Washington Whirlwind

Posted on November 15, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

This weekend was a perfect whirling dervish of art, history, science and Happymess thrills and chills.  We had our highs and lows, and now as the new week begins, we can’t quite believe it happened in just 48 hours.

Hirshhorn Waterfall, Washington DC (Allia)

Happymess kids begin their Washington, DC adventures.

 Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. 

This is the first time that all 102 of Andy Warhol’s Shadow paintings are being presented together.  They make an impressive array along the curve of the gallery, with various shapes and colors playing off one another.

Andy Warhol Shadows Exhibit

Initially, Happymess kids were slightly surprised by the modern art offerings.

“Where are the emperor’s new clothes?”

Athena, formerly Creatress, “It’s really great seeing all these paintings together.  If you just saw one or two you would assume he (Warhol) really didn’t put anything into it, but when you see so many (of the same image in different colors) you realize that he really did work hard after all.”

Allia thinks, Hmm.  If one image doesn’t impress, why then are 102 more effective? Or, mathematically speaking, what is 102 times zero?

Bounce, “The great thing about art is you really can’t do anything wrong.  You just make it (art) whatever way you want.”

Allia, “Yes, that is exactly right.  Art is whatever you want it to be.”

Scooter, shouting indignantly from his stroller, “These paintings aren’t art.  They’re just scribbles!”

Out of the mouths of babes….

In fact, we had a great time at the Hirshhorn galleries and enjoyed many of the extremely colorful and playful ways the artists expressed themselves.  We took numerous photographs and had many novel ideas for art projects of our own, including set design ideas for some upcoming Happymess theater competitions.

Modern art offers terrific freedom of thought and expression.  The older Happymess kids felt empowered by the boldness of thought.  The younger Happymess kids were relieved to see that perfection is not a requirement for artistic creation.

National Museum of African Art

Our next stop was the Museum of African Art.  Here we were truly inspired by the variety and depth of expression throughout the exhibits.  Athena is currently writing a script that takes place in Africa.  She perused every detail looking for set and costume design ideas and studied videos of African dances.

Bounce and Scooter were thrilled with the hands-on activities.  Scooter is coloring African masks and headdresses.  Later this winter we will be creating these same masks and headdresses out of paper-mache.

Bounce was intrigued by an illuminated kaleidoscope.  He is working on a science project involving solar energy and lighting with his Destination Imagination team.

The Museum of Air and Space

These exhibits really focus on man’s determination to conquer air and space travel.

Again, Bounce and Scooter preferred creating their own aerodynamic space ships and airplanes.

Athena was busy studying the Wright brothers and their first attempts at flight.

She will use this information for her National History Day competition entry.

Misadventures

It was a long and exhausting day, as you can imagine.  We were delighted to finally return to our hotel so that we could relax and plan our evening activities.  Being a Happymess family, we should have known better.

Just as we were getting ready for dinner, Scooter became very ill and we had to rush him to the hospital.  I will not bore you with the long evening I spent in the emergency room.

By the next day he was feeling much better and we had the opportunity to play Chutes and Ladders together (for hours).

Ancient Indian game of Snakes and Ladders

This game is based on the ancient Indian game of Snakes and Ladders.  The intention was to teach morals and manners while entertaining tiny tots.

The beauty of this simple game is that it encourages young children to play fairly.  The desire to cheat seems to be irresistible.  Scooter tried every which way to put himself on a ladder while sending me down the chute.  We may need to introduce this game into our regular Happymess curriculum.

Johns Hopkins Study of Exceptional Talent

Meanwhile, while Scooter and I were whiling away our time at Georgetown University Hospital, the Happymess crew had move on to new adventures.

Athena received an award at the Grand Ceremony of SET at Johns Hopkins University for her outstanding SAT scores, taken at age 14.  She received First in Country and First Internationally (tied with many other children from around the world).  We are very proud of her accomplishments.

Boy Scout Wilderness Survival

During this very same weekend, Quantum and Truth were learning camping and orienteering skills in the hills of Massachusetts.

