Da Vinci and Italy Week 1

This week we started our Leonardo da Vinci study. This of course incorporates many of the basic core academics. Along with our study of Da Vinci we have been learning about Italy as well, since that was Da Vinci's place of birth and where he created his great works.  Subjects that were not part of our Da Vinci study included lessons on money, study of the basic foods groups, typing skills, and Spanish lessons.

The books we used for our lessons this week are (On the left) "Leonardo and the Flying Boy" by Laurence Anholt,  "Da Vinci (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)" by Mike Venezia, and (Below) "World of Inventors: Leonardo da Vinci" by Lorraine Jean Hopping. 

Most of our studies this week were based on learning about Da Vinci's life, his inventions, most famous works, and how his study of nature and science affected how he created his machines and paintings.  

This was our first project. Here put together one of his flying machines, an Ornithopter. The supplies and instructions for our Ornithopter came from the "World of Inventors" book. 

We did some artwork of course, because you just can't study Da Vinci without creating art. Below you can see that we studied how Da Vinci used what he learned about nature and science to make his paintings look realistic. More specifically, we learned that he used what he studied about birds to make the wings of his angels look as impressive as they did. So, in this project Gavin and I looked up his favorite bird, and he used it's wings to make his very own angel. We also did a little side study on birds to gain a better understanding. His wings of choice choice came from a cardinal.

Continuing work on Da Vinci's inventions, we used the "World of Inventors" book again to get the recipe to make a parachute just like Da Vinci.

As with the Ornithopter, Gavin and I worked together to build the parachute. Gavin was very helpful in cutting and measuring.

And it worked out beautifully!

Through this lesson I made some reading comprehension worksheets to go along with our readings. I would have Gavin read a passage or a couple of pages and he would answer questions about it on the worksheet. This not only helped him work on his understanding of what he was reading, but also gave him a chance to practice good handwriting skills when give a certain amount of space to write on.

Another fun activity was the Mona Lisa in a color by numbers worksheet I discovered online. I love color by number activities, because they are good for teaching children how to follow instruction properly to get their desired result. 

On a short day, which was part of a weekend for Gavin, I told him we were having a class activity in the living room. I made a Venice, Italy scavenger hunt using the "Travel with Kids" show that we love to watch on Hulu. 

Doing a scavenger hunt is a great way to get kids to pay attention to the details they should be learning about in a program. Just making a list of historical landmarks, and fun and silly things to look for makes it a great game!

First day of school!

Today was the very first day of Homeschool!

It was a great learning experience for the both of us!

The very first thing Gavin saw when he went up to his classroom door was his little check-in and check-out of school pockets. He loved this!

First day of 1st grade picture.

Here is the right side of our little classroom that you see upon entering. The right includes our supply shelves, and on the wall is our bug craft web, and the Periodic Table.

Art Center and Health Center (We have a different center every day, but this was just some of the the ones up today).

 Here are all our books, and our display board. Our closet is filled with games, science projects, my planning shelves, workbooks, stickers, flashcards, puzzles, construction paper, etc.

Here we have Gavin's desk next to the Workbox System. This system is a great, fun, and organized way to homeschool, it was created by Sue Patrick. I heard it about from many other parents and I am so glad I tried it. Gavin loves it! Next to it is a Monster Math poster, and above we have a few posters on grammar and the Scientific Method. 

               

                       

 Our Classroom has a My Neighbor Totoro nature Theme. It's a film by Hayao Miyazaki. All his films are magical, and full of possibilities. They teach you to see beyond the obvious. I want the experience in our class to be much of the same. Gavin is a big fan of his films, especially this one. 

      

Thanks for visiting our classroom on our first day! We look forward to adding more to it as we continue on our adventures! 

Field Trip: Visiting the Sugarloaf Alpaca Company!

Today Gavin and I, with our dear friend Winter, had the pleasure of visiting the Sugarloaf Alpaca Company on an open barn day. It was a nice field trip for Gavin to gain some knowledge about the beautiful and friendly creatures known as alpaca. 

If you have little ones I am sure you have seen the Disney movie "The Emperor's New Groove", in which the main character gets turned into a llama.

The picture on the right (and above from the animated movie) is a llama . Alpacas are not in fact llamas, but very close cousins. They do have many things in common though, like the fiber that they produce. Also like a llama, one of the main places alpacas are from is Peru.  In addition,both baby llamas and alapacas are called cria. I find that if your child has seen "The Emperor's New Groove", this is a good way to start explaining the similarities and differences between the two cousins. As you will see in pictures to come, they both do in fact have obvious characteristics that make them look different from each other. 

