Zig-Zagy Art

Amber loves to spends hours upon hours creating very structured and patterned drawings. She's not as fond of other styles of art though. Quite often we find her with pencil, sketchbook, and ruler working away at her latest project.

While it relaxes Amber to meticulously work on these drawings, I am of the personality that would be driven bonkers within minutes of beginning these tedious patterns. Amber adores it, and that's all that matters.

She takes great pride in the patterns she devises and care to keep everything looking symmetrical. Apparently, the symmetry is of utmost importance in Amber's mind. My mind is still in awe of Amber's creativeness, since I can't fathom how one devices such patterns.

A work in progress

Still in progress - with music.

One finished project

Another recent project

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This is the final week of Blogging Through the Alphabet!  I can't believe I made every single week. Whew!


Please visit our Blogging Through the Alphabet hosts to read more interesting A to Z topics!
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm & Meg @ Adventures with Jude 

{Review} ARTistic Pursuits - Middle School Book 1

Art lessons in our homeschool have historically been outsourced due to my profound lack of artistic ability.  When the opportunity came to review the art curriculum Middle School 6-8, Book 1: The Elements of Art and Composition by ARTistic Pursuits, Amber and I jumped on it. 

Amber has such a love of artistic endeavors, yet she appears to have inherited only a small amount of her dad's natural ability.  Drawing for Amber takes extreme effort and she needs detailed instructions to understand the concepts. For almost every home art project, my husband has been the one to guide and assist Amber.

It was with glee and a small amount of trepidation that we opened the package with our new art curriculum.  We received the plastic bound middle school book for the purpose of our review.  I was surprised to find the book also has clear plastic front and back covers to protect the heavy stock paper pages inside.  This curriculum, even though it mostly deals with black and white drawing, has color pages and color examples where applicable. 

This full year curriculum is divided into 16 units which each deal with a specific topic.  Within the units are four lessons that incrementally teach the student through written instruction, example, and small practice tasks.  The fourth lesson then culminates in a project that utilizes the topic covered in the unit.  Every unit also contains an Art Appreciation / Art History page with cultural and art / artist information related to the unit theme.

A few of our favorite unit topics included:

• Line
• Texture
• Visual Paths
• Symmetry
• Perspective

Working on Line.  Thin and thick lines.  She was quite proud of what she accomplished.

How we used ARTistic Pursuits
After reading the introduction to the book and the "What Parents Want to Know" page, I handed the book over to Amber and let her read the "What Students Want to Know" page as well as peruse the entire book.  Amber has received drawing instruction in several previous art classes, but her knowledge was still quite spotty and her confidence low.  I let her decide which units of this curriculum would be the most beneficial and interesting with which to begin.

Amber chose to start with Unit 2 - Line as she felt her understanding of this concept was weak and that would hinder her throughout the rest of the curriculum.  She was in a creative mood and went through the entire unit in one sitting.  Even though she had used graphite pencils before, she found the instructions, with visuals, on how to achieve thin and thick lines with the pencil to be invaluable.  Amber then spent quite a bit of time studying the sample project and selecting the photograph to be her drawn object.

(Top/left) The final result from the Texture unit.  (Top/Right) Last minute instructions before using ink. (Bottom/Left) Practicing the lesson on shading with ink. (Bottom/Right) Practice complete.

In the end, Amber was quite proud of her drawing and could not wait to show her dad when he arrived home from work.  She was especially pleased to have completed such a drawing without the guidance of her father or any other teacher.  It was amazing to see how confident Amber was over her drawing.  She to special care to explain to me and her dad the process for this project.

The next unit Amber selected was on texture, since again she felt she lacked the needed skill in this area.  This time Amber decided to have her dad sit with her as she worked through the lessons and the final project.  While he was not needed for Amber to complete the lesson, she said it made understanding a lot easier to have him rephrase some of the instructions and demonstrate the technique.  Amber's finished product shows a much better grasp of texture than she has shown in the past. 

Amber also completed projects in visual paths and symmetry which included the use of ink drawing that she especially enjoyed.  Again Amber's dad supervised the final project part of these lessons as he also rather enjoys using ink. Amber explained to me the concept of visual paths, then showed me her project - it really did draw my eyes exactly where she had intended.  I was honestly amazed at the quality of Amber's ink projects.

Working on the Visual Path project - her objects were a lotion bottle, bread plate, and small glass candle.  Then the finished practice and project from the unit. 

