I teach art lessons in my home during the school year, and I have some students who have been coming for a number of years. As I was searching the Internet for new lessons, I came upon IncredibleArt.org — an incredible site for art ideas!
From the homepage, you can click on the “Lessons” link to enter the art lesson section. There you can access the lessons by grade level, beginning with kindergarten and continuing all the way through high school, as well as by medium, subject, art period, and artist. You’ll also find lessons integrating art with drama that include topics such as Italian Renaissance art (Brunelleschi and Da Vinci), Impressionism (Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec), and Post-Impressionism (Matisse), and a page containing links to various art games online.
The lessons on this site have been submitted by art teachers from around the country. Each lesson features a list of materials, the procedures for completing the lesson, and notes of any other resources or books you might use to teach the lesson. Grade level and ages are also indicated.
One of my favorite features of these lessons is the comments section at the end. Here you’ll often find notes from other teachers who have tried the lesson describing what worked, what didn’t work, and what might help the piece come out even better. You’ll find variations of the projects here as well.
Although these lessons are intended for teachers in a traditional classroom with a lot of students, they can easily be used for homeschooled students as well. You can use them as art lessons by themselves or as part of a unit study. There are so many lessons at IncredibleArt, you’re sure to find several that not only relate to what your children are studying, but that are a lot of fun to do, too!
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Like many parts of the country, we’re experiencing unusually high temperatures during these summer days. While we love being outdoors, it’s hard to spend time outside when the weather is so hot. If you’re looking for ways for your children to stay cool this summer, why not plan a party?
Plan a Pool Party: If you have a pool in your backyard, invite your child’s friends over for a get-together. Have them bring floats, goggles, noodles, and a snack to share.
Plan a Splash Party: If you don’t have access to a pool, a splash party is the next best thing, maybe even better for little ones. Set up rotating sprinklers in your yard, and add a slip ‘n slide. Plan a water balloon toss and a squirt gun fight. Bubbles are always a treat; to accommodate several children at once, pour the bubble mixture into a large bowl and use flyswatters to create hundreds of tiny bubbles.
Plan a Craft Party: When it’s just too hot to be outside, move the party indoors with a craft party. Ask each guest plan a craft and bring enough supplies for everyone. For ideas, visit websites such as FamilyFun.com or AllFreeCrafts.com.
Plan a Movie Party: Does your family have a favorite movie? Call up your child’s friends and invite them to a matinee showing at your house. Be sure to have plenty of popcorn and drinks available!
Plan a Cooking Party: You don’t have to prepare the snacks for this party. Invite guests to come help prepare a meal or just a refreshing treat. Kid-friendly recipes can be found online at Kids-Cooking-Activities.com or Easy-Kids-Recipes.com.
As you begin planning the party, be sure to get your children involved with that as well. Have them write out the invitations or make the phone calls. Let them help you plan for the food or supplies you’ll need, and take them shopping with you. Encourage them to come up with decorating ideas. They’ll find that summer parties are a lot of fun — in more ways than one!
Picture By: popofatticus
Exciting Summer Study and Homework Help by Smart Tutor
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It’s that time again — time to finalize plans for the coming school year. Perhaps you already have your lessons in order, but, if you’re like me, you still have a lot to do before you feel confident and prepared. While I have some plans about the curriculum we’re going to use, I’ve been getting ideas from other homeschooling friends and family about what’s worked for them and what new programs they’re going to try. I’ve also been looking at curriculum reviews online, and one of my favorites sites for this is CathyDuffyReviews.com.
Cathy Duffy is a veteran homeschooler and known as a curriculum specialist. Having homeschooled her own three boys through high school, she now researches curriculum and teaching methods for all grade levels. As one might suspect, then, her site is full of reviews of products for every subject you might teach, from preschool resources to core classes to the arts and other electives.
The site CathyDuffyReviews is easy to read and navigate through, as all of the subjects covered are listed in the buttons on the left. The first thing you’ll find are reviews of how-to books as well as price comparisons, both for those new to homeschooling and those who have taught for many years,
Next, you’ll find articles about the different methods of teaching, as well as an overview of publishers that produce materials for homeschooling. From there you can choose the subjects you’re interested in, and you can search through the reviews to find the curriculum that would best suit your family’s needs. There is also a book available entitled Top 100 Picks for Homeschooling Curriculum, and updates to this book can be found on the website as well.
So if you’re still in the planning stages for the fall, talk to other homeschoolers and give this site a try. You’ll find it to be informative, helpful, and full of great information!
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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For about three years, we visited an “adopted” grandmother in a nursing home. We didn’t know her before we started visiting; we just asked the activities director if there was someone that we could meet with once a week, someone without many family members or friends already coming to call. In the course of our visits, we started asking our new friend about her childhood. Her answers astounded my children.
She grew up in rural South Carolina in the 1900’s. Her family warmed their house with a wood stove, and she rode to a one-room schoolhouse in a wagon. After school, she didn’t have much time to play; she and her siblings had to work in the garden every afternoon. They grew all of their own food, even their own sugar cane, and her mother sewed all of their clothes. Her only toys were a doll and a wagon her brother had made.
