Week 50 - Puppies, Historical Battlefields and Airplanes

It was a normal spring week.  We had a lot of work with the new puppies.  It has been a big adjustment.  After all, puppies are not....shhhh.... Cats.  They require a lot more work.  The kids loves them, but they are realizing that puppies require more attention.  They want it all the time, not just occasionally like the cats do.

Caty has been begging to hand wash the van.  I don't know why.  But Joe and the older kids went to see the new Super hero movie, so Caty and I ran some errands and then I gave in and let her wash the van.  I knew I would need to help, so I had to time it so I could supervise and help.

Yes....more puppy pictures.

On Monday we were supposed to have a Meet the Meterologist event.  Well it turns out that he kind of forgot and didn't show.  He apologized and rescheduled.  Brayden decided to swing in the park by the library.

Then, since we were already that far, we visited some sites of skirmishes prior to the War of 1812.  This is the time period we are studying in American History.

We visited the Fallen Timbers Battlefield Memorial.  Even though they now know this is not where the battle actually occurred.

 Yes...more puppies.  Working on the leashes.

 Then we visited the site of Fort Miamis.  This served as a location through the War of 1812.

 Me and Chewie

 The fort is no longer there, but the trenches are.

We also visited the spot of Dudley's Massacre since we were right by it.  It's now the site of a public library.  Not quite there in history reading yet, but pretty close to it.

For school this week, Lydia started the 4 week dog unit study from Amanda Bennett.  She had a lot of fun starting this.

 We had riding lessons during the week this week.  They had some scheduling conflicts.

 And we continued our work at the Humane Society.  This week we played with the cats in the Cat room.

 We met some new kittens that are up for adoption....their names were M.C. and Hammer.  I chuckled, but the kids didn't know why.

 Brayden surprisingly is enjoying this.

 When we got home, we continued work on Lydia's Bronze Award project.  She is making chew toys for the dogs at the Humane Society.  They are a no-sew fleece toy.

 Only about 40 more to go...lol

On Wednesday we had tennis.  It has been Lydia, and then a couple weeks ago Caty decided she wanted to play also.  Then out of the blue Brayden walked on the court, and LOVED it.  He played for 35 minutes.  I didn't even have a racquet for him.  I had to give him mine to use.

Thursday was a home day...Caty had her last art class of this session.  And we finished up our book work for the week.

Then Friday we had another long day......long day.  We started though with a fun field trip to a local airport.  We had a wonderful guide who explained why planes can fly and then we got to tour a couple smaller private planes.

Caty was off the wall....but she was having fun.

It was a great trip!

Then the kids had archery and 4H meeting.

At 4H, the Cloverbuds built marshmallow shooters and we were working on trajectory.  Our marshmallows were a bit small to knock down our cups.  But we still had a lot of fun see how far we could shoot them and how many we could shoot in one pull.  We may carry this over another meeting.  So many more cool things we could be doing with this!

I also had to go shopping for riding supplies.  Caty was ...so not in the mood... for all of this.  But she needed new riding boots for competition and riding.  What a treat it was taking her to try on new boots.  But we were successful in buying her two new pairs.  Plus riding pants for Lydia, and a new belt.  I need a new riding helmet for Caty now.  They didn't have any at the store we were at.

On Saturday it was a blur of errands and grocery shopping.  That is our life.  Hope to see everyone next weekend!

Institute for Excellence in Writing - Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization Review

We all have those poems and nursery rhymes that we remember from childhood.  We did our best to sing them to our own kids hoping they would love them as much as we did, and even sing them to their kids someday.  How many remember memorizing the Gettysburg Address when they were in school?  How many out there still encourage memorization in their own homeschool?  We recently had the opportunity to review the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization curriculum from Institute for Excellence in Writing.

Memorization is great brain exercise.  This exercise allows all the different areas of your brain to work together.  As great as it is for us to memorize, this art appears to be lost.  The importance of poetry also seems to be being set aside. A love of poetry at an early age can actually help children as they grow to love the classics and even can gain a great understanding o f religious works.   The poetry style does not always need to be serious, it can be funny and enjoyable also.

Institute for Excellence in Writing has put together a great program to help out parents with this skill.  The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization 

We received The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization ($65.00) with a printed Teacher's Manual, Student Pages downloadable/printable pdf, a cd set that features reading of each level of poems, and 7 mp3 downloads along with a seminar cd featuring Andrew Pudewa speaking about the importance of Nurturing Competent Communicators.  All the cds arrive in a nice cd holder to keep them together neatly and safe.  We did receive a printed copy of the Student Workbook for our review.  The set that you purchase include a downloadable PDF of the Student Pages.  You can purchase a printed copy of the Student Pages ($19.00) for an additional fee.

