Would You Mark this Wrong?

by Jimmie on March 13, 2010

illustrated math problem

illustrated math

I think it was the word illustrate that got Sprite. She sincerely thought this was what the question wanted her to do. And I guess on one level, she actually did follow the directions.

I asked her why a math test would want her to draw faces on the numbers. She agreed, “Yeah, I thought it was strange, but I did what they asked me to do. I illustrated it.”

Yet another reason to take these tests every now and then.

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Matisse Artist Study

by Jimmie on March 11, 2010

We’re about halfway finished with our study of Matisse, our artist for the term. There’s no real reason why this term is Matisse except that we had an over-sized Matisse art book on hand.  I just randomly choose artists for us to study. And I think that if you’re trying to begin artist study, it doesn’t really matter where you start. Just choose an artist and plunge in. The artist doesn’t have to tie into your history lessons at all.

matisse artist study reproduction

Sprite has asked me several times why Matisse and Picasso were always painting nudes. So she noticed. Yes, well, I’m not exactly sure myself. (But I ventured a convoluted explanation anyway.) We tend to skip over the nude paintings and sculptures for our daily art narrations. I don’t go so far as to rip out the pages or black them out. We just flip over them and get to a piece that doesn’t cause so much discomfort.

matisse bio notebooking pageBooks

Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art)

I love, love, love this series of books. They are so interesting and full of graphics.

Henri Matisse art spine

CM said to study one artist per term with one painting every one to two weeks. But we do a painting daily.

Notebooking

Artist biography page from History Scribe.

Activity

Since Matisse did some of his art by cutting out shapes from painted paper, we chose to do a collage style reproduction. To make it really interesting, Sprite chose one of Matisse’s paintings to reproduce from cut out paper shapes.

matisse artist study reproduction

matisse artist study reproduction

matisse artist study reproduction

Sprite’s is the smaller one on the left. Mine is the larger one on the right. It was a really fun activity, and far more challenging that I imagined.

matisse artist study reproduction

Matisse Reproductions

See how simple artist study is? Actually, you don’t even have to do the notebooking page or the reproduction at all. Just a regular exposure to the artwork of one artist each term is all you need. [By the way, this post compiles many weeks of study, so don't think that we do this kind of in-depth art study daily.]

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Rocks the Charlotte Mason Way

March 9, 2010 science

Living books plus hands-on investigation are hallmarks of a Charlotte Mason (CM) education. Our study of rocks & minerals was right along those lines.

I wanted to start off with something that would immediately get Sprite enthusiastic about the topic, so I assigned her to choose any four rocks from our collection and fill out the [...]

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Daily Dose of Chinglish with Your Cup of Coffee

March 8, 2010 Chinglish

I’ve discovered a wonderful shopping option that has almost anything conceivable – Taobao.
So far I’ve bought an oven, an oven thermometer, a camera bag, permanent markers, coffee, and audio books. These are all things I can’t get in my city which I can now buy online and have delivered right to my home. I am [...]

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How to Organize Notebooking Pages

March 6, 2010 notebooking

This post isn’t about how to organize the completed notebooking pages. Instead, this is for mom, the lesson planner and materials organizer.
I’ve got two main tips for managing and organizing your notebooking pages.
1.   When you buy retail sets, print out the table of contents and add that page to your planning notebook.  (You do have [...]

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Being a Polite Foreigner at the Table

March 5, 2010 food

Emily asked a great question, “Does it insult the hostess if you are not interested in trying one of the dishes?”
Short answer — Yes, of course. (I always have to deal with my own hurt when local friends turn up their noses at my carefully prepared casseroles or desserts. “Cheese is gross!” “This is too [...]

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HOTM March Magazine

March 3, 2010 blogs, blogging, & blog carnivals

Have you seen HOTM’s latest magazine? The March 2010 Edition is entitled Focus on Reading. There is a long list of quality entries, dealing with all aspects of teaching reading.
And don’t forget to go on to the next page of articles.
I contributed two articles myself:
Vocabulary in Your Read Aloud Books
and
How to Painlessly Add More [...]

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It’s Entropy, Sweetie

March 2, 2010 living books

Sprite:  [sigh] Mom, why does my room get messy so quickly?
Me:         It’s entropy, sweetie.
Sprite:   What?
Me:         Entropy. [Handing Sprite our new Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia] Look it up.
Sprite reads the encyclopedia entry and looks at me with a smile.
Me:        So, in your case, what is the system that is moving towards disorder?
Sprite:   [with a groan] My room!
So [...]

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Displaying Your Child’s Work

February 26, 2010 blogs, blogging, & blog carnivals

I’m talking about displaying your child’s school work over at Heart of the Matter.
Check it out and jump in on the discussion.

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Chinese New Year Celebrations Contest

February 25, 2010 contests & giveaways

The Chinese New Year is slowly drawing to a close. And my contest is too! Here are the nine entries, each one a unique celebration of the most important holiday in Chinese culture — the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival.

Emily Darling
Melanie
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
Helen
Mrs. Hewett
Bronwyn
Candace
Mama King [...]

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