What a great lesson for my children! As they were learning compassion and kindness in visiting our friend, they were also learning her story, and in the process, American history as well.
When someone speaks about the events of their past in such as way, it’s called an oral history. Oral histories are invaluable, as often the speaker doesn’t write the stories down, and then sadly, with their passing, the story is lost. An oral history project saves those stories by putting them in print, and it’s an easy project for students to do.
First, have the students ask any older adults they know if they would like to be interviewed. They might ask a grandparent, neighbor, etc. Then, together, compile a list of questions for your child to ask. You’ll find that as the person answers the questions, you’ll think of even more follow-up questions. Your child can take notes as the speaker talks, or you can take along a small tape recorder or video camera.
Finally, have your student write out the story. Share it with the older adult as well. With permission, you can use a recent photo of the person. You might even ask if they have an older photo from their own childhood that you could include.
You can also find websites to help you with this project:
- The History Channel: www.history.com/images/media/interactives/oralhistguidelines.pdf
- Scholastic: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp
- YouthSource: http://www.youthsource.ab.ca/teacher_resources/oral_overview.html
Check them out, find an “interviewee,” and get started saving those stories!
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
Picture By: papertygre
Tagged as:
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Learning,
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Stories,
Writing
Often, children who don’t work on any academics during the summer will forget some of what they learned the previous year. Time is spent in the fall, then, reviewing what was covered in the spring instead of moving on. Textbook companies know this, so many math and grammar books only contain review material for the first several chapters.
While you may choose to continue schooling through the summer with regular lessons, another option would be to re-introduce concepts now and then between playdates, traveling, and summer projects. While you could purchase workbooks to keep the lessons fresh, you might find it easier just to print off worksheets from the Internet. For just about any subject, you can find websites with free printables, especially for the younger grades. Here are a few to try:
- TLSBooks.com – I visited this site quite a bit during the school year as well. Featuring free worksheets for students in preschool through the fifth grade, this site is both easy to read and easy to navigate, and new printables are added every month.
- Kidszone.ws – This site is also very easy to go through, as pages are divided into categories featuring both grade levels and subject matter. One of our favorite activities for learning letters and letter sounds was the Itsy Bitsy Letter Books found in the Kindergarten section.
- EnchantedLearning.com – This site has been around for a while, and we’ve enjoyed it for years. Though it requires a yearly subscription to access all of its thousands of worksheets, many of them can be downloaded for free.
For children who have been out of “school” for a while, educational worksheets are not only a good way to sharpen those skills, but they can also be a fun change of pace.
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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Finding books for your middle school student or young adult can sometimes be difficult, as the content in some of the books may not be a good fit for your family. Authors of works for older kids will often try to “push the envelope” by including scenes or language you might feel are inappropriate for your children to read.
How then, do you find summer reading choices for your older students without first reading every book yourself? While you might look for recommendations online or ask your librarian, you could also do what a friend of mine did and ask other homeschooling parents which books have been favorites for their families. Here’s what we came up with:
For Middle School Students:
- Esperanza Rising and Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
- I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
- The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E.L. Konigsburg
- Dragons Gate by Lawrence Yep
- Crispin: Cross of Lead and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
- Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
- My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
- The Squire and the Scroll and The Princess and the Kiss by Jennie Bishop
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
- A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
- Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
- The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong
- The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee
- The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood
- Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
- Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
- Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson
For High School Students:
- The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
- Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
- The Hawk that Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O’Dell
- Silas Mariner by George Eliot
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
- The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
- Christy by Catherine Marshall
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- The Pearl by John Steinbeck
- Les Miserable by Victor Hugo
- The Trumpeter from Krakow by Eric Kelly
- The Good Master by Kate Seredy
- The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
- Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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Summer
Whether or not your children are working on school lessons the summer, it’s still a good time to keep them reading. Often, libraries will have summer reading programs or contests for kids to keep them motivated.
If you’re looking for some good books for your children but aren’t sure where to start, ask your librarian for a recommended reading list. Or, even better, ask other homeschooling families about any good books they’ve read recently. Then, compile a list to share with everyone. One of our friends did just that, and here are some of the books on our list for the younger children:
Picture Books:
- Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
- The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
- Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss
- The Diggingest Dog by Al Perkins
- A Fish out of Water by Helen Palmer
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
- If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- Caps for Sale Esphyr Slobodkina
- The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber
- Elmer and the Lost Teddy by David McKee
- If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
- The Signmaker’s Assistant by Tedd Arnold
- My Very Own Octopus by Bernard Most
- Curious George by H.A. Rey
- Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parrish
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
- Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel
- My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
- Rain, Rain, Everywhere by Christine Leeson
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
- How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
- Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
For Older Elementary:
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- The Great Cheese Conspiracy by Jean van Leeuwen
- The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman.