What did we think?
We weren't quite sure what to expect from the curriculum when it arrived, however it surpassed any possible notions we had.  Amber found the instructions to be simple, yet clear and very much appreciated the many examples that demonstrated the process for each unit theme.  Amber greatly enjoyed working on several of the lessons with her dad, yet feels confident she could have completed those lessons and projects without his help.  I was happy to have found a complete curriculum that will not only instruct, encourage and give Amber confidence in the areas of art where she feels weak, but it requires so little input from an artistically impaired parent, like me.

As our full-time school year is now in the final weeks, we will probably hold off on any additional art lessons until next year, but we fully intend to continue through this curriculum to its end and highly recommend it to anyone looking for home art instruction or art appreciation lessons.


Please take a few moments to see what fellow members of the Review Crew thought of other ARTistic Pursuits products.

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And All the Extras

Welcome to the last week of the 2015 Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds and Lisa @ Golden Grasses.  The topic this final week is Seeking Beauty: the Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World. So, what brings beauty to our homeschool?

Succinctly, my child's smiling face, infectious laugh, and relief when we set a schedule to fit her abilities. But this is a curriculum fair, and not a philosophical discussion about beauty.   Unfortunately, we don't have much of a curriculum for this topic.  There are many ways wee seek out beauty, but very little (if any) includes formal curriculum.

Let's instead look at the items that make our girl smile and laugh? In the past she adored dance, looked forward to art classes at the local art / pottery store, her piano lessons and just about any activity with friends. Now there isn't energy for all of those activities. We did join a homeschool group with a co-op a little over a year ago and Amber loves every second of her time with this group. 

We choose to use the homeschool co-op for enrichment classes only, yet there is still plenty of topics to keep Amber busy there for the large part of one day each week. Last school year Amber started with an art class at the co-op which was fun at first, but lost its luster later in the semester.  Drama at the co-op, on the other hand, couldn't be a better experience. Last year she was a goblin in a small production of The Hobbit; for the Christmas just passed she was Mary in a pantomime; and now for the current spring production she is Susan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Photo art class and homework picture-taking; knitting for fun, and at the symphony

Amber has returned to an artistic class with photography art this semester. It is a combination of photography instruction with art projects using photos they take each week. It's a great balance of learning and art.  Additionally, Amber takes a teen Bible study, which although it is taught non-denominationally, has given her a chance to enjoy being in God's word without the concentration level required for her regular confirmation class. 

Outside of the homeschool group Amber takes weekly flute lessons and intermittently plays in a band. This is after 6+ years of piano lessons too. There is nothing more beautiful than to listen to an earnest music student on the flute.  It is truly a lovely instrument.

Those are all structured classes that add beauty to our homeschool.  However, we spend a good deal of time crafting and simply creating on our own at home too.   Amber is particularly partial to knitting and other yarn crafts.  She also loves to doodle and simply create with the art supplies on hand.  We've recently signed up for a subscription to Doodle Crate and await our first delivery.  Amber is very excited to have craft projects delivered to our door once a month along with the promise to dedicate to the projects.

Amber as Mary, working on a craft project and practicing flute before a performance

We also enjoy attending the symphony and touring Broadway productions as a family.  We never expected Amber to so enjoy these events, but she looks forward to them possibly more than the adults.

That's how our family adds beauty to our homeschool and family life.  It's not perfect, but nothing in life ever is.  Thanks for joining us during the 2015 Curriculum Fair. We've had fun sharing and reading all the great ideas from other families.

Other Weeks from the 2015 Curriculum Fair

Please check out how the other members of the 2015 Virtual Curriculum Fair are finding Beauty in their worlds.

• The Art of Organization…or How Clutter Almost Ruined My Homeschool by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
• The Shadow of Divine Perfection by Lisa @ Golden Grasses
• Relaxed Homeschooling: Fine Arts in the Early Elementary Years by Brittney @ Mom's Heart
• Fine Arts {Art Appreciation, Art, Composer Study Hymn Study} for 2015 by Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
• Adding Sparkle to Home Education by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
• And All the Extras by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
• Teaching Art Using the Bible by Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker
• Art In Every Subject by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
• Letting Art Just Happen in Homeschool by Amy @ One Blessed Mamma
• Missing Art? by Kristen H. @ Sunrise to Sunset
• Do YOU Have Time for Extracurriculars? by Michele@ Family, Faith and Fridays
• Fine Arts in Our Classical / Charlotte Mason Homeschool by Sharra @ The Homeschool Marm
• The Science of Beauty for a Delight-Directed Daughter by Susan @ The Every Day of Education
• Seeking Beauty: How we Tackle the Arts in our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
• Learning To Appreciate Beauty With Fine Arts Resources@ As We Walk Along the Road by Leah@ As We Walk Along the Road

If you'd like to join the fair this week, use the linky below.

http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=488828

One of THOSE Weeks

This is the post where I tell you that homeschooling is not always happy sunshine and smiles all around. We all know this, but sometimes it is good to know that others feel this too.  Homeschooling is definitely worth all the effort, but there are days that remind you that even homeschooling can't solve every problem.

