Google Picasa!

The kids were enjoying some sprinkler fun during one of the hottest days we've had.  I just wish that I could have captured the sounds that accompanied these photos.  They were singing and dancing and squealing away! 

Guess what I discovered?!? 

It's Google Picasa and I love it!  I know I'm super late to the party, but making cute collages of my babes tickles me pink.  

Our Homeschool: Vincent Van Gogh Artist Study

This is our first year to give a real artist study a try and we're starting with Vincent Van Gogh.  Please don't think me boring for picking an artist that everybody knows about.  It's just that you see his art everywhere, and that's why I wanted to start with it.  I can save the tougher stuff for when my kids are in high school.  For now I just want them to know the paintings that they are most likely to see in their daily life. 

Today I stopped by our local library and picked up "What Makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh?"  We'll be reading through it over the next few weeks as we learn and attempt to duplicate what we see.  I'm still not sure how far into this study we will go, but I did enjoy making a neat little display of Van Gogh's artwork...

This is a cheap digital photo frame that I loaded with copies of Vincent Van Gogh's work.  I picked all of his most popular paintings as well as a few less-known ones.  It stays on during school and as we learn I hope to familiarize the kids with at least the names of the paintings.

I also found a neat online jigsaw puzzle linked at Amy's homeschool site that I know my kids are going to love!  They have more of his works on their main page here.

Here are a few FREE online printables of a few paintings that I'm going to lay out for the kids to color while I read his biography aloud:

Starry Night

Starry Night 2

Sunflowers

Room at Arles

Irises

Self Portrait

And this woman has a great list compiled of online resources for Van Gogh study!  I found several things that I hope to use for our study.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had fun doing artist studies in the past, so please send me a link to your artist study posts!  If you're like me and just starting out with artist study, check out Amy in Peru's blog about what she does with her little ones here .  I think I need to go back and take a peek myself.  She inspires me so! 

THE PLAN: The Underground Railroad to Today

My little chicks on our first day of the new school year!

Hello there to anyone who is still checking our blog! 

I had intended on only taking a month off from blogging, but then my husband had an injury at work and we have been traveling weekly to his appointments.  After two surgeries we were told that he will probably always be legally blind in one eye.  We are thankful that he will still be able to work and know that the Lord allowed it for His glory.  However, traveling and trying to get our new house in order has taken up any time that I would have had to blog and now the summer has come and gone and I never properly documented it!  :)

Things are starting to settle down around here and I thought it a perfect time to start back up again because we just began our 5th year of HOMESCHOOLING!  Wahoo!!!!  I'm just a little excited about it!  Megan is beginning 4th grade, Jordan is in 2nd, and Jackson is K5.  For the grandparents (and a little for myself), I'm going to attempt to chronicle our school year, even if I only get a few pictures blogged. 

{American History 1850-Present}

Photo credit

This year we are studying American History 1850-Present and so we began this week learning about slavery and the Underground Railroad.  I prayed about how in-depth I should go with this study, not wanting to upset the kids.  Some of the photos in our resource books are hard for me to look at, and I ended up omitting those ones.

After reading the corresponding chapter in "The Story of the U.S.A, Book 2," we read mini-biographies about Soujourner Truth and Frederick Douglas, and then looked through a photobiography about the Underground Railraod.   Megan began reading "Freedom Train: The story of Harriet Tubman."

For activities we're using "The Underground Railroad for Kids."  After we journeyed through the Underground Railroad over at National Geographic, we made paper quilt blocks.  The girls each chose one pattern from the list of Railroad designs and then cut out the triangles and created their own!   We're also going to be making lanterns this weekend.

Next week we'll be studying Abraham Lincoln and then sliding into a big unit on the Civil War. Stay tuned...