NEW POLL

Be sure to chime in on my new poll to the left! Click your answer and leave your mark!

Questions about what each style means? Check out this short article.

Welcome Spring!

I say that very tongue-in-cheek because we are under a severe winter storm warning right now. While most others are complaining that more snow is coming on top of what has been desperately trying to melt, I'm sitting in the cozy living room of my friend's house, enjoying delectable conversation, coffee cake, and books such as The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. Life can't get much sweeter.

It's so easy to let our expectations get in the way of our moods. If anyone has reason to complain about yet another snow storm, it would definitely be the two of us. We both just received our orders of seeds for our spring garden planting. But, while we sit and watch the snow pelt the window outside, we dream of the beautiful weather to come. And come it will. No doubt about it. We just have to wait.

I'm looking out the window through the trees to where my house will someday be located and dreaming of chickens, tall corn stalks, and dirty boots. Yes, spring will most assuredly come. With the budding trees will come the birds and the salamanders. The mice will start to scurry again, and the cats will have fat bellies from the game they so carefully stalk.

I'm watching my dirty, old, yellow lab lick his muddy paws and cry out in pain from his aching joints. He has spent the last 12 hours enjoying these acres of land with his girlfriend, Summer. I'm thinking the old dog will have to learn to pace himself next to his young friend. But, it'll be a sweet thing to watch them splash in the water hole behind the house.

I'm listening to our children stomp up and down the stairs, and I keep wondering what it will be like to have them all working to build their treehouse between our houses. We've been carefully planning our projects and watching our budget to make room for them all. Step by step, I know things will take shape.

As the snow accumulates outside the window, I think about the pergola I want built above my deck. Those hot summer days that are sure to appear will be even more satisfying as we sweat our way to an amazing harvest of vegetables and fruits.

Yes, spring is on its way, friends. And it will be beautiful.

St. Patrick

Just popping in to share a book I love about Saint Patrick.

Ancient Egypt for Children

I've unearthed some great resources for teaching Ancient Egyptian history to children. Below are some fantastic links that you're going to want to spend some time playing with. I hope you enjoy these as much as we have been!

King Tut's Virtual Tomb

                 but first read...

Howard Carter Finds King Tut's Tomb

Egyptian Tomb Adventure

Practice your hand at making your own mummy here and here!

Pyramid Builder

Ancient Egypt for Kids - TONS of links!

Tapestry of Grace Arts and Activities

Music and the Home School: More Unit Study Lists

Music is one of the things in home school that seems to be the hardest to incorporate. I have, in past posts, made lists of music that could be used along with science and history lessons to help bring things together in an artful and well-rounded way. After scouring iTunes and the internet thoroughly, I've found some real treasures I want to share with you. I am so thankful for iTunes "preview" feature that allows me to listen before buying.


We use Christian Cottage Unit Studies (which is a Charlotte Mason approach to history and science). Everything I do, except maybe math, revolves around this─music, foreign language, art, reading...


This "list" of music appreciation listening is going to follow the run of unit studies that are in this curriculum. But, they can be used for just about any curriculum since these are topics that are covered in pretty much all classrooms.

..................................................................

Music Appreciation for Roots and Relations: The Foundation of Civilizations Unit Study 

Listen to Haydn’s The Creation  (this is a whole 2 disc listening experience, so there are no other ‘assignments’ for this unit)

                        or for younger students

"Creation of the World" by Darius Milhaud

Music Appreciation for Light and Matter Unit Study

Listen to “Light” by Hans Zimmer from The Thin Red Line soundtrack

Music Appreciation for Early Civilizations Unit Study

Listen to Ancient Lyre music by Michael Levy

·       An Ancient Lyre

·       Echoes of Ancient Ur

·       Hurrian Hymn  No. 6 (c.1400BCE) Ancient Mesopotamian Musical Fragment

Listen to EL-HAWZI by Hossam Ramzy (Egyptian Rai)

Listen to Dulab Huzam by George Dimitri Sawa (The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun)

Listen to Ancient Memories by Derek Bell (The Mystic Harp)

•  Learn what a harp looks and sounds like
•  Learn what a lyre looks and sounds like
•  Learn what a Qanun (kanun) looks and sounds like and where it originates from

Music Appreciation for Oceanography Unit Study

Listen to “Tsunami” from the album Bending the Light: Chamber Works…

Listen to “La Mer” by Debussy

Listen to “A Sea Symphony” by Vaughan Williams

Listen to “Sea Preludes” by Douglas Lilburn

Listen to “Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium” by Camille Saint-Saëns

Music Appreciation for Greece and Rome Unit Study

Listen to “Roman Banquet” by Michael Levy

Listen to “The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo” (c. 138 BCE) Ancient Greek Musical Fragment by Michael Levy

Listen to “Song Seikilos” (1^st Century Greek Song) by San Antonio Vocal Arts Ens.