 

To prepare for the trip, I made Gavin an alapaca fact sheet card. I also made an alapaca math and art knowledge card. On the math and art knowledge card I put together a multiplication word problem using an alapaca fact, and below I added an area where he could draw a picture of an alapaca doing something he learned about on his fact card. This way he could gain some facts about the alpacas on the ride to go see them, and then do the activities on the way back. 

 Alpacas are amazing and beautiful creatures. They are so different from any animals we have ever meet. Here is one of the areas the alpaca on the farm like to hang out to grab some food and get some shade. They have a wide grassy expanse of land to enjoy, but they like to come in from time to time. I assume they enjoyed it a lot today due to all the visitors handing them snacks.

 They are certainly not afraid to get as close to you as possible to get their snacks of alpaca food mix and carrots.

They love their snacks so much, they don't mind craning their lovely long necks to get the pieces Gavin may have dropped. I do have to mention, a bit after this moment we witnessed a brawl between two alpacas in which they used one of their few defenses, spitting. I have to say, all of us quickly stepped out of the way, because you certainly don't want to get that stuff on you. It has a rather offensive odor.

 

There were about twenty new cria on the farm. Here were some taking a nice little nap in the sun, and others just grazing. 

 

Cuteness levels were way too high!

 

Gavin could not wait to get in there. Once we walked up to the gate we were able to put our names on a list to go in, stand beside, pet, and feed the adult and baby alapacas.  They only let small groups go in at a time. I assume it's for the animal's safety and not to overwhelm them with visitors.

While we waited our turn to go spend time with the alpacas, we visited the farm's little shop that was full of yarn, fiber, clothing, stuffed toys, and soap covers all made from the fleece that is produce by alpaca on the farm. Gavin bought his dad an orange dyed piece of fleece for only a few cents. Our friend Winter who loves to crochet bought some beautiful green yarn.

Outside they set up an art stand for kids with crayons and alpaca pictures. They were able to pick from boxes of different alpaca fleece and glue them to the alpaca on the picture.

Gavin also ate some delicious ice cream from the Antietam Dairy Ice Cream Vendor that was parked on the farm.

 

The time finally arrived, and our names were called to spend time with the alpaca. The alapaca's favorite place to be pet is the neck. They are really not keen to people touching their heads, and usually try to avoid it if you try. There is no need to really even go right for the alpaca for their attention, because they go right for you, especially if you have snacks. They are very friendly and lovable, and it's enough to make you want to take a few home if you could. 

 

This was the moment Gavin waited for, pet a cria. This little one is called Nala, and one of the women working at the farm was kind enough to call for Gavin to come over so he could pet her. Nala was very open to love and attention.

 

After spending lots of time with the alpacas, it was time to head out and let the next group in. Gavin was sad to go, but feeling so happy about the time he got to spend with them. As we left he asked one of the women who worked on the farm "Can I come back again?" and she replied with a smile and an "Of course you can." Gavin was all the better for knowing this would not be his last time visiting the alpacas.

 

It was time to go, but not before we got a very interesting demonstration of the contraption that brushes the raw fleece.

We had a fantastic time a the Sugarloaf Farm Company, and if you have any more questions about other dates that you can visit or just questions about the alpacas in general, take the time to visit their website to learn more.

http://www.sugarloafalpacas.com

Packing, planning, but doing the little/big things too.

Today was mostly a day filled with packing and prepping for our big move this week, and also planning a fun field trip for Gavin tomorrow. I still found the time to read with him, make him a little house out of sheets and chairs, and do our daily yoga with an extra meditation. During the packing, Gavin found good ways to entertain himself with what I had available to him. He watched his favorite program on T.V. called "Travel with Kids", and before that he practiced his math skills on www.sheppardsoftware.com. It's a website filled with fun and free ways for kids to practice anything; math, geography, science, language arts, you name it. 



Gavin loves his "Angry Birds Space" game. It's normally a game for more than one player, but if I am busy Gavin takes it out and chooses the cards he wants to see how well he can build the structure he wants to knock over. It takes a lot of patience, and  the way the blocks are built don't always hold up. For even the most skilled and careful adult they will fall, so you have to improvise and flatten some out to actually get whats in the picture to stand. I think Gavin does a pretty good job of it.

Another fun activity I like to have at Gavin's disposal is his rice center. It's basically a sand box with rice instead of sand. I have seen this done with other food things like beans. The idea is pretty much to have a sand box that makes less of a mess. I like to give Gavin things to hide in there, like stones or toy dinosaur fossils, this ways he can pretend to be a little archaeologist. His idea was to use his toy rake to make an oval track and push toy cars through it as if they were on rough terrain. I think that's his favorite. 







