School Daze

Hello everyone!  Even though January I thought I would share some pictures I took of the monkeys on our first day of school waaaay back in September.

You know, we’ve been homeschooling for eight years, and this is the first year I’ve ever thought to take a first-day-of-school picture!  I’m kind of disappointed in myself for missing out on the opportunity all these years.  Oh well, no time like the present to start, right?

I was so excited about how good these pictures came out.  Given, it’s hard for the monkeys to take bad pictures, but I thought these photos were extra cute!

This year we officially welcomed a new student to our school table.  Tacy has been working on Pre-K 3 curriculum and is doing fantastic.  Some of her favorite things to do are cutting and working in her sticker books.  She would breeze through an entire workbook in one day if I would let her.  Honestly, I don’t know why I hold her back.  I guess I’m just trying to avoid having to buy new workbooks every other week.  But like the Tool Man always says, what’s money to a hog?  I think I’ll let her do as much as she wants from now on.

OK.  Time to be real.  This school year has been one of the toughest ever THE TOUGHEST EVER! Babies have a way of complicating things, especially babies who don’t sleep.  Besides beginning this school year about a month later than we normally do, we have been moving at a snail’s pace.  Honestly, we’re about 9 weeks behind where I would like to be.  Yikes!  That sounds bad.  But, in the grand scheme of things, are 9 weeks really that big of a deal?  No!!!!!!  So, I’ve determined not to stress about it. 

Part of the challenge of school this year is that I’ve had a hard time working in fun activities.  Unfortunately, when you’re running low on time and energy, it’s usually the fun stuff that gets cut first.  Nevertheless, here are a few pictures from the one poetry tea time we’ve had this year.  I made some old-fashioned tea cakes for our snack, and the kids substituted actual tea with chocolate milk and Coke.  Lucy set our table and lit some candles for us. Then we all sat around the table and enjoyed our cookies and poetry selections.

Ty read us a poem he had written in his literature class.

Tacy even “read” a few poems out of one of my old nursery rhyme books.

And these two lazy girls spent the entire tea time snoozing on the couch. 

Now that the Christmas holidays are behind us, we are back at the books again.  It looks like Tib is finally going to string together some sleep-filled nights, so I’m hoping my energy and gusto will return for the second half of our school year.  I do so want to give the monkeys the best school experience!

Lindsey

History Snapshots

Since the monkeys and I started school nine weeks ago, I have done a poor job documenting our year in pictures.  And by “poor” I mean I think I’ve pulled out my camera only 3 days this year.  So when it comes to choosing pictures to share on the blog, it’s slim pickin’s.  However, I did manage to find a handful of shots that I took of some recent history lessons.

Our first 20 or so history lessons this year have not been fun reads.  You see, volume II of the Mystery of History begins with the ascension of Jesus and the 300 years of horrific Christian persecution that follows.   Throw a catastrophic volcanic eruption into the mix and you have a very somber few weeks of history lessons.

The monkeys have had some difficult questions about why God would allow such horrible persecution to happen to His children.  I certainly don’t have a definitive answer for them, but I do try to stress to them that God was, is, and always will be in control of world leaders and events, and that He can even utilize evil for His glory.  We also have discussed that our purpose on this earth is not that we live a life of ease and comfort but that we offer up ourselves to be used for His glory and trust our lives to Him.  And throughout our studies of the persecution of the early church we were encouraged to see that all the tortures and murders didn’t stifle the Gospel one bit.  Quite the contrary!  The Christian community grew from just a handful believers to nearly half of the population of the Roman empire!  Now if that doesn’t bring God glory, I don’t know what does.

Every now and then I try to include some hands-on activities to supplement our history lectures.  I really think it helps the monkeys retain the information we’ve covered when we have some sort of physical activity to tie our lessons to.  For instance, the monkeys may not remember when I ask them who invented the first written language, but when I ask them what we were learning about when they wrote with sticks in clay tablets, the monkeys quickly tell me all about the Sumerians and cuneiform.

So during our lesson on the Dead Sea Scrolls, I let the monkeys make salt crystals much like the ones that litter the landscape around the Dead Sea.

