Homeschool Highlights 6/1/20-6/5/20

Saturday we went on a picnic to the park with take out from What A Burger. The geese were honking like crazy trying to get us to share our food!

Saturday evening we went bowling again. We really had a great time! Eli and I both got strikes when the headpin was orange, and we won free game coupons to use during the week!

Sunday we went to church and it was so nice to go church as a family again! Afterwards we went and ate a restaurant called "Mama's Home Cooking" and it was so good! I think all of the kids got chicken fried steak and they all cleaned their plates!

That evening the manager of this campground told Rod and Eli he had an old basketball goal that Eli could use (he saw Eli dribbling down the road) so they put that up. Eli was so happy! Basketball is his favorite sport. He was the starting point guard for JV last year and will be this year, too, if we are able to play sports (because of the covid-19).

Monday we stopped by the Dollar General for a loaf of bread and a box of ice cream cookie sandwiches and headed to the duck pond. We ate our ice cream and walked around the pond, feeding the ducks the bread. The little ones had a blast doing this!

We also went by the library and picked up our summer reading packets and a few more books for the kids. They spent some time reading and listening to audio books that afternoon.

I also realized I was wearing different shoes - after I got back from the library, the store, and the park! In my defense they are the exact same shoe just in black and brown!

Tuesday we stayed at the camper all day. We sat outside and let Zeke and the boys play. The kids read books from the library. They worked in their Summer Learning Binders. We are reviewing literature guides from Progeny Press, so we worked on those. Mercie is reading "My Side of the Mountain", Titus read "A New Coat for Anna", and Silas is reading "The Minstrel in the Tower."

We are also reviewing a unit study about the Mayflower arriving at Cape Cod, and we did one of the lessons in that. I read the story and the kids took notes in the form of drawing. They enjoyed that!

Wednesday we ran to the HEB to get a few groceries. Mikaela cooked hamburgers and fried french fries for supper. We didn't do much else!

Thursday we had to run to Walmart, Tractor Supply and The Dollar Tree. The kids of course had to get horses, cows, or tractors. Zeke loved all of the toy tractors and wanted all of them! He only got one, though.

The new additions to the herd.

I'm working on making a new product called Tot School in a Box, which will be all the supplies and resources you need to do 7-10 activities with your toddler! We watched quite a bit of Dr.Quinn, Medicine Woman as well because it was so hot outside.

The kids worked in their Summer Learning Binders every day and read plenty of books. Mercie read 9 Baby-Sitter's Club graphic novels! Silas and Titus are both working on reading Big Nate books and listening to some audio books as well.

Zeke did Tot School this week. He loved using dot markers for his square worksheet and to make a colorful coat for Joseph. He also put pom poms around the outline of a square and used his Tot Learning Mats - Joseph's Colorful Coat - to help tell his Bible story. We read several books on colors and Joseph. He glued colored squares on the letter "C". He enjoyed a colorful trail mix - colored goldfish, mini M&Ms, and Fruit Loops. He counted Cheerios outside and enjoyed eating apple slices! It's been very hot here so we go outside in the morning and in the evening. He naps during the day and we do our schoolwork.

How was your week?

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Artistic Pursuits for Middle School

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I've mentioned before that my 12 year old daughter, Mercie, loves art! The past month and a half she has been using ARTistic Pursuits Middle School Book Two, Color and Composition.

WHAT IS ARTISTIC PURSUITS?

Artistic Pursuits, Inc is a complete art curriculum, including art instruction, art history, and art projects. It does not simply teach art - it involves your child in the art process by showing them how to observe, engage, and create their own unique art projects. Artistic Pursuits has books for every age level:

• Pre-K
• K-3rd (Early Elementary)
• 4th-5th (Elementary)
• 6th-8th (Middle School)
• 9th-12th (High School)
• 6th-12th Sculpture

MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOK TWO, COLOR AND COMPOSITION:

Mercie is going into 7th grade, so we chose the Middle School level book focusing on Color and Composition. You will need some supplies to complete the art projects - hard pastels, oil pastels, a fixative such as hair spray, kneaded erasers, a sketchpad and pastel papers in assorted colors. The supplies were easy to find and relatively inexpensive on Amazon. ARTistic Pursuits does offer an Art Supply Pack for $85 that contains all of the art supplies you will need for this book.

There are 16 units in this book, and each unit contains 4 lessons. It is recommended to spend one hour a day on the art lessons, twice a week, for a total of 2 hours a week. This is a totally independent art course so you won't have to do any of the teaching!

