinking of doing a full year Geography program, focusing on a different continent each session. This will be a GREAT way for the kids to learn about this in a group setting! I will be sure to post more about this as it develops as well.

Cultural Studies - In the fall we will be focusing on a Thanksgiving Unit that we got from Plimoth Plantation called Investigating the First Thanksgiving which helps to clarify what really happened at the first Thanksgiving and what it was really like for the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Then we will use several resources to dive deep into the cultures of Southeast Asia, Japan, and Mexico and Central America.

Science - We have a large mismatch group of things that KM really wants to cover for Science next year. We will be starting out with the Basher Series which looks like they are going to be rather enjoyable reading, then we will be using the MOS designed Engineering is Elementary Program, a variety of free electricity resources that we ordered from National Grid and a unit on Inventions and Inventors. We will also be supplementing with a new site that I found through Homeschool Buyers Co-op called Adaptive Curriculum. Once she has all these things done I think she will have a very good basis to start some of the higher level sciences.

Foreign Language Studies - We will be sticking with Latin next year and will be using Minimus Secundus: Moving on in Latin as well as Learning Latin Through Mythology. I am already seeing a huge improvement with KM's word recognition and decoding roots since we started the Minimus: Starting out in Latin.

Art - we will be using a program that looks really intriguing called Meet the Masters. KM is a bit nervous about having to reproduce masterpieces, but I think once she starts and sees that it is really more about the techniques that she will really enjoy the program!

Music - KM is still loving the keyboard so we will be continuing with Piano Adventures. I also came across this rather interesting classroom magazine called Music Alive and for $9 I got all 8 issues of this past years magazines, which feature a current artistic from a different genre each month. KM is so into music that I couldn't pass up a deal like that! We will also continue to utilize the incredible monthly content at Classics for Kids. I am seriously considering signing her up for private keyboard lessons, but I am worried that this may deter her natural drive that she seems to be following. She reads music incredibly and truly enjoys playing, so I will just wait and see if she starts to peak off or has trouble just using the books on her own.


So that is our 7th grade plan - I hope we will stick to it, but if you are a regular reader I would guess that bets are being placed as to when the first change will occur! It feels good to have it all laid out in front of me though and I think that I have found a really good balance of what KM wants and what CJ and I feel that she really NEEDS.