Tag: Summer school

Getting our Summer Groove

Tracy

We’re several weeks into our new routine now, and loving summer! Nature walks, art, some music theory, poetry—summer school is in full swing. And thankfully, it’s all that I’d hoped and intended it to be.

I get a lot of questions about our summer school schedule, so I thought I’d share what our day looks like right now.

First of all, I’ve split our subjects and assigned them on different days. For instance, we do art and nature study one day; we do music and perhaps some poetry on another day; we do Life of Fred everyday. In all, we do our activities for roughly an hour a day. Nothing heavy, and lots of fun mommy-time with the kids.

music theory and music appreciation
music theory and music appreciation

Every day looks a little different. This is summer. This is our break. And while I want something to structure our days, I don’t want to be so regimented we’re not getting our breather. So first thing in the morning, I send them outside to play, to take advantage of the cool mornings before everything heats up. After playing for a couple of hours, they are usually ready for some structured activities. Oldest is still doing his Reflex Math everyday, usually while I shower and finish up with Littlest. Our “summer school” usually gets started around 11 a.m. and finishes up when we get hungry, around noon-ish.

Oldest's rendition of our dog at sunset
Oldest’s rendition of our dog at sunset

One day, we took a walk and did a nature scavenger hunt  (something taller than you, something smaller than your thumb, something that needs air, etc.); we also talked about the anatomy of trees and the different kinds of trees (deciduous/broadleaf and conifer/evergreen). Then we came in, cooled off, and did some art, learning to sketch with an ebony pencil.

art and nature study
art and nature study

On another day, we read Life of Fred on the front porch and then did a read-aloud together.

Another day, we practiced music together, learning notes on the scale using Lady Treble and the Seven Notes and Oldest’s recorder lesson book and Middlest’s Dora piano.

We added some extra stickers from "Lady Treble" to her Dora piano.
We added some extra stickers from “Lady Treble” to her Dora piano.

On yet another day, we went for a walk to pick different kinds of leaves, we read about the different leaf shapes and why plants need leaves, then we did leaf rubbings in our nature notebooks—and watercolored.

summer school schedule

It’s a little structure and a lot of fun. It’s learning in a casual setting. It’s creating and exploring and enjoying summer.

Sprouting Artists

Tracy

In the past, our art studies have been more art appreciation, studying the great artists. This summer, I chose to make our music and art studies a little more practical. We’re not neglecting the greats, but we are doing a lot more of the creating for ourselves, rather than copying from others.

I snagged a discounted copy of Artistic Pursuits on ebay, and we’ve been working through a couple of the lessons each week. It combines picture study and some artist information while providing plenty of practical creating. We’ve been experimenting with different art media for the first time: watercolor, oil pastel, etc.

We’ve also supplemented with some youtube videos to help us with a few tips on how to use the medium we are working with.

My budding artists have loved the process.

oil pastel landscapes
oil pastel landscapes
Oldest's corn stalk
Oldest’s corn stalk
Middlest's flower
Middlest’s flower

With the oil pastels, we learned about smearing the wax from the pastels to blend the colors and scratching into the colors with a toothpick to add more texture. And as far as supplies, we’ve kept it cheap—a set of oil pastels for $4.99 at Walmart that we all share and a stack of newsprint paper from Hobby Lobby.

I love having them take art outside. Not only does it keep the mess to a minimum for me, but it gives them more fresh sunshine and the thrill of outdoor art.

In a way, I miss the intimate way we’ve gotten to know our artists in the past, but it has been fun to be a little less formal and a lot more creative.

 

 

Summer Unschooling

Tracy

We’ve got a tradition at our house that is now 3 years in the making. Summer school is absolutely the highlight of the year. All of us can hardly wait to close the textbooks and start summer.

I started summer school at the end of Oldest’s K4 year for a few different reasons. First, we love the structure that school brings to our day. Too much unstructured play breeds chaos and bickering at my house. We’re a family that loves a routine and a regular schedule. Second, I didn’t want to spend three months forgetting what we’d just spent months to learn. I wanted something to hold it all in their little heads and to keep it growing.

Thus, summer school was born, but not an endless rhythm of the same lessons: even we need a break. Summer school is our time for nature walks, nature journals, and nature study; science and discovery; messy art and picture studies; classical music, water parties, and mud pie bakeries. It’s not at all “school” in the traditional sense. It’s not even school in the classical sense. It’s more a mixture of Charlotte Mason and unschooling, nurturing a fascination for the beauty of creation.

Summer School

And our summer studies have been some of our most memorable. Middlest, who was 2 when we had our first “summer school,” loves Handel’s water music and often asks when we will have another water party. Both of the kids light up when they see a waterlily painting; it’s Monet! And the nature journals are close-companions all summer long, including on vacation trips.

So what’s on the agenda for this summer?

Let’s break out the swimming pool and turn up the Mozart. It’s time for summer!

A “Trip” to the Beach with Art

Tracy

Beach Scene Chalk Pastels

I’m loving chalk pastel art and the free tutorials over at Hodgepodge. We’re new to the scene, just dusting our fingers with it, but already in love.

Our latest project was a beach scene, a perfect beginner lesson. The tutorial is very step-by-step, and the results are impressive.

Chalk Pastel Art

So is the mess, but my little helpers have been very good about wiping up after the lesson.

I wanted to walk you through some of my reservations about using chalk pastels, just in case someone else out there is hesitant to take the plunge.