The 16 units in this book are:

1. Hue and Intensity
2. Primary and Secondary
3. Monochrome
4. Complementary Pairs
5. Neutrals
6. Warm Analogous Colors
7. Cool Analogous Colors
8. Color Application
9. Balance in Color
10. Parallel Rhythm
11. Converging Rhythm
12. Space With Little Depth
13. Depth
14. Viewpoint High
15. Viewpoint Low
16. Emphasis

Each unit is broken down into 4 lessons. I'll briefly describe each lesson portion.

1. Building a Visual Vocabulary - Your child will learn art vocabulary that is taught using words and pictures. 
2. Art Appreciation and Art History - Your child will observe the unit topic in works of art by the masters, learning about artists and art history. 
3. Techniques - Your child will learn how to use the supplies and art techniques being taught by creating an original work of art.
4. Application - Your child will complete a final project for the unit.

AN EXAMPLE OF A UNIT:

I'm going to go through Unit 2 - Primary and Secondary Colors - to show you exactly how each unit works. 

Lesson 1 - Mercie learned the vocabulary words of primary and secondary. There's a nice color wheel showing the colors, and she learns what intermediate colors are. Her assignment is to go outdoors with her pastels, find something interesting and draw it.

    

our rose bush

Lesson 2 - Mercie looks at a work of art titled Red Deers II by Franz Marc. She reads about how he used secondary and primary colors and how it makes his work stand out. She reads a short biography of Franz Marc and how he was condemned as a degenerate because his artwork used bright colors and bold applications of color. They ordered 130 of his works to be removed from German museums! Her challenge today is to draw an object that uses a primary color and a secondary color sitting next to it on the color wheel. She drew a red apple with purple shading and a yellow pear with green shading, like the example in the book.

      

Lesson 3 - Today Mercie learns how to layer pastels. Her assignment today is to draw some bright fruits or vegetables from a high viewpoint using the technique of blending.

      

Lesson 4 - Her final project is to draw a picture using primary and secondary colors. There is a materials list, a student gallery with a student example of the project, and ideas for her project. 

her final project

As you can see, each unit is full of hands-on projects and learning! Every lesson has a challenge or assignment to complete so your child will get lots of practice with the new techniques and materials.

Here are a few more examples of Mercie's artwork using Artistic Pursuits:

a picture done in monochrome of a cat

the ducks in the pond 

a girl with a lamb

a tree and a waterfall

a basketball in the yard

our horses and cows eating hay

a purse my mom brought her back from Nicaragua

WHAT DO I THINK?

I love Artistic Pursuits! I love how organized each unit is, how full each lesson is, and how beautiful each page is. The book is comb-bound spiral and the pages are thick and full of clear, colorful artwork. The pages are also printed single-sided, which I really like, and I remember it being one of the things I loved when I reviewed ARTistic Pursuits back in 2016. I like how each lesson has a materials list, making it easy to grab what you need before you sit down to start working. I love the student gallery, which has actual artwork from students in the same level. This helps Mercie to see that there is a wide range of artistic ability within her age group! If the examples were all from adults or professional artists, it may get discouraging when your child's artwork was not up to the same quality. Having student examples was really encouraging and motivating for Mercie. I also really love that she is getting art history in each unit, learning about famous artists and observing famous pieces of art. I am very impressed with the instruction in each unit, too. It is so easy to understand and very well-written. She is learning so many new techniques and elements of art. I have seen such an improvement in her artwork!

Mercie is going to finish this book and then use the Middle School Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition, as part of her 7th grade curriculum. She is almost halfway finished with this book because she loves it and wants to do it all the time!

WHAT DOES MERCIE THINK?

I think it's important to get a student's opinion of a curriculum as well. I love the curriculum, but I am not the one using it on a weekly basis. Here is what Mercie thinks:

"It is really fun drawing with pastels. The book teaches me different techniques and different ways to draw with the pastels. At first it was a little difficult to draw because I would draw it too wide, or it would smear. Later on it taught me different ways to draw with them depending on how wide or how thin I wanted the line. There was an example of a student's drawing in every lesson, which helped show me  what to do if I didn't really understand what it was telling me. It was usually very understandable, though. Artistic pursuits was my favorite so far."

ARTistic Pursuits Middle School Book Two, Color and Composition is available for less than $48! This is a great deal considering it's an entire year's worth of art curriculum. Check out the other books Artistic Pursuits offers by clicking HERE. Read my review of ARTistic Pursuits Early Elementray Book One, grades K-3 by clicking HERE. Artistic Pursuits is also offering a free, 16 week summer series with video lessons for beginning drawing students! You can visit their blog and find out more about this awesome opportunity (I know we will be taking advantage of it!) by clicking HERE. They also have online courses for the K-3 level books now available - click HERE to check those out.

As always, click the banner below to read more reviews on the different levels!

