The Week That Was . . .

We've been having such wonderful, beautiful, delicious weather that Baby Boy and I can hardly concentrate on anything other than sitting on the patio and taking Baby Doggy for walks.


We did manage to get all of our assignments done, and we are both pleased to be almost finished with several of his subjects for this term.


We've completed Music Theory and our Movies as Literature this week. Actually and honestly, we ditched the Movies as Literature, we only had two more movies to watch, but neither of us were all that jazzed about them, so we decided to call it a year on that. Don't get me wrong, if you've looked at this for your own student, it's an excellent curriculum. It's very unique and requires real analysis, easily as much as a good rigorous literature curriculum would require, if not more, because with the visual, there is so much you are expected to notice. You end up practically watching each movie four or five times. For almost every question, Baby Boy and I found ourselves reviewing the scenes to make sure we didn't miss any subtleties. It's been a lot of fun, but we're just done, LOL. This is the time of year we get antsy and don't want to waste our days away watching television. We have some other literature activities that we're doing that are not curriculum and textbook based. It's just one of the perks of homeschooling, I guess.


Of course we did get a chance to get our art projects done this week. We studied Expressionism, which we learned is two giant steps away from realism. That's what we liked best about it, because we tend to do art that doesn't look very realistic whether we are trying to or not, LOL. It's more of a visual display of how you emotionally feel when you see something in nature. This week we did our own renditions of Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Rising Sun (We have pretty high self esteem, don't we? I mean we really aim high! he he he).

The original, Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Rising Sun illustrating Expressionism

Another version of Expressionism by Baby Boy

And yet another, by Mom #1

In case you're wondering, yes, we did at least have fun, LOL.


I know this post is getting long, but one more thing. We went to see my niece, who I love dearly, play an original composition at a piano for her school last night. It was actually the neatest thing I have ever seen. She goes to an all girls private school. Anyway, the girls are learning how to compose music that is uniquely them. So they are used regular music notation as well as graphic notation (which is just a fancy word for pictures) in their music scores. During the performance, they showed each girl's photo and a copy of the actual work she created on the overhead projector while we listened to them play the piece.


The pieces are untitled, but they did provide descriptions. Here's the description my niece's piece:

I have chosen to focus on shifting emotions, moving from happiness to anger, then sadness. Gradual healing begins and then returns us to a state of happiness once again.

The quality of this video is pretty pathetic, because the lighting was down in the auditorium so we could see the slides on the overhead projector, plus I was using a regular camera, not a video camera, so . . . it's really important that you understand that before you get too excited to see it.

Proud moments aren't only for moms, they are for aunties too!

Until next time . . .

Say Something Saturday - Take 3

This week's assignment:

You're trying to bake a cake from scratch.

Everything is going wrong, from having to substitute ingredients to the oven not working properly. (Is it too hot? Too cold? Not level? You decide.)

Rhyme it, Dr. Seuss style.

Make it as long or short as you want.

Make up silly words and have fun with this.

Draw a picture to go with it.

***************************************************

I have a hankering, a burning, and a yearning

For dessert, delicious pastry, a cake that is head-turning.

I sift the soda with sugar and blend it with the flour,

Salivating as I know it will be tasty to devour.

I attempt to crack the eggs on the edge of the bowl,

Most ends up on the counter, but that wasn’t the goal.

On with the oven to melt my sticks of butter

I can already taste it, my heart’s all-a-flutter.

But wait, it’s been a moment or two, and I’m feeling a chill

It should be buttery soup de jour, but instead it’s sitting still.

What am I to do? I’m hungry, I want cake. I NEED CAKE!

With no working oven, with what shall I bake?

I have to think, I need an idea, a light-bulb, a flash

But I want to be reasonable, not hasty or rash.

I spy my niece’s toy oven; you know the one that cooks with a little light

If I’m careful, I may be able to get it toasted just right.

Carefully I measure batter into tiny cupcake pans

And slide it into the oven, trying not to burn my hands.

Moments later it’s done, well the center is a little too runny,

I think I’ll just have ice cream. I’ll give this mess treat to my Honey.

Well, I hope you like it. I've got a teenager, so we haven't seen a Dr. Suess book around here in years. I can't really remember how they go, but I know they rhyme, so I just focused on that. Also I just didn't draw a picture because I'm too lazy. You know us homeschooling moms are such rebels, LOL.

Thanks for dropping by.

Until next time . . .

Whew!

Baby Boy and I had such a busy week, I barely know where to start.


Along with all of our lessons, which fortunately did get completed, we had a gaggle of extra curricular activities.

On Monday, we spent an afternoon at the park and Baby Boy played some Ultimate Frisbee.

Tuesday, at a totally different park, Baby Boy did a little rock climbing.

Wednesday, we attended a lunchtime social. The boys talked and played a few card games.

On Thursday, we had homeschool bowling.




Friday, we did stay home, but we spent a good part of the afternoon working on a Marine Biology experiment, hatching brine shrimp eggs.