First, purchasing art supplies—real art supplies, not just crayola and elmer’s—made me a little skeptical. I mean, my kids are 6 and 4. It’s hard to justify the REAL stuff. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Chalk pastels and some newsprint paper were relatively inexpensive, definitely no more than the crayola/elmer category.

Then, there was the issue of taking care of the REAL stuff. I have to be honest, knowing the state of most of our crayons, I was very hesitant about REAL chalk. The kids did excellent during our first lesson; of course, I was harping at their elbows about being gentle. But our most recent lesson did in a number of our brand new chalks. Which is when I discovered that what I feared really wasn’t all that bad. The chalks broke, the earth kept rotating, and we all moved on.

Time was another factor. If dragging it out and cleaning it up took too much time, it just wasn’t going to happen very often around here. So I timed this last lesson, start to finish, to know just how long it took. To my utter surprise, it took almost exactly 20 minutes from donning the plastic GLAD bag aprons to wiping up the last specks of dust. Even I can do a 20 minute (including clean-up) art lesson.

Another question I had was wondering if my kids would be capable of this kind of art. And I’ve discovered what everyone keeps blogging about, that this art medium really is perfect for little ones because it is so forgiving. The kids have a great time with it. Oldest has a precise project that turns out very closely to the original we are following, and Middlest has lots of freedom to create. And I’ll admit, I’m having a blast, too.

Beach by 6 year old
Beach by my meticulous 6 year old
Beach by my creative 4 year old
Beach by my creative 4 year old

I am so glad I took the plunge into chalk pastel art. It’s going to be a great summer.

Making a Mess with Art

Tracy2 Comments on Making a Mess with Art

As our “school-year” schedule eases up, our “summer-school” schedule begins here—a mix of art and music and nature study. This will be our third summer of this routine, and it’s amazing how quickly this has become a tradition. As soon as the weather starts warming and the trees begin to bloom, our fingers get the itch for messy art.

So we kicked off the season the other day with some chalk pastels. I am a hard-core art wanna-be. I would love to be adept at painting and chalking and drawing and the like. In reality, my work rarely turns out much better than the kids. But we love it.

Chalk Pastel Lesson

I’ve perused the chalk tutorials at Hodgepodge for awhile, too nervous to jump in. But finally, I bought a set of pastels and took the plunge. We did the “To the Woods” tutorial as our first study. The kids did really well, and absolutely loved it. I had prepped them in advance. You see, my Oldest is a little OCD when it comes to getting his hands dirty. I wanted to be sure he knew exactly what he was in for. He had so much fun that in the end it didn’t bother him too much to get dirty, especially with a wipe nearby.

6 year old's masterpiece
6 year old’s masterpiece
4 year old's masterpiece
4 year old’s masterpiece
My humble first attempts
My humble first attempts

 

Middlest didn’t mind the mess in the least. She got right down to it. And you should have seen her eyes light up when I mentioned that we were turning the chalk on it’s side to color parts of our picture. This is her favorite way to color, and I can’t stand a square crayon so I rarely let her partake in this treat. They both had so much fun with the project that they decided to add some flowers to their path, just wanting to try other colors and prolong the lesson.

Littlest's masterpiece and introduction to crayons
Littlest’s masterpiece and introduction to crayons

Even Littlest got in on the art time. With Mozart playing on my Naxos app on my ipod, we all got our fingers dirty in our first summer lesson of the season. And it felt, oh-so-good!

Study of a Bug’s Life: Praying Mantis

Tracy

I love the Lord’s impromptu appearances into our lesson plans, His provision for up-close observation in His always perfect timing. Just before our bug study, we were fellowshipping with friends and happened upon the largest praying mantis I have ever seen.

The children were a little intimidated (I honestly don’t blame them; this was a mammoth insect—and this incident occurred before my kids had been introduced to the plastic variety). I didn’t have my camera with me. But my friend was most obliging and took photos of the giant for me.

insect study for young children

insect study

 

After we finished our Week of Bugs, I showed the pictures to the kids, and we talked about this event. The kids had warmed up to the mantis, or at least, he wasn’t as intimidating in a photo. They had fun counting his legs and naming his body parts.

The Lord is so good to us, taking notice of something as small as a five year old and a nearly-four year old studying bugs.

Study of a Bug’s Life: Insect Life Stages

Tracy

The next stop on our Week of Bugs tour was a study of the insect life stages. I read in God’s Design for Life: World of Animals book about complete and incomplete metamorphosis and the different stages of the process. While I was reading, we illustrated the whole process with our very cool plastic insect life stages.

study of insect metamorphosis

As we read about eggs, I had the kids find all of the eggs from each of the different insect sets. We had a butterfly egg, ant eggs, beetle eggs, praying mantis soft and hard egg cases, and ladybug eggs.

We looked at the praying mantis nymphs and talked about the three stages of incomplete metamorphosis.

When we read about larvae, the kids found all of the plastic insect larvae and lined them up for me. Then, we talked about pupae and the chrysalis.

Last, I had the kids each choose two insects and take me through the complete (or incomplete) metamorphosis. Once again, the plastic insects made teaching and drilling so much fun!

study of insect life stages
Metamorphosis of a Darkling Beetle

 

study of butterfly life stages
Metamorphosis of a Painted Lady Butterfly

We wrapped up the week with a look at arachnids (spiders and scorpions) and, on the last day, a video about the monarch butterfly.

It was absolutely as much fun as I had hoped it would be. And really, though I had originally planned for our lessons to be once a week for a month, I think it turned out even better to have done it all in one week. Now to go catch some arthropods!