Listen to ”Ancient Dance” by Petros Tabouris Ensemble

Listen to “Pompei” by Synaulia (music from Ancient Rome Vol.1)

Listen to “Lamentation of Tekmessa” by Christodoulos Halaris

• Research some of the Roman Musical Instruments such as the Roman Tuba, askaules, aulos, and the syrinx

 

Music Appreciation for Weather Unit Study 

Listen to Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”

Listen to “Stormy Weather” by Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra

Listen to “Thunder and Lightning Polka” by Johann Strauss Jr.  

Listen to “Wind” by Peter Davison

Music Appreciation for Middle Ages Unit Study

Listen to Music for a Medieval Banquet by Drew Minter, Judish Malafronte, Mary Springfels, and Newberry Consort

Listen to “Medieval Music: Laudario di Contona” by Vocal Ensemble of Montpellier

Listen to “Salterello” by The Dufay Collective

Listen to “Medieval Dance Music” from the album Indroducing Continuum

• Learn what “chant” sounds like and where it began
• Learn about the beginnings of written music

Music Appreciation for Bread of Life: Birds, Biomes, Bugs, and Bodies Unit Study

Listen to:

BUGS
Franz Schubert's Der Einsame D 800 (The Hermit)
Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos, Book VI, BB 105, No. 142, From the Diary of a Fly
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Overture to the Wasp
Modest Mussorgsky's Mephistopheles’s Song Of The Flea
Chet Atkins' Centipede Boogie
Thomas Arne's Where The Bee Sucks There Lurk I
Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee
Kalevi Aho's Insect Symphony (7th Symph.)
Bela Bartok's Night Music
Roussel's The Spider's Feast
Ralph Vaughn Williams' The Wasps Suite
Tchaikovsky's Chorus of Insects
Grieg's La Papillon (The Butterfly)

ANIMALS
Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals
J. S. Bach's Where My Sheep Safely Graze
Rossini's La Boutique fantasque: Galop (horses)
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
Respighi's Prelude from The Birds
Anderson's The Waltzing Cat 
 
PLANTS
Jonas Forssell: I begynnelsen (The Kingdom of Plants),
Lakmé: The Flower Duet (BBC Concert Orchestra),
Don Quixote: Flower Walt


Music Appreciation for Astronomy Unit Study

Listen to The Planets by Gustav Holst (this is, again, a whole album of listening, so it’s the only ‘assignment’ for this unit)

 ....................................................................................................


That brings us to the end of the the first volume of Christian Cottage Unit Studies. If you are interested in seeing some of what is included in these unit studies, please see my posts on Year One, Year Two, and Year Three or check out their website linked at the beginning of this post. 

Vacation + Home School Convention =

ONE TIRED MOMMA!

After a lovely week in warm(er) San Diego, I spent a day and a half at home, then ran off to our State Home School Convention for 3 days. I'm totally exhausted. Glad I did all of that and then some, but I'm really, most definitely tired. Resting...

We didn't make it to church today for several reasons. One of our foster boys is now sick with the stomach bug and took a much needed 5 hour nap today. I'm thankful he hasn't thrown up again since last night, but I'm holding my breath to see if anyone else is going to get it. My husband had to run off to work this morning for some eventful drama. I know God's hand is in it. Praying...

Took some great time today to look at my photos from the last two weeks. While in San Diego, I took over 900 photos─mostly of a fantastic concert my sister was a part of. I've been adjusting lighting, cropping, and playing with photo effects. So much fun to come out with what I was hoping for. Musing...

I'm now contemplating a way to get all three of my children into the same Unit Study for history. How will this happen? I don't have the slightest clue. One of them will have to stall out while the other two do a quick catch up. Planning...

I Must Be Crazy

I must not have enough to do. I decided I'm going to learn how to knit. My first project is a scarf─keeping it simple so as not to throw in the towel too early.

I'm not really a super creative person, but I'd like to try to make my own design on the scarf instead of just doing one plain color. I've got the basic technique down, but I'm a little scared to get into the changing of colors in the middle of a row. We'll see how it turns out.

Pray for me. It could get interesting...