One of the side effects of co-schooling comes when it's time to sit down and update my end-of-the-year school records. Sometimes when you see it all together, the effect can be surprising.
See, I like to transcribe highlights from my daily what-we-did-today sheets into a sort of journalistic what-we-did-in-each-subject-this-year record. It's all the same information, but sort of re-shuffled: from a daily page that says, "art - we did this lesson" and "handwriting - we did that lesson" each on a separate page, I get a couple of paragraphs that sum up "all the art lessons for the year" and "all the handwriting progress for the year." I find it to be a worthwhile exercise, especially when I need to gauge how fast I should plan to work next year.
So, surprising. Here is a highlight from my seven-year-old's record for the third quarter:
Fine Arts
The seven-year-old continues art appreciation lessons. In one lesson (combining science and art) the seven-year-old studied paintings and engravings of birds 1500-1940 from The Art of Ornithology by Elphick and Audobon's Birds of America. Issues discussed included artists, methods, drawing from models vs. drawing from life, the purpose of this kind of art, and how the backgrounds often show food sources and habitat. The children discussed how the naturalist's purpose in creating art differs from other types of artists. He chose a favorite ornithological drawing of an avocet.
In another lesson he studied Raphael's "The Knight's Dream" and discussed color, detail, and symbolism, as well as locating the painting in space and time on a historical map. Raphael's "St. George and the Dragon" was studied and compared to "The Knight's Dream."
Raphael's "The Sistine Madonna" was studied and used to discuss technique, symbolism, development, and the idea of painting "things unseen."
Raphael's "Miraculous Draft of Fishes" was studied along with the story from chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke.
In Music Theory, the seven-year-old reviewed the names of the notes over two octaves, both on a keyboard and on the staff, and then began a study of intervals. First he learned to identify 2nds and 3rds by written notes, on a keyboard, and by ear. Then he learned to identify the second through seventh intervals. He and other children learned to circle-sing thirds on a mock piano keyboard. They played "Guess the Interval" with a bell set and a piano. They learned to sing second through seventh intervals on C major.
Um. I didn't have much to do with this. Art appreciation and music theory is what Hannah does while I am teaching Latin and history to bigger kids. Reading this over I am blinking and thinking: Really? My seven-year-old?
And: We managed that and we managed to feed them lunch twice a week?
I sincerely hope she is as impressed with what I taught her kids as I am with what she taught mine!
Thank you for using fine art in your kids' education. I do the same in my catechism class with great results.
Posted by: Christian | 18 June 2011 at 12:12 PM