House Finch

By admin, on February 25th, 2009%

On Drawing

When hubby got home yesterday I showed him my latest drawing.

I never really have a long time to sit and draw, but I find it so very soothing to just get in my little living room once in awhile, put on something like Verdi: Choirs and Overtures and draw for a half hour or so. 

I asked hubby, “Do you know what kind of bird this is?”  (This was before I labeled it.)

“House finch,” he said. 

I was happy.

On School

School here goes well, except that I wish we could shake this virus that wants to visit us all.  Now one of my boys has the same cold that Miss Priss had.  He’s home from school today.  Sigh.  It could be so much worse, so I won’t  complain. 

Hamlet continues to be such a worthwhile project.  I’ll be honest, Princess of the Universe is a bit bored (overwhelmed?  attention span?) with it, but since she started the project with us I am going to continue to include her in it until the end.  If I felt she was truly suffering, I would release her from the project, but her interest waxes and wanes and I think the oral reading alone from this project is good for all of us.  We are taking it slow for several reaons, one being the aforementioned short attention span, but mostly because you just cannot read Shakespeare fast. 

(Yes, I know that now. )

I figured the reason it took so long in public school was because there were so many clowns in the class, but that was probably the reason that all of us didn’t really enjoy it back then like we should have.  No matter what setting you’re in, however, I think to really savor the language and the comedy in Hamlet, it’s simply a slow process. 

We continue to be amazed at all the modern sayings that came from Shakespeare.  Polonius rocks on with stuff like “brevity is the soul of wit” and referring to Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia as “hot love on the wing.”

You know we’ve GOT to take time to stop and laugh over stuff like that.  Right?

On Working

Today and tomorrow are work days for me.  Not the usual around here, but I have to be off this Friday and Saturday because Joseph, Princess of the Universe and I will test for our yellow belts in Karate.  Yes!  We are practicing every day and I’m trying to get my cat stance and knife hand block just right.  Who knew a person got so rusty in their 40s?  This class has been good for me.

Enjoy this day,

Lynn

11 comments   Drawing, Homeschooling, Working and Homeschooling

Inspiring Copywork

By admin, on February 24th, 2009%

This week we’ve got some inspiring copywork going on. 

Monday: (Yesterday)

Go Forth to Life
by Samuel Longfellow

Go forth to life, oh! child of Earth.
Still mindful of thy heavenly birth;
Thou are not here for ease or sin,
But manhood’s noble crown to win.

Though passion’s fires are in thy soul,
Thy spirit can their flames control;
Though tempters strong beset thy way,
Thy spirit is more strong than they.

Go on from innocence of youth
To manly pureness, manly truth;
God’s angels still are near to save,
And God himself doth help the brave.

Then forth to life, oh! child of Earth,
Be worthy of thy heavenly birth,
For noble service thou art here;
Thy brothers help, thy God revere!

Nature Study/art work for Princess of the Universe yesterday was to pick the bird of her choice from one of our many science/nature books and draw it.

 

I went to AtoZTeacherStuff and made up a nice work find puzzle to hopefully help us retain information gleaned from reading about Augustus Caesar recently.

Copywork on tap for the rest of the week:
Tuesday:

Kindness to Animals

Little children, never give
Pain to things that feel and live;
Let the gentle robin come
For the crumbs you save at home;

As his meat you throw along
He’ll repay you with a song.
Never hurt the timid hare
Peeping from her green grass lair,

Let her come and sport and play
On the lawn at close of day.
The little lark goes soaring high
To the bright windows of the sky,

Singing as if ’twere always spring,
And fluttering on an untired wing–
Oh! let him sing his happy song,
Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.

Wednesday:

A Child’s Prayer
by M. Bentham-Edwards

God make my life a little light,
Within the world to glow;
A tiny flame that burneth bright
Wherever I may go.

God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.

God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,
And makes the singer glad.

God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strangth I have
May serve my neighbors best.

Thursday:

Beautiful
From McGuffey’s Second Reader

Beautiful faces are they that wear
The light of a pleasant spirit there;
Beautiful hands are they that do
Deeds that are noble, good and true;
Beautiful feet are they that go
Swiftly to lighten another’s woe.

Beautiful is something we’ll be reading every day this week for memory work.  I think it was a very useful thing for me to memorize passages when I was young.   This week while visiting some of the blogs in my blogroll, I dropped by The Pleasant Land of Counterpane where I was directed to an interview with Andrew Campbell.   

Boy did these sentences jump out at me.

We can’t express what we don’t have words for. By stocking our minds with “the best that has been thought and said,” we have a storehouse of phrases to express, succinctly and beautifully, what we want to say
 

I am entirely convicted to incorporate weekly memory work into our schedule for Princess of the Universe. On Friday, she should be able to recite Beautiful from memory.

Our reading about Roman history has tied in nicely with our study of Angelo using Five In A Row for lesson plans.

