art by the morning light

We started our new art program this morning (Art Lab for Kids).  So far, it's lovely.

A twisty path through history

History has recently become much more complicated around here.

I was following a chronological approach to history, with both children learning about the same time period but at a different level of depth.  Carbon had already worked his way through Book One of The Story of the World, and then Hypatia joined us on Book Two jumping right into the Middle Ages.  (My plan was to catch her up on ancient history when we looped back around to the beginning).

But.

Well, first it was my fault.  I became worried about how little American History they knew, and dissatisfied with what short-shrift the western hemisphere civilizations get in SOTW.  So we stopped and read Before Columbus together to get a better idea of what was happening on this side of the world.  I loved Before Columbus, and I just made up my own review questions and narration prompts as we went along.

Then I thought the kids would go back to SOTW as I had planned before.  But they didn't want to.  Carbon wanted to study the World Wars, and Hypatia wanted to go back to Ancient Egypt. He argued (successfully) that he would learn better if he was interested.  She argued (successfully) that it wasn't fair to make her wait to come back to ancient times because she had been too young when we did it before.

And there goes my chronological plan.  It looks like we are Interest-Led for history from now on.  I'm doing a unit study on World War 1 with Carbon, and a unit study on Ancient Egypt with Hypatia.  I'm still going to keep all these resources on hand, to fill in the gaps in between (both in between major historical events and in between when they don't have a specific interest), but I guess for now we'll hop through time like some sort of crazy time travelers and just study what they find interesting.

I also really want to weave the People's History in as we go, but we'll see how that works out.

It's like a treasure hunt ...

And then they can take a break and play with chickens.

 




Wondering about the face paint?  She got that earlier in the day at camp ... I don't think the chickens noticed. :)

Pickling Season

Nature study kind of "sucked" today ....

Because we explored the mudflats!  Hypatia almost lost her shoes several times. :)



Bird foot prints, barnacles, air holes that just begged for some digging to see what might be down there, mussels, and crabs ....  oh, and a blue heron and a bald eagle.

Picture Books for the 6th Principle

Our 6th of the 7 UU Principles is The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

Following our Rainbow scheme for the kids it is worded (Indigo Promise)  Insist on Peace and Justice for All 

The books we read for this Principle this summer:

Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker is an unflinching, but beautifully illustrated, reflection on all the consequences of war.

Can You Say Peace? shows children from around the world saying "peace" in different languages.

What Does Peace Feel Like? has quotes from children about what peace feels, smells, tastes, and sounds like.  It's quite delightful.

Peace Begins With You is my favorite, being a simple explanation of conflict, peace, and how we can work toward peace.

This list of books about peace and social justice looks promising also.

I love summer camps

We have just finished a week of both kids having half-day camps: Visual Effects Movie Making Camp and Play in Spanish Camp.

Their play at home is now heavily movie-making oriented, and I keep turning around and realizing they are filming me with the camera and tripod I let them use.  Too much enthusiasm can be trying for Mama to live with, but it's also pretty cute.

What I love about summer camps when they are done well is that the kids can try something new and really get immersed in it for what feels like just long enough - it inspires but then ends leaving you wanting more.  The length of a camp lets them actually do larger projects within the camp time, such as making a movie, putting on a play, or surveying a beach.  And camps bring people with different expertise and places that are not always accessible to the kids for a pretty cool learning experience.

They are already talking about what camps they want to do next year. :)