Red Kites

Sarah continued our nature unit on birds of prey with a lesson on Red Kites.

As well as facts about the birds, we learned much about the history of Red Kites in Britain.

Worksheets were completed to revise the lesson.

Everyone also completed a painting of a Red Kite. An outline was provided by Sarah.

Noah's painting

Line 'em up, Limbourgh brothers, and a little bit of math

Caleb cut out pictures and then ordered them from smallest to biggest.

 We read about the Limbourgh brothers and viewed August (Departure for the Falcon Hunt), a painting from a calendar used by the Duke of Berry. The Reid boys each painted a calendar page.

Noah went outside to sketch as his memory of the house and surroundings was not sufficient.

September, by Noah Reid

Work in progress

 Cooper and Noah do some math skills before beginning their math worksheets each day. Saxon Math provides a 1/4 page size worksheet. I recreated the sheets on card stock and put them in wipe-off envelopes. The boys each have a box to hold a clock, flash cards, coins, etc.

Cooper has been very disciplined with his individual work.

Back in the Groove

We jumped right back into school after our month-long trip to the States (arrived in London on a Friday afternoon and started school Monday morning), but blogging has been delayed due to a super-busy mom. Here are a few photos from our first week back:

Caleb has LOVED his new workbooks. My mom and I visited Anders Bookstore in Mobile - an ENTIRE STORE dedicated to school supplies. I don't know of any such stores in the UK. We spent a long time there, and I stocked up on some goodies. As an aside, I don't think workbooks are necessary at Caleb's age, but he wants to do school like big brothers.

For our art project, we read about Giotto and then painted mini-frescos by applying a thin layer of all purpose filler to cardboard.

It's been great to get back to the nature reserve. I think of it as ours because we live so near and know it so well.

Haydn and Giotto

We finished reading Joseph Haydn, The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher. Another great read. There were two notable highlights for the boys. 1) Hadyn visited England and was invited to Oxford where he enjoyed walks and picnics along the River Thames (us too!). Do you see the Sheldonian Theatre in the picture above?  2) His surprise symphony has a sudden sharp chord that was meant to wake the ladies who nodded sleepily during the concerts. We had to play Adante from the Surprise Symphony several times so the boys could crack up at the surprise chord. 

This book introduced us to Giotto. It was also the perfect follow-up to our last two art lessons on Cimabue who was Giotto's teacher. 

Weekly art project:

First, cover cardboard with white or grey oil pastel. 

Look super cute while doing so.

Next, apply black pastel liberally over entire surface.

Finally, scratch picture. We used nails.

"E", Birdies, and Cimabue

 Preschool practice continues with the letter E:

We read Elmer and did several activities.

Egg starts with E. Caleb and Cooper put together a Humpty Dumpty puzzle.

Caleb attempts to put Humpty together again.

We've been studying birds at our Thursday nature class. We put these felt garden birdies together on a rainy afternoon.

 Cimabue has been the focus of our art lessons the past two weeks. We have no gold leaf, so we made do with yellow construction paper.

Artistic Pursuits

We began our new art program, Artistic Pursuits, on Friday. So far, so good. 

Cooper's inspiration.

Rembrandt - Self Portraits

We're studying the Baroque Period in music, and I've decided to stick with the same in art. Today, we were introduced briefly to Rembrandt, looked at a number of his portrait paintings on the National Gallery's website, and then completed a project from our book, Discovering Great Artists. Rembrandt practiced by making drawings of himself with various expressions. After making lots of crazy faces at one another, the boys set to work.

Noah worked in front of my wardrobe mirror.

Cooper set up a mirror at his desk.

We only have two mirrors, so Caleb sat in front of the computer at Nick's desk/my dressing table. He had a great time scribble scrabbling (his words) and spreading papers about.

Noah was prolific.

Cooper spent a lot of time contemplating the best way to go about the project.

Outdoor Painting

 

Last week recap + Fieldtrip to Waddesdon Manor

I've had to compile activities for Caleb who's keen on joining big brothers.

Working together

Still ready to drum

We began our study of value in art with a project that demonstrates the striking contrast of black and white.

Waddesdon Manor:

Ready to go

Waddesdon Manor, country house of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild

Amazing staircase towers

Down-time on the awesome playground

Checking out birds in the aviary

School Post-holidays: A brief run down

We've been on a great schedule since the holidays, and school's going incredibly well. Here are a few shots from the past weeks:

A completed activity related to Doctor Desoto:

 Noah worked diligently:

 We're still working with color in art. This week's lesson focused on contrast:

 The British Isles in geography:

 Nick busted out the chalkboards for Greek:

 This is one of our new classroom additions. Subjects for the day are stuck to the piano (I hope to move them to an easel at some point) and removed after completion.

 Moving on to secondary colors in art: