Things we did on a Monday morning in September
• Earworms German (Rilla and Huck)
• U.S. Presidents song
• 7 times table practice
• Visited a neighbor (Rilla and Huck)
• Read “The Lion Man” chapter in Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children’s History of Art (Rilla and me)
• Scooter and walk (Huck and Rose)
• Did art journal pages inspired by the Lion Man chapter (Rilla, Huck, me)
• Listened to Mozart’s 40th symphony while painting
• Read Frederick by Lio Lionni because it tied in so nicely to the Lion Man text (Rilla, Huck, me)
• Beanie did a lot of her usual Beanie stuff—German, geometry, working on a paper for British lit, reading cool books, taking a Photoshop class, piano practice
• Falconry test prep: studied five questions (Rose, Beanie, me)
• Looked up taxonomy mnemonic (King Philip Came Over For Good Soup)(Rose, Beanie, me)
• Boisterous game involving all Mom and Dad’s pillows (Huck and Rilla)
• Read-aloud: two chapters of A Lion to Guard Us (Rilla, Huck, me)
And then it was time for lunch. 🙂
We decided to make pages in our sketchbooks inspired by the Lion Man. I copied the illustrations in the book; Rilla invented her own mammoth-and-lion scene. Huck painted a happy guy. 🙂 Rilla and I are hoping to fill our art journals with drawings based on our Vincent’s Starry Night readings through the year. I’ll try to post updates here if we stick with the plan.
Our current read-aloud is Clyde Robert Bulla’s chapter book A Lion to Guard Us, the adventures of three English children who travel to Jamestown after their mother’s death to reunite with their father there. Huck expresses less enthusiasm for this book than our last few readalouds—he expresses it, and yet every time I start reading (“You don’t have to listen, buddy, you can go play”) he gets sucked right in and has lots of commentary to add. We were amused to note the book’s similarity to our last readaloud (The Family Under the Bridge, which was a rousing success)—down-on-their-luck kids, big sister, middle brother, little sister.
Scott and I took Jane back to college over the weekend (sniffle), so summer is officially over in Chez Peterson. I’m more than a little freaked out by how deep into the month we are already. Too fast, y’all.
Kortney says:
Oh, that art history book looks so good! We’ve got some big art fans here and have been loving Kid Artists of late. Might have to put this one on the birthday list.
On September 19, 2016 at 2:58 pm
Lise says:
Ooh…that looks really good. Thanks for sharing. I love hearing about what you do with your kids; it’s always so inspiring.
On September 19, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Melanie Bettinelli says:
Oh my. I think we need that book right now.
On September 19, 2016 at 4:58 pm
Penny says:
I am totally getting that art book as a holiday gift for myself. What treasures you share!
We took our first to college last month – speaking of sniffle. She loves it. Which makes it easier to bear, but not much, by golly. I miss her! (I feel very selfish saying that, actually, but I do miss her, despite how glad I am for her, and it’s the right thing, and… all that stuff).
Your day sounds delightful. I’m so glad for you – and so grateful you share your joy – it’s inspiring! xo
On September 20, 2016 at 5:11 am
Lisa says:
I love the look of that art book and have added it to my “For my future grandchildren” list! Now I’m off to youtube to find Mozart’s 40th. Great post!
On September 20, 2016 at 11:29 am
Katieh says:
And I’m ordering the book… 😀
The lionman reminds me of the history of the world in a hundred objects series on bbc radio 4.
Which remind me that I was plannung to share that with my younger ones this year and probably should get on to that. (my history loving 7yr old really enjoye the parts he listened to.
On September 21, 2016 at 1:38 am
KateC says:
Ooh! That art history book jumped right off the shelf and into my shopping basket at the art museum last week. We love it!
On September 22, 2016 at 1:17 pm