Basically all we had to do was mix up some Epsom salt and water, pour it over black paper, and set it in the sun to dry.  After a couple of days, the monkeys were thrilled to find jagged, glittering crystals covering the paper.

It just so happened (thank you, Jesus) that this Dead Sea history lesson coincided with our science lessons on density and buoyancy.  It was the perfect opportunity for us to experiment with various objects sinking and floating in fresh vs. salt water.

As I alluded to earlier, the monkeys have also studied the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the devastation of Pompeii.  We were intrigued to learn how modern-day archaeologists were able to cast molds of humans and animals whose lifeless forms had been trapped for centuries, under piles of ash of rock.

To help her understand a little more about the excavation process, I had Lucy experiment with making molds using Play-Doh. 

Any excuse to use Play-Doh is a winner with Lucy. Tacy observed big sister’s studies from nearby, while nibbling on a slice pizza.

That’s really the only school pictures I have taken this year.  I guess I’ve just really been more focused on sticking to our schedule than on snapping pictures, which is good for our studies, but bad for the blog, I know.

It’s not always school, school, school around here.  In between teaching and housework, I’ve been busy adding autumn touches to our home, both inside and out.  I’ve spent a lot of my free time lately scouring Pinterest, filling my mind with fall décor inspiration.  I hope to post a few pictures of my autumn decorating soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Lindsey

Rice Rice Baby

Boy, I really need to do a better job of taking pictures!  That’s the main reason why my blogging has been sparse lately.  I have no new pictures.  This morning I decided to look through my computer to see if I could find any pictures for y’all, and I ran across of few of Tacy.

Several weeks ago I put together this sensory bin of dyed rice for Tacy to dig around in.  I added puff balls, spoons, cups, foam numbers, plastic eggs, and a few other odds and ends for Tacy to play with. 

Tacy thoroughly enjoys digging and pillaging through the rice.  Her favorite activity is to spoon rice into her cup then pour it back into the bin…over and over and over.  Don’t tell her, but this is actually her toddler form of “school work.”  It’s good exercise for those little fingers to grip the spoon, and pouring the rice back and forth is an excellent activity for improving her hand-eye coordination.

I spread a vinyl tablecloth on the floor to keep the inevitable mess contained.  When she’s done playing, all I have to do to clean up is dump the tablecloth back into the bin.

It won’t be long before Tacy is ready to join us at the big school table.  She’s already expressed interest in coloring, writing, painting, and counting.  I may be biased, but I think she’s a pretty smart girl.

Maybe I can get my booty into gear soon and take some pictures.  Fall will be rearing its head in a few weeks, I hope, and that always gets me in the mood to take pictures of the monkeys.  Ty and Lucy are looking forward to the cooler temperatures and autumn fun.  I love chasing them around the yard with my camera as they busy themselves chasing chickens, gathering sticks for campfires, and raking leaves. 

Lindsey

Back to the Books

Hello y’all.  After a hot, busy summer, it’s time to begin another school year at Arrow Academy.  (In case you are new to my blog, Arrow Academy is the name of our homeschool here on the creek.)

Like most kids, my monkeys weren’t thrilled about getting back to the books.  Honestly I wasn’t jumping up and down to start school either.  I’ve really been enjoying my summer vacation, completing lots of sewing projects over the last few weeks.  But due to the fact that we have a couple of out-of-town trips planned in the next month or so, we really needed to get a jump on our schoolwork.

This school year, I am totally changing the way we do things.  Some of you may remember that last spring I became very interested in Miss Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy.  I spent most of my summer reading everything I could regarding her teaching methods and techniques.  Then I was lucky enough to find an awesome website with detailed lesson and curriculum guides (at no cost!) based on the Charlotte Mason (CM) method.  This website, Ambleside Online (AO), has been such a blessing, with wonderful advice for people like me who are new to the CM method.  Through AO, I was directed to yet another incredible site with access to over 400 classic children’s titles.  Finding this collection of free, Charlotte Mason-worthy literature has probably saved me hundreds of dollars on books this year.

So, armed with new knowledge, a detailed curriculum guide, and an online library of free books, I set to work this summer planning a much different, yet exciting school year.

My first challenge was to create a daily and weekly schedule for us.  I think a well-planned schedule is a vital part of the CM classroom, since her method hinges on concise, meaningful lessons and the development of good habits.  It probably took me three weeks of wiggling and finagling time slots and books and lessons, but I finally came up with a schedule I think will work for us.