- The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr
- Jacob’s Gift by Max Lucado
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
- Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander
- What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras, A Math Adventure by Julie Ellis
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
- The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
- Saint George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges
- The First Blue Jeans by Ricki Dru
- The Spyglass by Richard Paul Evans
- The Librarian who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
- Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
- A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
Series:
- The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Hank the Cowdog series by John Erickson
- Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson – Christian author
- Holling Clancy Holling books
- Biographies by Leonard Everett Fisher
- Poppy & Rye series by Avi
- The Squire’s Tale series by Gerald Morris
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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Summer
Summer is a good time for me to catch up on some reading, especially when I’m sitting by the pool as the children swim. One of the books I just finished has served as a great reminder to me that even as a homeschooling mom, I can choose how I approach my daily work.
The book is Fish! by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen. The book follows Mary Jane, an office manager who is given the task of overhauling her department, one that the rest of the company calls a “toxic energy dump.” One day, as she takes a walk to consider her problem, she comes upon the world famous Pike’s Place Fish Market. Over the next couple of weeks, she talks to the workers, who reveal the four secret ingredients to their success:
- Choose Your Attitude: Even though you can’t always do the work you love, you can choose to love your work. You can choose to approach it with a good attitude and determine to do it the best you can.
- Play: Work doesn’t always have to be tedious. Find ways to make your work and work environment more fun.
- Be Present: When you’re interacting with someone, give him your full attention.
- Make Their Day: Think about what you can do for someone else.
What a great reminder! As a homeschooling parent, I often get bogged down with the workbooks, the schedules, the housekeeping and chores. The day becomes about “getting everything done” instead of enjoying what we are doing, which was one of the reasons we began homeschooling in the first place.
But we can have that same kind of energy, the same attitude as the workers at the fish market. We can approach the schoolwork (yes, even summer work) with a good attitude. We can add more learning games into our school day, and we can even have fun cleaning the house or working in the yard together. I can give my children my full attention when they talk to me or when I’m helping them with their lessons, and I can teach them to give that kind of attention and respect to each other. And we can learn to “make each others’ day.”
I’m already looking forward to the changes I’m going to see with my children as a result of this quick read. More than just about changing the work atmosphere, Fish! is about building character – theirs and mine.
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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The relaxed days of summer are a good time for children to try new things. If you’re child has an interest in learning a musical instrument, this might just be the season to start.
Studies have linked listening to music (particularly Mozart’s compositions) and playing music to an increased ability in spatial reasoning, the type of reasoning used when working on math or drawing. Adding music study into your curriculum also helps develop your child’s confidence and self-discipline.
If you don’t play a musical instrument yourself, don’t worry. There are many ways to find a music teacher for your child. Here are a few resources to consider:
- Family Members: Do you have relatives living close by? Is there a family member in your town who is proficient in playing a musical instrument? If he doesn’t already teach lessons, ask if he would consider starting out with your child.
- Friends: Ask your homeschooling friends if they play a musical instrument. Many times people will play while in school, then stop when they have families to take care of. Encourage your friend to pull out her instrument, dust it off, and give teaching a try. If you don’t have the funds to pay for the lessons, ask your friend if she will consider bartering her services; perhaps you could cook her a meal on lesson day, or help with babysitting or lawn care.
- Members of the Local Orchestra: Many larger cities have an orchestra or community band. Ask around to see if any of the members give private lessons.
- Music Store Employees: The music store in our town offers lessons for beginners on many instruments. If there’s a music store in your area, check to see if lessons are available there as well.
- High School and College Students: If your child is just beginning to play an instrument, consider hiring a student teacher. Ask the band director or department chair for recommendations.
With so many options, you can help your child start making music in no time!
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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musical instruments,
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Summer
This week, I’ve been helping with an art camp for kids in our community, sponsored by the local artists’ association. Because my class was working on writing activities, the art teacher had the kids make their own books. They made two different styles:
1. The accordion-style: The theme of this art camp was “Art Around the World”, so when we talked about Asia, the children wrote their own haiku poem. After writing their rough drafts, they copied their poems on a rectangular piece of paper (about 8″ x 4″). We used vellum, but any paper would do. Then, they decorated two pieces of mat board (about 1.5″ x 6″) for the cover. They then folded the paper like a fan or accordion, glued the one end of each paper to a piece of mat board, and finished the book. To hold it together when it wasn’t being read, they tied it with gold string.
2. Traditional-style: This book also had a cover made of mat board, but you could use thin cardboard or even cardstock. After cutting the cover pieces and the pages to the desired size, the art instructor drilled two holes along the left edge of the books (you could use a hole punch with a thinner cover). We then laced a string through the holes and tied it off to hold the book together. This is an ideal style to use as a journal, nature journal, or storybook.
Though we only had time to make the two types of books, a quick search on the Internet will give you even more bookmaking ideas. A couple of sites to check out include:
BookmakingWithKids.com – This blog is full of resources for making books with children, from book structure, to writing ideas, to ways of incorporating bookmaking into your lessons.
MakingBooksWithChildren.com – Another great resource if you’re looking for bookmaking ideas, this site features instructions for making nine different types of books, as well as instructional ideas and writing prompts.
Summer is an ideal time to try new activities with your children, and bookmaking can be one of them. Give it a try; it may just inspire your family to keep writing the whole year through.
Guest Blogger: Samantha Bell
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Tagged as:
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bookmaking,
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Fun,
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ideas,
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