Artist Study: Henri Matisse

  We took a long break since our last Artist Study on Vincent Van Gogh, but we got back on track with our goal of covering 3-4 artists this school year.  Henri Matisse has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl.  I can vividly recall seeing his masterpiece, One Thousand and One Nights, on a visit to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.  I was eager to share my love for his vibrant paintings and bold collages with the boys.

  We began our study much like the last one, but without the helpful Simply Charlotte Mason portfolio of pictures, because there is not one available for Matisse.  Luckily, there are so many great resources appropriate for children.  One of my favorite is the Usborne Book of Famous Paintings (disclaimer, that link is to my Usborne store, I finally became a rep after buying so many amazing homeschool books).  You can see the book below; it is open to the page about Matisse's Harmony in Red.  It has been a lifesaver for starting discussions about what to notice in paintings.  Here we discussed the painting within the painting and how no one really know if it is a picture or a window because of the frame.

  We set up our own still life with a table, a chair and lots of fruit.  I encouraged the boys to add in some patterns in the style of Matisse rather than painting our plain gray walls.  They also inserted a window/picture just like Matisse after a quick demo in which I illustrated the geometry Matisse used to make the three dimensional frame (two nesting rectangles with 45* lines at each corner). 

  We also used the Matisse from the Taschen collection as a reference book to view the vast illustrations of his work.  Other than that we used picture books, and, boy, are there some fantastic ones out there on Matisse!  The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLaughlin was instantly deemed worthy of purchasing for our home library.  

  Another favorite picture book was Drawing with Scissors by Keesia Johnson and Jane O'Connor.  This delightful book is told from the point of view of Keesia; she selected him to do school project on and the information about his life and art is relayed in a very engaging style.  

  We also read Colorful Dreamer by Marjorie Blain Parker and Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winters.  These both enhanced our study and were enjoyed by all.

  I had every intention of ending our unit with a cutout collage project and we just ran out of steam.  Our unit lasted about a month of twice weekly reading or painting, and everyone was ready to move on before we tackled it.  Will requested Leonardo da Vinci for our next artist, so we will have a combo artist/scientist study next!

Art Appreciation: Van Gogh

  With a background in art history and a lifelong passion for creating and enjoying art, it really surprised me when I realized we were more than halfway through our first year of homeschool without ever having studied any art. Certainly, we had made a great deal of art, we just had not spent any time really studying famous painters or works of art.  Somehow I happened upon a lovely book, Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories by Michael Bird, and we began incorporating art history into our weeks.

 
  I love how each chapter (arranged chronologically) highlights a masterpiece, from a cave painting to a Byzantine mosaic, and tells the story of its creation.  These tales quickly became an integral part of our morning circle time, and they still are, but this year I was determined to do more.

  I decided to try a picture study from Simply Charlotte Mason and ordered the Van Gogh portfolio. I really wasn't sure if a guide and eight nicely printed art prints were worth the price, but the quality is very good and I don't regret the purchase at all.  So far we have used the biography as well as the talking points and information for three of the works and plan to study a few more. I must have had sunflowers on the brain because I bought a bouquet at Trader Joe's and then realized they would be the perfect prop for our own still life painting session.

  We also have been reading some picture books from the library about Van Gogh.  Camille and the  Sunflowers is the hands down favorite.  It's such a sweet story and teaches the importance of accepting and loving people that seem "different."

  We fit art into our rhythm by incorporating it into our morning story time; just ten minutes once or twice a week.  Painting is such a soothing thing for my boys that we tend to do that in the afternoons when it can be hard to start up school again after a lunch and free play break.  They are eager to paint their own versions of Starry Night, so we will attempt that this week. Van Gogh will remain our focus for a few more weeks, so if you have any resources to share please do so.

2016-2017 School Year

  The first day back to homeschool is in the books!  We finished up moments ago and I thought that I would give a little rundown of our plans for this year.  We have a third and fifth grader.  My four year old will go to a nursery school nearby a few mornings a week and join in with us the remainder of the time.
*this post contains links, but none of these items are sponsored, they're just products I enjoy.