Here’s the simplified version of our weekly schedule.  I tried to color coordinate subjects that correlate.

	M	T	W	T	F
9:00	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible
9:20	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork
9:30	Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
10:00	History	Science	History	Science	History
10:30	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break
10:50	Literature	Literature	Literature	Literature	Literature
11:10	Shakes-peare	Artist/ Composer Study	Geography	The Story of the Romans	Timeline
11:30	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:00	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry	Poetry
1:05	Spelling/ Vocabulary	Spelling/ Vocabulary	Spelling/ Vocabulary	Spelling/ Vocabulary	Spelling/ Vocabulary
1:20	Grammar/ Phonics	Latin	Grammar/ Phonics	Latin	Dictation
1:40	Nature Study	Handi- crafts	Science Extras	Art	50Famous Stories Retold
Other	Free Reading

Since our school year will be divided in the three terms of 12 weeks, I also decided to plan the first twelve weeks of lessons for Ty and Lucy.  AO had the bulk of this work already done, but, like I mentioned earlier, I still needed to merge a first grader’s work with a sixth grader’s work.  There’s just no way I can teach two separate lessons for each subject in school, so it was essential for me to combine as many of Ty’s and Lucy’s lessons as possible.  Of course the monkeys work separately in subjects like spelling, grammar, and math, but for things like history, science, Bible, and nature study we do joint lessons.  Then the monkeys do age-appropriate work to supplement the lessons.

As far as curriculum goes, I didn’t have to change as much of it as I expected.  For science, history, and math we are using the same publishers as last year.  The biggest curriculum changes for us have been in literature, spelling, and grammar.  I’ll bore you with the details of these on another day, but for now I will say that the new books are working quite well for us.

Now that we are two weeks into our first term, you may be wondering how it’s going.

Well, I am happy, nay thrilled, to report that things are going splendidly. It’s probably been our best first two weeks ever!  The weekly schedule has been worth every painstaking minute I spent making it.  What has surprised me most about the schedule is how much the monkeys like it.

I printed a schedule for each of them to keep in the front of their binders, and they love being able to flip to it to see how much they’ve accomplished and what’s coming up next.  It really helps the monkeys to have a visual image of what is expected of them every day.  Ty even said that being able to turn to the schedule makes the day go by faster for him.  Heaven help me though if I try to do a lesson out of order, because Lucy gets me back in line lickety-split.  She’s the schedule police.

I think the biggest adjustment we’ve had to make this year is getting used to our new literature selections.  CM was BIG on choosing quality, classic, “living books” for her students to read.  One could write an entire essay on what CM meant by “living books,” but suffice it to say that instead of choosing meaningless “twaddle” for her students to read, Charlotte opted for timeless classics that taught valuable lessons and brought school subjects to life.  In other words, she would have chosen Robinson Crusoe over Harry Potter any day.  (No offense, HP fans.)  For us, this means that the books we are reading may sometimes be a little over the monkeys’ heads, but the idea is that they will glean whatever they are ready for whenever they are ready for it.  Feeding their minds with carefully selected literature will force them to stretch and grow in their vocabulary, knowledge, and comprehension.  It’s not always the fun and easy path, but I do believe the results will be worth it.  The process kind of reminds me of exercise.  If I don’t push them to strain their mental muscles, then they will never grow stronger.

So here’s a list of books we are reading the first semester.  The books were selected based largely on what we are studying in history this year – the early Christian Church and the Middle Ages.  Don’t freak out when you see the list.  Although it looks like an awful lot of books for 12 weeks, let me assure you that we are taking this very slowly – like one chapter from each book a week.  And at that pace it will take the entire school year or longer to complete some of these books.

For Lucy:

Aesop’s Fables
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall
Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
The Story of the Romans by Helene Guerber

For Ty:

Age of Fable by Thomas Bullfinch
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall
Stories of Robin Hood Told to the Children by H. E. Marshall
Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Beowulf, a New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling
Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
Robert Frost Poems
Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
The Story of the Romans by Helene Guerber

I know you must be terribly tired of reading by now, so I will wrap it up here.  Sorry I didn’t have more pictures to share.  I know that pictures of the monkeys are the best part of this blog.  I guess I have been so caught up in teaching that the idea of taking pictures hasn’t really crossed my mind.  But that’s how it should be I guess.