This program has been created for students in Kindergarten through high school.  Featuring 5 different levels that can grow with your child, each level contains appropriate poetry that you can match up with your child's current level and abilities.  There are also a Certificates of Completion that you can issue to them as they graduates on to the level.  Give them a reward for their accomplishment.

Each level of The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization builds off of previous levels.  So if you do start at Level One, and even older children will have fun learning Ooey Gooey, there is even a maintenance schedule included so that even as your child grows or takes a little time off, they can maintain the progress that they have made.

The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization can be used with multiple students in your home since the Institute for Excellence in Writing has a generous policy of allowing families to copy the student pages for use within their own family.

How did the program work for us?

The girls enjoy poetry.  Last year they took a class online to learn how to write simple poetry.  They started at Level One since they both have memory problems.  The directions for Getting Started are included in the start of each level, and include a chart to mark to mark off each poem that you have memorized for easy tracking.

We practiced daily, and Ooey Gooey (the first poem) seemed to be very easy for them to remember.  Included in your purchase of The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization set are the audio cds of the poems.  So your student can also listen to the poem.  It is encouraged that you do this daily.

The girls actually began making improvement.  Lydia surprised herself.  She was remembering the poems very quickly.  Even the boys were getting into the poems in the first level.  They were quite fun.  We were able to work half-way through level 1 during our review period.  The longer the poem, the more frustrated they got.  So we are still working on Poem 5.  The audio cds were actually a big benefit.  I was skeptical about the need for them.  But we were easily able to practice their poems in the van as we were traveling to events, so my skepticism about the cds went away very quickly.

The process of practicing daily has paid off.  The program encourages students to not only practice the current poem they are learning, but all the poems they have learned up to that point.  This is where the program continues to build on top of each other.

We have enjoyed using The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization set for the past few weeks and we will continue to use it in the future.  It has even encouraged the girls to write more of their own poetry....another win!

Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out The Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization from Institute for Excellence in Writing.  Take some time to read how this program worked in their homes by visiting the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

ARTistic Pursuits - Sculpture Technique Model Review

Art is one of those subjects that really changes as your students get older.  You start out with basic drawing and construction paper, and then you really start add in new mediums.  This can present a challenge to those of us who are not comfortable at teaching these techniques.  As the kids get older, that is what I am running into.  I spend a lot of time researching new mediums that are still able to be done inexpensively and easily.  We recently had the opportunity to review an art book from ARTistic Pursuits that really helped look into the art of sculpture..... Sculpture Technique - Model ($47.95) from ARTistic Pursuits.

Sculpture Technique - Model was written for kids age 11 - 18.  This book continues on concepts that were introduced in Sculpture Technique, Construct, but you can use it easily alone.  

We have not used the Sculpture Technique, Construct prior to starting Sculpture Technique - Model.  The instructions provides are well written, along with material explaining why specific modeling methods are used.  It allows students to have a guided creativity.  There are projects working with putty, pottery and even fiber arts.  

Students are encouraged to work with clay in a multiple formats.  There are lessons building on mass and creating scale with clay.  They are taught different methods of creating, including pinch, coil and slab.  Fiber art is also included, wet felting, and needle felting.  

Lesson materials are presented in an easy to use and read format.  Older students could easily read through the lesson and work independently.  As you can see above, even materials are highlighted and explained for the safety and proper use.

The one thing that Caty did not enjoy using during this review period, was the putty material.  The suggested material is Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty, and she did not enjoy mixing it or modeling with it.  In fact, we had to mix several batches because of it being too thick or too thin and then it dries very quickly.  Which did not allow for her to fix creations on her time frame.  I think the next time we work our way through this book in the fall, we will not be using this putty so as to avoid frustration.  One of the nice abilities with ARTistic Pursuits is the ability to switch out certain materials, just in case you either do not have that type of paint or you have a child with sensory issues who cannot stand the clay type.

It also dried very brittle, so we had trouble with her projects turning out.   She did spend hours working though on trying to figure out how to mix the clay and make her sculpture.

I have always enjoyed the art books from ARTistic Pursuits.  We have used the entire elementary level series.  I love the explanations given with projects.  Being able to give your students examples and a reason why you want them to do their projects in a certain way is great for their learning.  When I am trying to explain to Caty why she should be filling up the white space on her page, sometimes I even need a little help, and I have that to be able to read to her directly from the book.  I can show her that it's not just mom who wants her to fill the entire page up.

Art classes are very expensive.  So using ARTistic Pursuits is a very easy way to open your children's eyes up to the different mediums of art.  Another benefit of using ARTistic Pursuits is the ability to use the lessons across a wide variety of ages.  I have been able to use them with our youngest through oldest for the same project, making art lesson planning very easy.  

If you are looking for an easy-to-use art curriculum, ARTistic Pursuits has a level for your family.  They offer programs for preschool through high school.

Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out different levels of art programs from ARTistic Pursuits.  Take some time to visit the blog and see how they enjoyed ARTistic Pursuits in their homes.