You didn't ask for it, but I thought I would break down by subject what we're doing for school so far this year.
Art
I've listed Drawing with Children on our curriculum lists for the past few years, but that's usually a technicality. We often start on it, and love the results, but never make it past the first few chapters. With all due respect for Ms. Mona Brooks, I don't quite believe that just anyone can draw if they just have the right attitude, and therefore I don't believe just anyone can teach drawing. I don't know what she means sometimes when she refers to "One hour of instruction." What kind of instruction? Be more specific please!" When she is more specific, we do just fine, but as my kids have pointed out, we've drawn that darn lion about a million times now. We've been able to use some of her general techniques for drawing from graphics, but we tend to get frustrated and give up when we get to other chapters. I haven't given up on it completely, and I still officially include it in our curriculum, but this summer we started out with something else. I've also had How to Teach Art to Children for a few years, and we've done a few things from it, but have never worked through it as systematically as I hope to this year. So far it's been a fun and relatively easy way to say we've done art for the day, and the kids have had some neat results from some of their projects. One of the last ones they did dealt with shape, in which they used paper shapes to make a design on a piece of paper, and then they had to draw the design they made on another piece of paper. When we looked at some of the finished products, I told the boys their pictures looked - in a good way! - like something Picasso might have painted, so then we looked up that artist and his works in one of my favorite finds for the school year (and probably beyond): Art: 2, 500 Works from Cave to Contemporary. I bought it because it was recommended by Veritas Press, and while I'm a little surprised they didn't include a disclaimer about some of the artwork, I love this book, and I love that I found it for a really great price on Amazon.com. We've used it quite a bit already, often in conjunction with history, since it presents artists and their art in chronological fashion. All told, we do some form of "art" about 3 times a week. We probably won't be able to maintain that kind of frequency, but we're going to run with what works for as long as it does!
Ryan, by the way, did not take being compared with Picasso as a compliment. Oops.
Bible
This is the year I finally bought the Bible cards from Veritas Press, after having meant to for a long time, and I really love them. We've always done Bible stories and other Bible readings, but I've wanted to make sure we were getting a solid base of Biblical history and events, so I'm glad we're finally doing these. The set comes with a CD-ROM, which includes worksheets for each card, and some of the kids have enjoyed doing those, although I don't require them for everyone. The important thing is that two or three times a week, usually over dinner, we read a card, ask the review questions, and put it up on our dining room wall, which, along with alphabet cards and various artwork, is gradually starting to look like the dining room of the Cheaper by the Dozen family (the father of which taught his children Morse code by scribbling messages all over the dining room walls - a homeschooler at heart, if not in exact practice!). At any rate, we also try to read a Proverb a day, Bible stories at night, and I've also printed out various verses about loving one another in various locations around the house. Not very subtle, I know! I'm probably most excited, though, about the venture my older kids will likely get to experience this fall in Bible quizzing. There's not a good link for this, and it's hard to summarize, but suffice it to say that this year they will be learning large portions of Hebrews and 1 and 2 Peter (for my quizzing friends - it's not the whole thing, because they'll be doing junior quizzing), then meeting with other quizzers once a month for fun competition. I did it for three years as a high schooler (and I did Hebrews one year!), and it was truly one of the best things I ever did.
And one more...
Cursive
We use Classically Cursive, and Drew just began learning it at the end of last year. It's not his favorite subject by any means, so I keep his practice at it very short. Aimee does about 10-15 minutes a day, and I've begun to ask her to do at least some of her writing for other subjects in cursive. I've seen and heard from various sources about how cursive is considered obsolete in some areas and is no longer taught. Personally, although I'm not a stickler for perfect handwriting, I think it's still a good discipline and will continue to insist on it. (I do, of course, also see the need for developing good typing and computer skills, so try to maintain a balance.) I'm curious to hear the thoughts of my fellow homeschoolers on this one, so what's your stance on the subject?
Art
I've listed Drawing with Children on our curriculum lists for the past few years, but that's usually a technicality. We often start on it, and love the results, but never make it past the first few chapters. With all due respect for Ms. Mona Brooks, I don't quite believe that just anyone can draw if they just have the right attitude, and therefore I don't believe just anyone can teach drawing. I don't know what she means sometimes when she refers to "One hour of instruction." What kind of instruction? Be more specific please!" When she is more specific, we do just fine, but as my kids have pointed out, we've drawn that darn lion about a million times now. We've been able to use some of her general techniques for drawing from graphics, but we tend to get frustrated and give up when we get to other chapters. I haven't given up on it completely, and I still officially include it in our curriculum, but this summer we started out with something else. I've also had How to Teach Art to Children for a few years, and we've done a few things from it, but have never worked through it as systematically as I hope to this year. So far it's been a fun and relatively easy way to say we've done art for the day, and the kids have had some neat results from some of their projects. One of the last ones they did dealt with shape, in which they used paper shapes to make a design on a piece of paper, and then they had to draw the design they made on another piece of paper. When we looked at some of the finished products, I told the boys their pictures looked - in a good way! - like something Picasso might have painted, so then we looked up that artist and his works in one of my favorite finds for the school year (and probably beyond): Art: 2, 500 Works from Cave to Contemporary. I bought it because it was recommended by Veritas Press, and while I'm a little surprised they didn't include a disclaimer about some of the artwork, I love this book, and I love that I found it for a really great price on Amazon.com. We've used it quite a bit already, often in conjunction with history, since it presents artists and their art in chronological fashion. All told, we do some form of "art" about 3 times a week. We probably won't be able to maintain that kind of frequency, but we're going to run with what works for as long as it does!
Ryan, by the way, did not take being compared with Picasso as a compliment. Oops.
Bible
This is the year I finally bought the Bible cards from Veritas Press, after having meant to for a long time, and I really love them. We've always done Bible stories and other Bible readings, but I've wanted to make sure we were getting a solid base of Biblical history and events, so I'm glad we're finally doing these. The set comes with a CD-ROM, which includes worksheets for each card, and some of the kids have enjoyed doing those, although I don't require them for everyone. The important thing is that two or three times a week, usually over dinner, we read a card, ask the review questions, and put it up on our dining room wall, which, along with alphabet cards and various artwork, is gradually starting to look like the dining room of the Cheaper by the Dozen family (the father of which taught his children Morse code by scribbling messages all over the dining room walls - a homeschooler at heart, if not in exact practice!). At any rate, we also try to read a Proverb a day, Bible stories at night, and I've also printed out various verses about loving one another in various locations around the house. Not very subtle, I know! I'm probably most excited, though, about the venture my older kids will likely get to experience this fall in Bible quizzing. There's not a good link for this, and it's hard to summarize, but suffice it to say that this year they will be learning large portions of Hebrews and 1 and 2 Peter (for my quizzing friends - it's not the whole thing, because they'll be doing junior quizzing), then meeting with other quizzers once a month for fun competition. I did it for three years as a high schooler (and I did Hebrews one year!), and it was truly one of the best things I ever did.
And one more...
Cursive
We use Classically Cursive, and Drew just began learning it at the end of last year. It's not his favorite subject by any means, so I keep his practice at it very short. Aimee does about 10-15 minutes a day, and I've begun to ask her to do at least some of her writing for other subjects in cursive. I've seen and heard from various sources about how cursive is considered obsolete in some areas and is no longer taught. Personally, although I'm not a stickler for perfect handwriting, I think it's still a good discipline and will continue to insist on it. (I do, of course, also see the need for developing good typing and computer skills, so try to maintain a balance.) I'm curious to hear the thoughts of my fellow homeschoolers on this one, so what's your stance on the subject?
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