Lindsey

Shoo Fly

Ahhh, summer!

It’s the closest I get to “time off.”

I am often asked if we take a summer break from homeschooling.  Yes, we take a break, but the reason may not be what you think.

Our summer break is more for my own sanity than for the kid’s pleasure.  I do believe I’d go crazy if we did school twelve months a year.   My brain desperately needs the time to recuperate, recharge, and relax.  Taking a summer vacation also gives me the chance to tackle various projects around the house like:  cleaning out closets, organizing clutter, purging the ever-increasing mountain of toys, making jelly, completing craft projects, sewing for the girls, and planning birthday parties.

I also have the tough job of keeping the monkeys occupied throughout the summer.  While I could think of hundreds of household chores to keep them busy, the monkeys are none too thrilled with the thought of doing housework all summer.  I can’t say that I blame them, but I do make them do their fair share.  A few chores that the monkeys help with include: laundry, pet care, mopping, wiping down bathrooms, watering plants, and dusting.  Their leisure time is spent sleeping late, swimming, playing Wii, riding four-wheelers, digging in a dirt pile, building with Legos, and aggravating each other.

Occasionally I try to sneak in a little education during the summer.  A while back I told y’all that I am trying to incorporate nature study into our academic work.  (See this post.)  While I am not planning any formal nature studies for the kids this summer, I would like to send them out to observe and explore creation from time to time.  And I’ve noticed that sometimes, if you keep your eyes and ears open, opportunities for nature studies knock on your door.

Literally.

A few weeks ago there was a very strange looking critter clinging to the back door of our house.  I’d never seen an insect with such a long, slender tail.  It was the perfect specimen for a nature study!

Being insect ignorant, I had to use Google to help me identify this creature as a mayfly.  Once I had a name for this bug, I did a little reading online, so I would have some information to share with the monkeys.  I even found a couple of short, informative videos about mayflies for the monkeys to watch.

The monkeys thought the mayfly was a neat looking critter.  They eagerly got out their nature journals and started sketching with their watercolor pencils.  What was particularly cool is that this mayfly molted on our door leaving an empty exoskeleton for the monkeys to examine.

Lucy especially loves nature journaling.  She never tires of adding pictures to her notebook, sketching everything from sunsets to pinecones.  I’m very encouraged by her enthusiasm for nature study.

During our brief study we all learned that mayflies are pretty amazing critters.  A few interesting facts:

• Mayflies live the majority of their lives (up to 3 years)underwater as nymphs (immature insects).
• Once the mayfly develops into an adult, it leaves the water for the land.
• Enormous swarms of mayflies emerging from the waters of the Mississippi River have actually been detected by weather radar.  Wow, that’s a lot of bugs!
• The adult mayfly typically lives only 1-2 days.  There are some species of adult mayflies that live only live 5 minutes!
• Adult mayflies exist only to reproduce, hence they do not have functioning mouths.

I tell you, the more we do nature studies, the more I like them!  The monkeys definitely enjoy them too.  It almost makes me want to get started on our new school year, so we can dive deeper into outdoor learning.

Almost.

For now I think I’ll be content to enjoy the rest of my summer.

Lindsey

A Walk on the Wild Side

Sometimes I get tired of being the bad guy around here.  And by “bad guy” I mean the person who is always making the monkeys be quiet, do their school work, mind their manners, and tidy their rooms.  Let’s face it, when it’s time to have fun, I’m usually not the person the kids come running to.  That’s ok.  I understand that “having fun” is not necessarily at the top of my job description.

But once in a while I enjoy surprising the monkeys with a little pleasure, like treating them to a trip to our local zoo.  Boy were they excited to go!

Truth be told, our local zoo is not the greatest zoo ever.  The landscaping needed some tlc.  Several cages were vacant.  Quite a few exhibits were closed.  But a subpar zoo is better than no zoo at all, right?

