Mixing up science and language arts

While Ds#2 was working on his lapbook, I told him to add a colon before his bullet list. He says, "That's not a colon, a colon is your intestines."

I say, "Well, actually, your colon is your large intestines."

He asks, "So what are the small intestines, the semi-colon?"

You can see where his strengths and weaknesses are at this point, LOL!

The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

Blessed Easter everyone!

"Education is the science of relations," is the expression at the center of Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy. Below you will find many excellent ways to make those relations in so many subjects.


Art & Artist Study relations
Lizzie presents Charlotte Mason Art Study~Van Gogh posted at A Dusty Frame.

Julie Moses presents Kids Art Projects and Lessons at Ms. Julie's Place: Oh My Gosh it's a Bosch! Part Two the Art Lesson posted at Kids Art Projects and Lessons at Ms. Julie's Place.

I present Creating an Artist Study posted on this blog, of course.

Nature Study relations
Amanda presents A Few Spring Nature Study Ideas posted at Hearts and Trees.

Molly Evert presents Empowering Kids to Run with Their Ideas posted at Counter-cultural School.

Andrea presents A handful of Chickadees and Nuthatches posted at Kids and Nature.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom presents Tulips in the Garden: Wednesday Flower Study #3=Fresh Faces posted at Handbook of Nature Study.

Literature & Shakespeare relations
Shannon presents A Great Introduction to Shakespeare posted at Mountaineer Country.

Geography relations
Jessica presents Geography and Paddle-to-the-Sea posted at Established Work - Homeschool Blogger.

Marie Watson presents A Virtual Field Trip toThe Last Best Place.... Montana posted at Teaching Charlotte Mason One Day At A Time.

Music & Composer Study relations
Makita presents But I'm Serious posted at Twinkling Stars Family School.

Angie presents Our March Composer: Vivaldi posted at THEONETHING.

Charlotte Mason
Katie Glennon presents Please Take Our Survey to help her develop more Charlotte Mason materials posted at Katie's Homeschool Cottage.

Brenda presents What % of your homeschool is inspired by Ms. Mason? posted at The Tie That Binds Us.

Beth Bellinder presents Considering Charlotte posted at Apples and Jammies.

Lisa presents Ouch! You got me there, Miss Mason! Letting her read it herself! posted at Hopewell Takes On LIFE!.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom presents Reflections on a Charlotte Mason High School posted at Harmony Art Mom.

Homeschooling Inspirations
Renae presents The Children's Hour posted at Life Nurturing Education.

Sunday presents Reason #129 to Homeschool.... posted at Pickles, Pumpkins, and Peanuts.


Now isn't that just some kind of blog carnival? What a pleasure it is to host! Thank you all for sharing your gifts. :o)

Creating an Artist Study

Not being well acquainted with artists and their works, I have some difficulty putting together an artist's study. I prefer to have a new picture each week for a term, but what do I choose? Where can I find images? I found a couple of free resources from my local library that has made this much easier.

The What Make A... series by Richard Muhlberger is readily available through most library systems. These books are around 50 pages that are both biography and art appreciation by following the life and the works of great artists. The series is put out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who has many images available online to view and download.

My library also offers free access to many online databases from home using my library card, one of which is Oxford (Grove) Art Online. This database has thousands of large images available, many of which are from the NY Met.

I decided to study Monet for this term, so I borrowed What Makes a Monet a Monet? from the library. I then logged into Oxford Art Online and downloaded the pictures, and printed them on matte paper to put in our art study notebook. I googled the few images in the book that were not available through the database; those pictures are smaller, so they don't print as well, but at least I had them. Now we can read through the book each week and study the images. Maybe we'll even make it back to the Met this summer and actually see these works!

When I Say Inspiring

The boys loved the Hyperdo so much they decided to build it with the original scale Zome struts (medium and short, with a few long to get started) to compare it to the new scale (extra short and hypershort with a few medium to get started.) What a difference! The smaller scale is much easier to work with but the larger scale is so impressive.

The larger ball is 4.2358 times larger than the smaller ball, which is the Golden Ratio (1.6180) cubed. Imagine the size if it were build with long and medium struts?

MEP, Geometry, and Zome

Ds#1 just started book #3 of 6 for MEP Year 3, and it began with Geometry. The picture is the student page, which he hasn't even done yet because we've been having so much fun discussing and exploring the exercises presented in the Lesson Plans.

This, of course, led to us talking about Zomes. We actually haven't build with them in awhile, so now that we are on break this week I decided to build the Hyperdo Model with them. You can read all about Zomes, see the models, and even get some discount codes from AtHomeScience: Hyperdo Kit from Zome.

Our homeschool co-op bought Zome kits when we first started. Mostly they have been used by the 6 to 8 year olds to just build whatever they wished. Ds#1, after the geometry lesson, asked if we could have a Zome co-op class where we learn more about geometry. I told him I thought it was a great idea, though I silently considered how many other kids would be excited about a geometry class. I'll offer it for the fall and see. It was a heart-warming homeschool moment.

BTW, at the Zome site you can download free lesson plans for grades 1-12 and even get low cost loaner kits for a co-op classroom.