Zeke's Tot School Resources

Zeke is 18-months old and I started Tot School with him a few weeks ago. I'm using Bible ABCs for Ones, Twos, and Threes for his curriculum. We have a Bible story each week that goes with a letter of the alphabet. He also has a color or shape each week, a Bible Big Idea, a song, a themed snack, crafts, and developmental activities that all tie in to the Bible story of the week.

I have some resources left from my older kids that I saved, but I did donate quite a bit of our educational toys and puzzles a few years ago. I gave myself a $100 budget for Zeke to order him a few fun resources that he can use throughout this year and more to come.

I think these color bean bags will be great for games and for learning his colors! At less than $20, this is a pretty good deal.

These simple shape puzzles from Imagimake are less than $10 and will be great for teaching colors, shapes, and puzzle skills. 

I love Larui Toys! These shape stackers will be fun for Zeke! I had this set for Titus years ago, but I gave it away. For $15, this set comes with 25 peg stackers and the shape puzzle. This is great for fine motor skills! Toddlers love stacking the pegs.

This puzzle from Melissa and Doug feature all of the shapes he will be learning this year. It's only $10 and such a pretty, bright puzzle. I love wooden puzzles.

I have a bag of random counting bears in various sizes and colors and am missing a few of the sorting cups, so I decided to get Zeke these jumbo counting bears and sorting cups for $22.

This set of 12 apples from Skoolzy have many ways to play! Zeke will learn numbers, counting, matching, colors, and more. These will be used for many different games. And they're on sale from $40 to $21! 

This stacking toy from Melissa and Doug will be a fun fine-motor challenge for Zeke, as well as help with colors and shapes. It's only $10 and I'm sure will be used many times.

And I've reached my $100 budget for Zeke! There are so many more toys and resources I'd love to get him, but I'm just putting them on a wish list for his birthday and Christmas. These should keep him busy until then! What would you add to my list?

Page A Day Math

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Silas and Titus have been working on their math facts and their handwriting skills at the same time using Page a Day Math Starter Kits. Page a Day Math offers digital or physical math kits that focus on fact fluency and handwriting improvement. There are several kits available - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, and Pre-K. They also offer handwriting books, like Super Sight Words, Adorable Adjectives, and Cool Chemistry. I printed out the Division Starter Kit for Silas and the Multiplication Starter Kit and Super Sight Words Handwriting Book for Titus.

The Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division Kits each include 10-13 books, 3 math bonuses, and 2 handwriting bonuses. Each book in the kit contains copy-work for the math facts. For example, the first book in the Division Kit is called, "Dividing By One." Each page has a new fact to work on, like 1 divided by 1. Your child will trace the division fact several times, as well as some review facts. For the first few lessons, the review facts are multiplication, but after that they are the division facts your child has learned.

Each book contains different fact families. Book 1 is "Dividing By One," Book 2 is "Dividing By Two," and so on. The other books in the kits work in the same way, with each book focusing on adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing by one number.

Each Kit also contains math bonuses - printable flashcards, an assessment, and a progress tracker. The flashcards are really nicely done, color-coded, and with cute pictures of dogs. The assessment is to be used before you start the books to see where you child is and what he or she knows and doesn't know. We didn't use these before we started the books. I'm planning to use them after the boys are finished as a "quiz" to see how much they retained. The Progress Tracker is a sheet your child can use to see how many books he has finished and how many he has left. He will circle the book as he starts it.

Each Kit contains two handwriting bonus books as well. The Division Kit comes with "Adorable Adjectives" and "Silly Sight Words" in cursive.

Silas and Titus each have their books in their Summer Learning Binders and complete one page a day. It really is helping them with their math facts! Working on one new fact a day doesn't overwhelm them, and they are getting plenty of review with the other facts. It takes them around 5-10 minutes a day to complete a worksheet, so they don't complain at all. It is also something they can do independently! Titus has not learned multiplication before now, so he is really getting a great introduction to the facts. By the time he reaches multiplication in his curriculum this year, he will already know several fact families! Silas learned the multiplication and division facts this year in his math curriculum, but he really struggled with the division facts. I can see such an improvement so far in how quickly he is recalling the answers to the division and even the multiplication review facts.

The Handwriting Books are really nice and are available in print and cursive. Each book has 25 pages of practice and some blank practice pages. Each page contains words to trace and then copy, along with funny jokes and cute pictures of dogs. Titus is using the "Super Sight Words" as handwriting practice in his Summer Learning Binder. I let him use a marker or highlighter to trace the words. He doesn't mind the extra handwriting practice when he gets to use a marker to do it!

Page a Day Math is a great way to really cement the math facts your child is learning into his memory. Copywork is something I've always utilized in our homeschool, and I'm encouraged to use it for math now, too. Page a Day Math sells their physical math kits for $79.95 and the digital kits for $29.95. The handwriting books sell for $4.95 each.

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