Amber has been doing well, mostly, with her food issues the past few weeks, yet I still cannot get her motivated to what needs to be done each day for school.  I know she's just being twelve, but oh boy has it been a rough week of twelve-ness.  I also know that she has been sick so often over the past 15 months that it is hard to buckle back down now that she isn't actively sick most days.  Still, this week she pushed it too far.

As a result of Amber's attitude this week, her sixth grade school year has officially been extended one week into June.  It's not that I'm trying to finish text books, but we do need to complete items sufficiently to move on next year.  I also don't want an eight week summer break (well, 7 weeks now) between lessons in uncompleted subjects.  Unfortunately, Amber has been working her best to thwart completing our lessons this week.  Actually, she has actively been disobeying me on every possible topic.  It was one of those weeks.

Mother's Day Weekend: it was a good weekend.
(LEFT) Dinner on Saturday with my mom.
(TOP-RIGHT) Flowers from my girl
(BOTTOM-RIGHT) Mother's Day at Church

Amber also desperately wanted to participate in drama this summer with the arts group where she plays in the band.  We simply needed to arrange her audition. On top of that she wanted to go to a week of improv classes with the same group.  Amber had great plans for her new found like of drama.  After consideration, as parents, we have decided that there will be no extra activities this summer other than Amber's flute lessons that we must continue or lose the spot.  Amber may participate in church activities, like VBS, and may meet up with her friends. The point of this exercise is not to ostricize the child, however, Amber has lost the privilege of special activities and must now earn that privilege back with a more gracious and respectful attitude.

I am definitely praying that we are able to help Amber work through this over the summer, otherwise she will find her fall activities also limited to only flute.

For all that Amber was so extremely difficult this week and fought me over almost every subject, she did make some progress on the remaining work.  It definitely wasn't enough progress, but she got through things and was able to show that she retained the knowledge. 

(LEFT) Art from co-op class.  This is Spike from My Little Pony.  Done using grid resizing. 
(RIGHT-BOTTOM) Various art projects from co-op.  One is an oil pastel self portrait. 
(RIGHT-TOP) Barbie house is over-run with Frozen characters (and Flynn Ryder from Tangled). There's Anna, Elsa & Kristoff dolls, a stuffed Olaf and Sven, and Frozen finger puppets.

I gave Amber Augustus Caesar's World a few weeks ago to read leisurely while we are studying Rome. There have been no assigned readings, it is merely something for her to read through as a more interesting retelling of Rome. I thought it would go much better than it has.  Amber doesn't hate it, but also says it's not really as much fun to read as she hoped. She says it is still very much textbook like and, while it isn't as boring as the average textbook, in her mind it is still one.   I actually read the entire book prior to giving it to Amber and I quite enjoyed it myself.  However, I'm not a middle school student either.

This week I've spent uncounted hours working on adoption paperwork and finishing my autobiography for the home study.  At this point it feels like I should be looking for a publisher to turn it into a novel, or at least a novella.  It's honestly approaching that long, and that is just hitting the bullet points they require.   We also have our psychological evaluations scheduled for next week, well, at least part one. It is a multi-visit thing.  The Philippines require that adoptive parents go through a full psychological evaluation, not a screening.  We also have to take two separate personality tests.  No, this isn't a little bit scary, not at all.  (If you could hear me say that, you'd hear the totally freaked out tone.)  I feel normal, but who knows what weirdness they will tell me is lurking in the back corners of my mind.  Probably just a latent geekiness, but this whole process can be a bit freaky.

(LEFT) Biscotti being sedate and cute.  Yes, he is a disproportionate cat.  His head is nowhere near the right size for his body.  It's the oddity of being a mix between a small and large breed cat.
(TOP-RIGHT) Amber preparing to eat a strawberry during food trials.  BTW, it passed.. one strawberry.  Two strawberries a couple days later were a failure.
(BOTTOM-RIGHT) Savoring her strawberry.  She didn't even try to nibble, just popped it in whole.