Happy Tuesday,
Lynn

Leave a comment   Charlotte Mason, Drawing, Nature Study    

A Cheerful Morning

By , on February 19th, 2009%

Good morning!  My camera is charging even as I type, and hopefully I’ll be able to get out in the garden today and get some pictures.  We had rain, rain, rain yesterday and the garden looks like it’s strung with diamonds this morning.  Every plant is glistening with bright, shining drops of water.

Yesterday turned into a major teacher workday, but it’s just as well.  Princess of the Universe didn’t feel well again and I actually kept John home from school as he didn’t feel well either.  It seems that everyone we know is fighting a cold, John said many in his class have been sick recently, and I feel like we are just keeping our heads above water here in regards to viruses.  Hubby came home from work with a sore throat.

I went to the store early yesterday to get a chicken and some extra large dumpling noodles and we had homemade chicken and dumplings for supper.  Hubby spiced it up just right when he got home and it was so good.  Garlic, black pepper, cajun spices.  It made everyone feel better.

The quilt above?  Isn’t is gorgeous?  While out yesterday, I went by Goodwill to drop off the things I had bagged up the days before.  I walked in and there was a king-sized Dockers quilt for 4 bucks.  Joy.  I brought it home and washed it and dried it and it looks wonderfully bright and cheerful in our bedroom.

As far as school yesterday, we didn’t do so much.  We did an algebra lesson.  We read a bit.  We did some drawing.  We played a killer game of Scrabble.  John won.  We just enjoyed being a family taking it easy yesterday.  I went to bed last night thankful that we had the privilege of even taking a day like that.

On my stack of old suitcases acting as an end table in the living room sit a few favorite things: an old thrifted lamp that I love and a pretty little thrifted mirror.  My green tea keeps me company.

With my school planners and my drawing/writing journal, I sat and enjoyed silence, a clean house, the smell of chicken and dumplings cooking, my hot tea, and thoughts of the mountain bluebird.

We, of course, have the Eastern Bluebird here.  There are three species of bluebirds:  the mountain bluebird, the Western bluebird and the Eastern bluebird.   They are cousins to the American robin, sharing a family, but not genus.  During mating season, the male mountain bluebird will look almost turquoise.  Sometimes the female mountain bluebird will have a rusty-colored breast, favoring the western or eastern bluebird, but the mountain bluebird is longer and slimmer.

The above information was gleaned from several sources:

Birds of Carolinas Field Guide (Field Guides)

Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides)

Birding (Nature Company Guides)

and a great magazine with a really nice website: Better Homes and Gardens’ Nature’s Garden

Enjoy this day,

Lynn

5 comments   Charlotte Mason, Drawing, Thrift and Antique Store Shopping

An Evening of Pencils and Music

By , on February 7th, 2009%

Last night Princess of the Universe and I did some more sketching.  I have always loved drawing and listening to music.  We did this in school a few times and I loved it.  I’ve continued it from time to time as an adult.  It’s been easy to lure Michaela into doing this with me.  She’s so artsy-craftsy.  

Lately, though, Ken at Chapmankids.net has inspired me to get the whole family involved.  One of my boys seemed quite tempted last night, but then declined.  This morning over eggs, venison sausage and cornbread, I sent hubby some subliminal messages about how much fun it is to sketch while listening to music.  He may join us next time!

I am totally aware that my head is too big in this picture.  My hair has had about three renderings to try to get the perspective of my face just right, but I think the baby is cute.  My hand is a bit misshapen, but I got so involved in my face and hair and ear, I forgot about my hand.  Anyway, I’m done with this one and will try to do the same picture again later.

I love Michaela’s still life.  She really got into this and I was so proud of her effort!  It is really an educational experience to try to draw something and get it just right.

We spent a couple of hours just drawing and talking and listening to the following selections: Amore: Romantic Italian Love Songs and Puccini and Pasta: A Romantic Italian Feast for Your Ears. 

As an aside, those two CDs were purchased for our study of Papa Piccolo several years back. We fell in love with them!

While I was drawing, I felt like a had one of my BeStEsT friends in the world with me and I just enjoyed wonderful thoughts all evening of us becoming best friends in fifth grade — was it 50′s day?  :)

We played clarinets together.  We were always in a competition to see who could get the highest grade.  We both had the ability to have fun in class but still make good grades.  Now that’s an art.

Anyway, she — Susan – sent me a beautiful, tapestry-style pillow cover for my living room.  I just love it!!  Susan, it’s perfect and I am so happy to have it.  I just had to share it here, because when someone does something so sweet for you — well, you just want everyone to know how happy you are!

Overlook the messy room, but in the rocking chair you will see the beautiful pillow!

Here’s a closer picture. 

It goes perfectly with an old house and Italian opera. 

I did one more sketch last night.  It’s okay, I guess.  It was an exercise in observing the refractional quality of water.

In closing, this seems to be the book that everyone recommends: Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces

I plan to purchase it on my next shopping trip into Durham.  I saw it last week, but opted for something less expensive, a kit that included pencils, eraser, sharpener, and paper.  I don’t regret my decision, because we got a lot of starter pieces we needed more of, but I really think I need this book!

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Lynn

7 comments   Drawing, Homeschooling, Papa Piccolo, Relationships