van gogh kids – Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs..

Hello everyone!! So I have been talking here and there about how I have been having some rough times lately but…I don’t want to talk about that today, because other things have been happening as well. So, positive over here today!

A few weeks ago we decided the day was beautiful and we didn’t know where to go and what to do, but got in the car and headed out anyway. We found ourselves at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park, a destination that had been on my list for a while, but the timing was now perfect. Wyatt has been working on the history of local Native American Nations and I figured there might be a little something at the Battlefield Park about the Native Americans Nations that once lived here.

Well, there wasn’t a ton. But there was some material that I picked up and brought home to use, and there was a lot of other stuff to look at, which will be more important in a few weeks. It was actually a really cool place to visit, and the NP worker was very kind and informative. And, Wyatt got another Junior Ranger Badge to add to his collection!

The diorama of the settlement there was super impressive – in size and in detail! One of the Junior Ranger activities revolved all around it, and finding a specific figure hidden all throughout, kind of like Where’s Waldo, and it was really neat.

We also finished up Van Gogh that weekend, with Wyatt’s rendition of Starry Night! Billy painted one as well.

We helped my mom decorate her door for the apartment complex contest….

Then Wyatt got a cold and we laid low for a while, reading, cuddling, watching tv, and trying to make a wigwam. History for Wyatt is more meaningful for him when he can see and touch it, so I wasn’t intending to be culturally insensitive with this project, so I hope that it isn’t! Also- that project was very complicated for us! LOL. Wyatt ended up getting bored and he still wasn’t feeling well so he wandered off while I finished it up with the mighty glue gun and determination. It was getting done! It’s not perfect but at least Wyatt can have something tangible to look at while we continue our lessons. I am not looking forward to building a log cabin in the next few weeks… lol.

We also had lots of hot drinks and walks apparently. Well, I had walks and hot drinks. Wyatt had his first hot chocolate of the season while we all sat in the back of the Subaru tailgate style. Billy looks very contemplative here, although we were having fun. Then my dad picked me up Sunday for tea and a walk by the river which was very spirit lifting.

And.. I started an Etsy store too! I’ve been working on a few unit studies and journal pages and now they are available on Etsy as printables. I’m still working on adding them all but the wheels turn slowly over here sometimes. Lol. You can find my store at foxandfirth.etsy.com if you want to take a peek!

And that is it from here today!

Hello everyone! We had a very fun week last week in our little homeschool. Some weeks are more book and table weeks, some weeks are more hands on, and last week was a lot more hands on, which we both appreciate and love.

In science (we use Blossom and Root) and this year is all about the wonders of the animal kingdom – from the very tiniest on up. Last week we began discussing invertebrates, specifically octopi, snails, and worms (the curriculum picked for us). I was pretty excited, because, snails. We know I love them. But I opted to leave them out this time since Wyatt and I have covered snails pretty extensively in the past. So we focused on the wonderful octopus and worms. We read books, watched videos, including a Wild Kratts episode about an undersea octopus, filled out Wyatt’s science notebook with facts, and then, crafted one out of pipe cleaners and a foam ball. It was really easy and Wyatt loved it. Also, I felt pretty darn genius for putting it on display in Wyatt’s Catch and Release bucket.

Next we tackled worms! Same deal – read books, worked on Wyatt’s fact notebook, watched some videos, and then the hands on part of the assignment. And thank goodness we had Papa and Grandma on hand to help out! We were building a worm jar together using the instructions in the back of the worms book, and while I mostly set up and helped with layering, Papa had the hard job, handling the worms. Wyatt absolutely would not touch a worm unless Papa handed it to him. It was cracking me up. I mean not that I blamed him, I didn’t want to touch it either. And I didn’t.

We are still working on a few states that we didn’t do last year, and will intermittently do this throughout the year. Since we are reading Paddle-to-the-Sea in Language Arts, I thought it would be a good time to work on Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. We started with Ohio our first week, then moved on into Pennsylvania. We learned some neat things about Pennsylvania, like why the heck it is called the Keystone state, that their state bird the Ruffed Grouse is one tough bird, and that the “birth” of the Hershey factory shares a birthdate with Wyatt (I mean obviously much different years though). We celebrated with some Hershey’s chocolate and wondered if people in Pennsylvania get much fresher chocolate than we do. Does it taste different so close to the source? Maybe we will have to visit one day and answer these hard-hitting questions.

In art, we are still working on Van Gogh! I had planned Van Gogh for the whole month, but we did skip the other week to make our ghost pictures (“Goghst” pictures?) instead. This week we made our version of Crows Over a Wheatfield. I loved doing this one with Wyatt. We used oil pastels and focused on perspective and horizon as part of the lesson. It turned out really cool!

It was a fantastic week of learning, and this week is a little less hands on but that is ok! We still one more Van Gogh to “Gogh” (I just can’t stop) and this week it is The Starry Night.

What We Used:

This section contains Amazon Affiliate links. In addition to the curriculum I am creating for him, we also use curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful, The Waldock Way, and Blossom and Root for phonics, reading, science, and social studies.

Books first!

Wonderful Worms || Snails || Worms || The Artist and Me

This week we move on into New York State (now I think I should play some Billy Joel for Wyatt…who else agrees?), ants, bees, moths, and more Van Gogh!