Today we are working on school and mentally preparing for the music concert tonight.  Amber will be playing flute with the rest of the MCCA concert band, and it's her first time performing with the flute.  She has performed on piano before, but not with her flute.  Then, on Sunday we have the last handbells performance of the season too.  Oddly, we are looking forward to it, even though it means getting up super duper extra early on a Sunday for the dreaded early church service.  :)

Happy Weekend!

Linking with:

Homeschool Without Traditional Art

This last week of the Virtual Curriculum Fair is on Seeking Beauty: The Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World.  Immediately I thought, "Oh, that's not for us".   You see, Amber and I are not artistic.  Actually, to put it that way is insulting those who can draw identifiable stick people, unlike us.

Then after thinking for a little bit, I realized we do have lots of Art and Beauty in our school and lives.  It just isn't visual arts.  We do try to expose Amber to visual arts when possible. Amber takes occasional art classes at a local studio where she can try different mediums.  She usually has fun in the class, but she clearly does not excel in art.  She doesn't even want to try art unless it is a "fun class".

Best ever results from one of Amber's art classes, the instructor did the wording... completed at age 10 yrs and 11 months. :)

I, personally, loved the Art Appreciation and Art History classes I've taken and enjoy going to art museums even though my drawing and painting abilities are non-existent. I hoped this might be the case with Amber as well.  We started off this 5th grade year using A Child's History of Art - Painting and A Child's History of Art- Architecture. Both are from The Calvert School and include art cards as well as a small spiral bound book.  It was a total no-go for Amber.  Just too dry.  No problem.  I've heard nothing but wonderful things about Harmony Fine Arts, so I purchased the 6th grade Medieval and Renaissance level.   We dutifully used it for a few weeks during which  Amber was initially thrilled, and then one day she was not.  Neither art or art appreciation are her cup of tea.

Where does that leave us with Arts and Beauty?  Music, is our obvious starting point.  Amber has taken piano since she was 5 years old.  She loves to play piano and has a natural gift for music.  She is not as motivated to practice regularly as I would like, but it fluctuates enough that overall her practice times are sufficient.  I have the responsibility of instructing her in the piano.  We use the Faber and Faber Piano Adventures series.  We've found it to be a bit slow at times, but that's about the only complaint we have.

Amber also plays on a children's chimes choir at our church and she is hoping to move up to the middle school handbell choir next year.  This is one of the great joys of her life.  She lives for each practice and performance.

Chimes performance and piano practice

Additionally, Amber took voice lessons last semester and this semester is trying out musical theater classes.  While she has always liked to sing, her voice was never well controlled.  I was shocked how much out of her comfort zone she was willing to go for these lessons.  The private voice lessons resulted in a solo Christmas carol in the Christmas concert.  Musical theater this semester will require acting and singing at the spring recital.  While Amber isn't thrilled with visual arts, apparently musical and theater arts inspire her.

Normally, I think of Amber's dance classes as Physical Education, but they too bring beauty to our lives.  Amber has moved from the age of little kid dancer bouncing around the studio to dedicated child dancer still happily leaping across the room.  Amber left competitive dancing a couple years ago, and now that she is more focused on learning dance just for enjoyment we have found that her dancing has greatly improved.  She performed her first solo (and duet) in December for the Christmas recital.  A more beautiful sight we could not have imagined.

Dance and more Dance. 

Although Amber and I are not artistically gifted, we do like crafts - especially needle / yarn work.  Amber loves to latch hook and can happily sit for hours working on a project.  We've given away many a latch hook pillow as a gift from her.   Amber has tried to cross stitch, which is my favorite craft.  She likes the idea of cross stitch but not the time requirements or squinty close work.  Amber has also recently taken up loom knitting and finds this much more to her liking than cross stitch.  Our personal service project this year is knitting baby hats, booties and blankets for local children's hospitals.  Amber has already completed quite a few preemie and newborn hats, along with a few doll hats and scarves.

Knitting hats.  Sock puppet craft made as a gift.  These are our "art" projects.

Beauty in our home and school comes from things other than traditional art.  Music, dance, crafts, and even just watching our adorable cat play all show us the beauty in this wonderful world.

I've enjoyed participating in the Virtual Curriculum Fair this year, but mostly I've enjoyed reading and gained new insights from the other participants' posts.   If you have time, look over at their posts too.

37 FREE Online Art and Music Resources by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Homeschool Without Traditional Art by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Draw What? by TechWife @ A Playground of Words
Flower Pony Tail Holders - Beginning Sewing Projects by Julie @ Highhill Education
Seeking Beauty- Virtual Curriculum Fair by Karyn @ Teach Beside Me
Creating an Artsy Homeschool, even if you're not by Erin @ Delighting in His Richness
Living with an Artsy Boy by Annette @ A Net In Time

This Is How It Should Be

This was one of those weeks when you feel like you are a great homeschool parent and know exactly what you are doing.  In the back of your mind, though, you wonder if that is really true and when the other shoe is going to fall.