This evening Gavin and his dad made their usual trip outside to go catch some fireflies. Upon their return they came back not only with a jar of twinkling fireflies, but oak seeds that resemble little helicopters, and pieces of mica mineral. Gavin and his dad quickly added them to Gavin's Field Journal, and labeled their finds. I look forward to seeing how much we have in this journal by the end of the summer.




I am not prone to giving Gavin sweets, it's actually very rare, if at all, unless we are at a birthday party. However, I was feeling nostalgic and missing my grandmother's treats, so Gavin and I made little meringues. In Spanish we call them "meringuitos". Gavin loves to help me in the kitchen, and when he sees me cooking he runs to get his little chair that he calls his "Master Chef Chair" and stands on it beside me to see what he can do to help. He was a great assistant and will be more than welcome to have some meringue tomorrow after his lunch during our field trip.

A slow but steady start to our adventures

                                                                             Hello! 
This is my first post on our new Homeschool Blog. Along with that, this is also my first time homeschooling my son. Gavin is six years old and entering the first grade. He's going through a lot of changes in his life. Actually, our family as gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. In July 2012 we moved to the state of Maryland after living for four years in Japan. Although Gavin was originally born in Maryland, we moved to Japan when he was just a year old, so all he was familiar with was there. The transition to the states was not easy on him, or on any of us.  However, it was time for changes and we had lots of wonderful friends and family waiting for us in the states.  So far, I can say that it was hard leaving Japan, but we are sure having a lot of fun here, and we look forward to what the future holds for us. Having mentioned that, next week our family will be moving into a new home, so we have not started any formal homeschooling. We plan on making a school room in our new house, and little by little we are collecting supplies to start first grade this summer. I plan to share the progression of our school room as it comes into place along with all of our adventures before we officially start.

Right now I am teaching Gavin things here and there before we get settled into our new home. We go to children's events at libraries, take little field trips to museums, go out into nature, and work on his academics in and out of the home. Not too different from what I will be doing once we officially start school. Right now, it's just much less structured. And as much as Gavin loves everything we have been doing, he craves structure. Every morning he keeps me on track with our morning routine; breakfast, educational programing for an hour, and then yoga. Much like his father in that aspect, and a quality I wish I had. I imagine he will be a very organized and well planned adult in the future.

Above you will see a picture of my husband showing Gavin the constellations. At night we try to do relaxing activities, and this one was lots of fun for Gavin. I am not sure where they sell these tiny planetariums anymore, but this one is actually a very old one we bought from the Discovery Channel years ago. Still works great, and we blew the dust off of it last night and enjoyed an evening under the stars in our living room. 

This morning we celebrated the Summer Solstice, the very first day of summer! I own an online jewelry store, so I have a very large collection of beads. I sorted through my beads and took out anything that was sparkly, translucent, and colorful and set it out for a relaxing morning of making suncatchers. I used beading wire and attached a crystal or droplet bead to the ends with a crimping bead. I let Gavin pick out the one he liked best, and had him bead the rest of the way up. It's fun to see what kids come up with. He pretty much stuck to a pattern, but then ran out of the ones he needed to continue his pattern, and then just started adding a collection of sparkle and clear colors.


 Honestly there is no right or wrong way to do this. As long as you have any kind of bead that catches the light, nothing can keep it from being beautiful. We have these in Gavin's room in our apartment now, but they will be hanging from our window in our new school room soon.

We originally planned to visit the library today for a science Lego lab, but it was the official first day of summer and the day was beautiful, how could we not spend it outdoors? Gavin and I put together his first Field Journal today. We used one of those typical Mead notebooks. Gavin wrote in crayon "My Field Journal" on a piece of green construction paper, and drew a picture of a little bird at the bottom to symbolize it was to be used for nature study. 

I decided to have him start off this book with a little leaf study. I took him to the Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, Maryland, which was extra fun because we got to see so much of summer coming into bloom. Then to the Centennial Park, where he got to play in the playground afterward. We didn't take the leaves home, instead Gavin put the leaves behind pages and used crayons to rub on top of the page the leaf was laying under.

The result was a work of art and science. Tomorrow we plan on looking up the tree the leaves came from, and write a few facts next to his pictures.

Gavin enjoyed using his circular crayons for this project. We make these often using broken crayons (a great way to recycle them) and placing different colors together in a cupcake pan. Then melt them in the oven for a few minutes.