Of all the animals we saw on our zoo excursion, I have to say that birds were my favorite, particularly the bald eagles and this guy.  Have you ever seen such beauty in all your life!  His tail was magnificent, and he knew it.  I guess there is some truth to the old adage, “Proud as a peacock.”  I’ve been wanting a peacock of my own for quite some time, and seeing this gorgeous guy reminded me why.

Lucy, who is quite used to being around poultry, was eager to get to know this gaggle.

A landscaper working nearby warned Lucy that the geese may turn on her and try to attack, but these geese were quite docile compared to the ones in our own backyard.  Our birds honk and hiss and chase when the kids get near them.

As usual, Tacy was so well behaved.  She was content to ride quietly in her stroller as we made our way around the facilities, silently observing the animals at each exhibit.

I think Tacy enjoyed our field trip, but she never expressed much interest in anything.  She’d watch the animals through the fences with about as much expression as one who was watching a can of beans.

The exhibit that got the kids most excited was the reptile house.  Lucy squealed like a pig upon seeing the first snake up close.  Ty had a blast trying to locate the snakes and lizards in their tanks.  Some of those critters were great hiders, unlike the two beasts below.

There were quite a few tortoises who lived at the zoo, and the kids liked watching them creep around on their toes.  Lucy quickly spotted a baby tortoise, and before I knew it, she had her arm shoved through the fence, up to her armpit, petting its back.  I am happy to report that Lucy returned home with all 10 fingers. 

A portion of the zoo was dedicated to animals of the Louisiana Purchase.  Here the kids discovered a teepee replica.  (Or is it a wigwam?? I never know the difference.)  Ty quickly hopped in for a photo op, but Lucy was little wary.

What zoo trip would be complete without a couple of hungry, hungry hippos?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that if the hippos decided to charge that a measly fence and shrubbery could hold them back.

I’m so glad I decided to treat my monkeys to a day of leisure!   We all enjoyed our “free” day, as the kids like to call it.  I think it would benefit us all if I incorporated a few more of these “free” days into our schedule.  The monkeys have already decided where they would like to visit next… the safari park.  Lucy is dying to get up close and personal with a zebra.

Lindsey

Back to Nature

I’ve been doing something recently that is very out of character for me…  Reading!

It’s no secret that I don’t like to read.  (Gasp!)

I find it incredibly boring.

I’d much rather be doing something creative with my hands.  But lately, I’ve discovered the works of Miss Charlotte Mason, and I am fascinated with her philosophy of education, in particular, her thoughts on homeschooling.

Miss Mason was an educator who lived around the turn of the 20th century, and wrote extensively about educating children in the home.  I must say I am loving her ideas.  Her methodology is far too broad a topic for me to discuss here, but there is plenty of information to be found online regarding the Charlotte Mason (CM) method should you desire to find out more.

It is my hope to incorporate as many CM practices into our homeschool in the coming year as possible.  In fact, I’ve been so inspired by CM’s writings that, even though the monkeys are practically finished with their work for this year, I’ve already begun implementing some of CM’s suggestions into our daily routine.

For instance, we’ve begun to learn Latin, we’ve ventured into the world of Shakespeare, and we’ve devoted a small part of each week to the study of famous artists.  I’ve also managed to squeeze in some classical music and lighthearted poetry here and there.

Today I wanted to highlight another one of Miss Mason’s ideas that we’ve started using in (or rather out of) our classroom.

Nature Study!

CM believed that children should spend a lot of time out of doors.  And by “a lot” I mean 4-6 hours a day!  Can I get an “Amen”?  Sign me up!

In Charlotte’s opinion children should be allowed multiple hours a day for ripping, romping, playing, breathing fresh air, soaking up sunshine, and making discoveries.  She believed that children should be encouraged to explore the marvels of Creation on their own.  The mother should play a very unobtrusive role in the children’s study of nature.  She should casually direct the children’s attention towards a specific area of interest, like a cluster of dandelions or a bird’s nest, maybe posing a question here or there are, but never boring the children with a lecture or lesson.  The children should be allowed to make discoveries on their own, unhindered by proper “lessons.”  Then they should come back and report to mom or record in a nature journal whatever observations they made during their explorations.