We did a lot of non-academic projects and activities this week, along with a full week of school.  The school part just seemed to flow along with no bumps at all, not that we have too many bumps ordinarily. We are approaching the end in three subjects, with only one week to go before the curriculum is finished!  I think this might be contributing to our ease in the academic portion of school.

Amber took several tests this week and did excellent on them all.  We finished the second book in the CPH health series,  How you are Changing (see review),  and will start the AO Health Quest on Monday.  Amber has finished 11 of the 23 tests in Saxon Math 6/5, and with each test has re-affirmed our decision to move past 6/5 for 5th grade.

This past weekend my sister texted me, needing ideas for a medieval costume for her 4 year old.  It was the dreaded week at pre-school, where they have themed dress days all week.  I remember those weeks, we called them National Lutheran Schools Week in the parochial school. 

My sister does not enjoy reading for fun or have any interest in history.  Thus, the medieval costume was a real issue for her.  Amber spouted many ideas for her to use, and I duly texted them back.  The highlight of the conversation was a comment I received from my sister on Amber's idea to imitate chain mail, "What is chain mail?"  (boggle.. don't ask.  We just sat there stunned for a few moments).

It was at this point that Amber offered to make a very simple costume for her cousin and mail it, as they live several hours away.  This was met with approval from all, and our weekend project was born.  It really is quite a simple costume, remember a 4 year old did have to wear it all day.  We took a red t-shirt from Michaels and turned it into a tunic by cutting off the sleeves and cutting up the side seams. Add a black shirt & pants to imitate chain mail. Then, Amber cut a strip of black material into a belt and sewed a piece of one of the red sleeves on the side of the belt for a dagger slot. She made the dagger from cardboard, aluminum foil and gold duck tape.  We also made an iron-on Mizzou crest for the "tunic".   Amber absolutely loved making this costume, and was such a proud big cousin.

This week Amber decided she was interested in making the woven potholders, again.  She made several patterns and I was even awarded with one of them.  Someday she should try something other than a potholder, but for now that's all she likes to make. I've begun using them as trivets too.

We had an impromptu lesson on ducks this week as well.  Our next door neighbor called early one morning to ensure we saw the ducks in our front yard.  You have to understand, we live in a suburban area that until 10-15 years ago was farms.  We do see the occasional wildlife that forgot to leave when the people came, but rarely this close up.   We had a male and female pair of Mallards just hanging out in our front yard like they had no care in the world.  This was quite unusual for our area. We have all the squirrels, rabbits and geese you could imagine, but Mallards we usually only see at the zoo.

Mr. & Mrs. Mallard in our front yard

While it's not school related, exactly, we started playing the last Lego PS3 game, Harry Potter - Years 5-7.  I have to say the Harry Potter games, while fun, are my least favorite of the Lego games.  I just find them cumbersome and awkward compared to the others.  Amber has now started on a new Harry Potter obsession.  She is replaying, in her free time, the first Harry Potter Lego game on her DS (we have 2 versions of it.. sigh).  She has been wanting to watch the movies again and asking when she can read the books.  Through all of this, we haven't actually played much of the new game because Amber keeps using up her screen time with the movies and her DS.  The books have to wait until she finishes her current To Be Read pile. 

I'm still deep in planning for next year and even started to setup the new school year in my tracking software.  My newest curriculum find is for Art Appreciation.  I think we will be using two books that are part of a series, A Child's History of Art: Painting and A Child's History of Art: Architecture.   These books look like very promising launching points for Art Appreciation.  I am sure we will supplement with iPad apps and trips to the Art Museum (St. Louis has a fantastic Art Museum that I LOVE to visit). 

My favorite resource for this week is the book we just finished in Health, CPH's How You Are Changing, girls edition.  I dreaded talking to Amber about sex education.  I didn't know if I could talk as openly as needed or if we would both find it unbearably awkward.  How You Are Changing was an immense help to us both.  It talks about exactly what the title says, how girls are changing at this age and what to expect.  It talks about how God made us and how we are just as he designed and explains the details in a factual way but with spiritual reminders.  It was a wonderful find and helped us have a very open and natural conversation.

That was our wonderful homeschool week in review.  I just hope next week goes as smoothly.  We absolutely love homeschooling and can't imagine doing anything else at this point in our lives.