Every single one of them died, by the way.




On Saturday, Baby Boy was invited to a birthday party, where they munched out on junk food.




And then vegged out in front of some video games.




When we got home, I worked on my Say Something Saturday assignment, I hope you like it.


And today - we are resting!

And that doesn't even include three nights of tae kwon do classes, all the dinners I cooked, dishes I washed, laundry I did and the everyday housework!


Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Until next time . . .

Say Something Saturday - Take 2

This weeks assignment is as follows:

It's dusk on a warm summer evening.

You're walking down a tree-lined street in a lovely neighborhood.
As you pass a lovely two-story house, set back from the street as far as it can be, you see the legs of a child (boy? girl? you decide) hanging down from a tree.

Because you're omnipotent, you know this child has a bouquet of wilted flowers in one hand, a raw egg in the right pants pocket, and is very excited waiting for the neighbors to come home.

Why?
Why is s/he in the tree?
Why does s/he have a raw egg? Is it broken? Whole? What kind of flowers?
What happened all day to lead to the child waiting in the tree?

I feel generous. You can have up to 1000 words this week.

* * * * * * * *

Last night she had been so excited that she hardly got a wink of sleep. The day was finally here! She had been hoping against hope that this would happen every since the crotchety old neighbor lady had moved out of the farm house down the street a few months ago.

She had been eavesdropping on her mom and auntie for weeks now and she was almost certain that she had the complete report on the new neighbors. They were moving from the city to the country because the wife had some sort of "breakdown" and needed a calmer way of life. The dad was a hot shot for some big company down town, but had agreed to move to the country and endure the hour and a half daily commute for the wife's sake. They had three children: a baby boy, a 7 year old boy, and a 12 year old girl. It appeared that the mom stayed home with the children, who had already been enrolled at the local school.

What she found most exciting was the fact that they had a 12 year old daughter. They were the exact same age! Her rural neighborhood had almost no girls in it and the few they had were so immature. She was sure the new neighbors, since they were from the city, would be much more sophisticated. She was trembling with anticipation.

Earlier she had picked some beautiful daisies from her mom's very own flower garden and carefully wrapped her current most prized possession in a thick fluffy hand towel and shoved it deep into her pocket. She couldn't wait to show it to the new neighbor girl, who she was sure would be her new BFF. It was an egg she was trying to hatch on her own for her 4-H project this semester. Then she climbed up into her own private looking perch, the large oak tree in her front yard, and waited anxiously, a solitary welcome wagon, for the new neighbors to arrive.




Until next time . . .

Movie Review By My Very Own . . . Baby Boy!

Ami's Say Something Saturday gave me an idea for a writing assignment for Baby Boy.


I usually review all the movies we do for our Movies As Literature curriculum, but I thought it would be a nice change to allow Baby Boy to do the review as his writing assignment. It's a nice way to still get the writing in without getting bogged down in all the outline, five perfect paragraphs and perfect formal writing . . . yadda yadda yadda . . . that we usually do with our writing assignments.


The weather has been so nice here that neither of us really want to do much school work at all. I thought this would be a good compromise. By the way, the movie we watched is Raiders of the Lost Ark.


So this was his assignment:

Unlike a plot summary, a review can be lengthy or not-so-lengthy depending on what your feelings are about the movie. Don’t forget to devise your own rating system and be sure to give your film a rating.

And here is his review. . . Enjoy!

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is an action/adventure movie made in 1981, directed by Steven Spielberg, and is rated PG (Parental Guidance). This movie is about an archaeologist who explores lost temples and finds buried treasures. His name is Indiana Jones. He hears about an artifact called the Ark of the Covenant and he seeks it out. He must face countless obstacles, supernatural powers, and a bitter rival. What happens next? Well sorry pals, but my information is limited and you will have to watch the movie to learn the rest!

I loved this movie beginning to end! There were tense parts, scary parts, and all out action! The acting could’ve been a little better, but I still loved it! The story is a little confounding in the beginning, but about half way through the movie, it should be all clear. This movie does have some mild language and lots of dead people, heavy alcohol usage, and evil spirits. Oh, and I can’t forget the truckload of snakes, there are tons of them! If any of these negativities conflict you, you probably shouldn’t watch this movie.

On a scale of 1-10, this movie is an 8!!

RATING SYSTEM

1. Boring beyond all reasons!!!

2. Mega boring

3. Kind of boring

4. Didn’t like it much

5. Alright

6. Liked it a little

7. Liked it

8. Liked it a lot

9. Super awesome

10. Best movie in history!!!

I have to say, I agree with pretty much everything he said. I'm not exactly sure why the movie is rated PG, I'm sure it should be PG-13 because they are straight boozing it up in several parts and when the spirits were released from the Ark of the Covenant, it was too scarey for me. I covered my eyes. Oh, well, I'm really working on leaving Baby Boy's work alone and not always feeling the need to add my two cents to it. So, there's the review above. LOL.


Until next time . . .