Done correctly, a thorough study of nature benefits the children on multiple levels.  It hones their observation skills, it nurtures their love for their Creator, and it helps them appreciate the value of life.  Not to mention the fact that a well rounded nature study encompasses a multitude of academic subjects including geography, geology, math, composition, poetry, and, of course, the sciences, just to name a few.  With so many benefits, it’s easy to see why I was eager to add nature study to our weekly routine.

I had only one question.

Where do we start?

There’s just so much to see.  Birds, trees, weeds, insects, water, weather, flowers…  Nature is BIG, and I needed to help my kids focus.  The answer came to me while I was driving down the interstate the other day.

You know something’s up when you can hear the loud roar of insects over the sound of 70 mph traffic.  Deep in the recesses of my mind I remembered something about a periodical cicada that made it’s appearance every few years.  Could that be the buzzing sound I was hearing?  Turns out it was.  A little internet research revealed that a brood of 13-year cicadas just emerged in Louisiana and Mississippi.  What a perfect topic for our nature study!

I knew these insects were present at our home because of the roar of the bugs in our yard.  So I sent the kids outside to see what clues they could find.   Within minutes I heard squeals of delight outside.  “Mama, come see!  Come see!”

The monkeys had discovered plenty of cicada signs.  Below is a picture of just one of the hundreds of holes that they found in our front yard.  The cicadas, which have spent the past 13 years feeding on roots, emerged last week by tunneling up to the surface and popping out of these holes like some kind of six-legged gophers. 

The monkeys also found gobs of tiny exoskeletons littering the yard. 

Ty even found a few loose cicada wings.

Of course, there were plenty of live, adult cicadas to be found.  We collected a couple of them and sketched them in our nature journals, noting the unique characteristics of insects:  the 3 body sections, 6 legs, compound eyes, antennae, jointed legs, etc.

How about those red eyes!  The monkeys were really intrigued by those ruby red peepers.

Even little Tacy got in on the exploring.  I love to see her learning with the big kids!

I think the monkeys are hooked on nature study.  I know I am.  It’s such a relaxed way to learn.  I’m looking forward to more learning fun as we explore God’s creation together.  Thanks for the tip, Charlotte!

Lindsey

The Far East

Recently in our history studies, the monkeys and I have been learning about ancient China.  Like I told Ty, I honestly don’t remember ever studying Chinese history in 18 years of formal schooling, so all of the information we read about China this week was new to me too.  Surprisingly, my kids were very interested in these lessons.  There certainly was a lot of new information for us to take in.  We discussed everything from silk trade routes to human sacrifice.  Yikes!

Of particular interest to the monkeys was our lesson on the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Juang Ti, and his massive army of terracotta warriors – once again, a topic I’ve never before studied.

Ty had a terrific idea for an activity to go along with this lesson.  He suggested that he and Lucy try making their own versions of clay warriors using Play-Doh.  Great idea, Ty!  So while I read the material to them, the monkeys sculpted away.

Lucy found the task of warrior making to be quite difficult and soon gave up in favor of sculpting easier subjects.  Ty, on the other hand, embraced the challenge and took a lot of pride in recreating his figures.  To help him get a better understanding of how the real clay warriors were constructed, I found an informative PBS video online that addressed the difficulties involved in making the nearly 8,000, life-sized terracotta soldiers. 

Although Ty’s version was on a much smaller scale than the originals, he worked diligently to construct his figure using techniques similar to those of the ancient artisans.  Ty really is a creative soul.  He kept telling me over and over how much he enjoyed making things with his hands.

In addition to the sculpting activity, I found another art project that was better suited to Lucy’s skills – print making.

First the monkeys traced a line drawing of a warrior onto craft foam, making an impression in the foam.

Then they applied a thin layer of acrylic paint to the foam and pressed the foam onto a sheet of construction paper.

Voila! A beautiful warrior print.

I love the way Lucy layered her prints using different colors.  It made her warriors look like they were standing in rows.

What a fun a week of history!  We’re almost through our entire textbook now.  Only 12 more lessons to go!  This week I ordered Volume 2 of the Mystery of History for us to begin next school year.  The monkeys have enjoyed Volume 1 so much.  Sure, they are not going to remember every detail we’ve covered, but they certainly have been exposed to a plethora of ancient information.  Hopefully it will serve as a good foundation for learning to come.

Lindsey