  We absolutely loved using Waldorf Essentials last year and are using that as the backbone of our schooling again this year. Waldorf can be overwhelming to newbies, like us, so we've heeded the advice to layer things in.  We are getting better at form drawing, wet on wet painting, handwork, improving our Main Lesson Book Pages (borders!) and incorporating more rhymes, stories with props and math games into our circle time.  Without all of those things, it's hard to stretch out the main lessons into a school day.  We still feel like we need a little bit more.

 Our little bit more will be Brave Writer Arrow.  Our plan is to read aloud the bulk of it with assigned independent reading sections.  Last year I had the boys read everything independently (Quiver of Arrows for the second grade), but now I realize it is meant to be a family read aloud.  I was excited about the selections for Arrow this year (and the party school ideas now included), so we went ahead and bought the year.  Last year I let the boys choose selections each month, but this year we are going to work through them together.  We also use other elements of Brave Writer  throughout our year, like Friday Freewrites and Poetry Teatimes.  It's a wonderful resource.

  Last year we absolutely loved the Beautiful Feet Books Early American History bundle.  I think I will always look back on that course in our first year of homeschool as something quite magical.  We were hoping to find a Medieval Studies course that was similar, but the BFB course is for older children, and I think it wouldn't hold the same level of attraction trying to push it with younger kids.  Well, I thought, I have a Medieval Studies Minor, I can figure out a course of study with picture books that will be charming and fun and educational!  I spent the summer poring over children's literature about the Middle Ages and I think I have a fun course of study.  We are hoping to do History about two days a week.

  Other than that, we throw in a little handwriting work, a little real world math, a little Shakespeare memorization, some typing and art and come up with pretty full and fun days.

  Our rhythm looks something like this:

8-9 Breakfast, get dressed, make beds
9-11 Circle Time, Main Lessons, snack
11-11:30 Nature Walk/recess
11:30-12:30 Finish Up Main Lessons, handwriting or typing
12:30-1:30 - Lunch, Free Time
1:30-2:30 SPECIALS
2:30-3:30 Reading/Independent learning/handwork

Specials are Arrow on Monday, History on Tues and Wed, Art on Thurs, Poetry Teatime on Friday

It is a rhythm, not a schedule, so we do not stop things or drag things out to fill time slots.  It's just a rough flow of how the day goes.  Sometimes a doctor's appointment or a field trip completely upsets the schedule.  We just go with it : )

Morning Basket

This spring I came across the phrase 'morning basket' a number of times. I decided to try to work a morning basket into our homeschool time since we were doing something similar anyway.  We have started each morning with a picture book this year (see some of our Favorite Picture Books) so we decided to just expand that time by reading from a few other sources. What we read from changes each day, as I like to switch them out each week for new inspiration.

 I've found it to be a great way to touch on different subjects that I feel like we never get to.  Like art history.  I never thought we wouldn't ever seem to have time for a subject I absolutely love!

  We've solved the art history problem with a lovely book titled Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories.  Each chapter covers a different artist, work, or period and tells a story from the point of view of the artist.  The chapters are just a few pages and include the artwork discussed as well as delightful illustrations of the artist working.  We have really enjoyed adding these stories into our morning routine and read a new chapter most days.  The fact that the chapters are chronological and jump across the globe is a bonus.  You sure can tell a lot about world events by what the artists are making and who is hiring them.  Chapter topics include the Terra Cotta Army, the Parthenon, the Stained Glass of Chartres, Angkor Wat, and the bronze casters of Ife, Africa.  There are 68 chapters and they span cave drawings to Ai Weiwei (probably best known for the "bird's nest" stadium for the Beijing Olympics).

Vincent's Starry Night definitely shows up the most in our morning basket, but we really just read anything interesting that I come across, and I'm trying to nudge the boys into helping me pick out things that they are interested in.

  The morning basket idea works really well for books that can be read in small chunks. I love that I can flip open a lot of these books and just read a page or two while the boys color or model:

• Women in Science
• A Life Like Mine
• The Joy of Swimming
• Beastly Verse
• Walking the World in Wonder
• City Atlas
• 26 Fairmont Avenue

  That last one is a chapter book by one of our favorite authors, Tomie de Paola, and the kids thought it was hysterical. We have added most these books to our home library, and so I included links to Amazon, but please remember it's a good idea to check your local library first!  We always attempt to "try out books" before we purchase.  

Do you have any favorites that would be fun to add into our morning basket?  I'd love to hear your ideas!  Or, do you already do a morning basket?  How does it work in your home?