Washington Whirlwind (Allia)

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is experiencing art, history, science, camping, an international award and the local hospital in one 48-hour period!

Filed under: Art, Field Trips, Humanities | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Illuminated Manuscript: Using Art and History to Teach Cursive

Posted on November 10, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

The study of cursive writing is not merely relegated to the tedium of copying specific letters.  It is the ability to create beautiful manuscripts and illustrations in which words are as important as images.

As with all our subjects, we began with the technique and then quickly segued into the role of cursive writing in history, art and religion.  Bounce started his cursive career with our Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Book 2C.  He copied the entire manuscript and cursive alphabets, both upper and lower case.  He then had the opportunity to write and read a few simple sentences.  He worked carefully and was off to a fine start.

He concentrated. Some words were more legible than others, but all words unarguably wiggled across the page in a confident and loopy cursive.

Eager to inspire Bounce with the beauty of writing, we began our study of cursive by looking at the root word, script, whose origin lies in the word scribe.  A scribe is quite simply, one who writes.  Before the advent of the printing press, and now publishing and the internet, there were scribes who perfected the art of copying.  Writing was a true art, one which demanded both accuracy and beauty.

http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/virt- exhib/realgold/Images/rossdhu.jpg

Nowhere is beautiful writing more evident than in the illuminated manuscripts and Book of Hours of the Middle Ages.

We studied these manuscripts and noticed several things.  Bounce recognized immediately that the first letter of each page was enlarged and elaborately decorated.  We also noticed that the colors were bright and beautiful.  The designs were primarily geometric or inspired by nature emphasizing elaborate curves and swirls.

Our Happymess art, history and cursive project is to create our own illuminated manuscript page.  Bounce was excited about this project because he loves drawing and creating beautiful pictures.

Handwriting Without Tears?  We had no tears at all with this project.  Bounce was motivated to write in cursive because he wanted to create his own Book of Hours.  We chose a simple short verse, Psalm 33.  We chose a psalm because we wanted to be historically accurate.  The Book of Hours was a personal book of prayer.  I abbreviated the psalm so it was short enough for Bounce to copy, and emphasized points he could easily understand:  singing, praising and playing.

Psalm 33

Sing joyfully to the Lord

Praise the Lord with the harp;

Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully, and shout for joy

Bounce created a “page” which highlighted the first letter of each line so that he could also “illuminate”.

In between each line of scripture (there’s that word root again), Bounce hopped on his bike and rode around the yard.  This gave him plenty of exercise while he was learning the art of cursive.

Truth liked the look of the project and decided to make a page of his own.  For Truth’s page we abbreviated Psalm 133 and chose lines that would have meaning for Truth.

Psalm 133

How good and Pleasant it is

When brothers live together in unity!

For there the Lord bestows his blessing,

Even life forevermore.

Truth decorated his page with an elaborate picture of brothers camping in the wilderness.  He and Quantum will be camping together this weekend, so that seemed appropriate.

Truth also read aloud several sections from our book on the history of the illuminated manuscript.  We found that the majority of illuminated manuscripts were written between 1200 and 1450 (advent of the printing press).  They were primarily created in the scriptoria of a monastery.  Most illuminated manuscripts were Bibles or personal prayer books, such as The Book Hours.

Vocabulary for this lesson:  Scriptoria, containing the word script, derived from the word scribe.  A scriptoria (similar to cafeteria) is the place within a monastery where the writing takes place.

Cursive, derived from Medieval Latin: cursivus, literally “running”,

Geometric, designs using mathematical shapes

Symmetry and symmetrical, designs with equally appearing elements presented in a balanced design.

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is teaching cursive as an art form, not a workbook exercise.

Filed under: Art, History, Humanities, Literature | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

History is the Study of Lives, not Events

Posted on September 27, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana, also invoked by Winston Churchill

Napoleon, Empereur de francais…

A typical history course is one which follows a fairly straight forward, chronological, path through a series of wars and various social and cultural upheavals. This approach to the subject of history can be uninspiring to the young student. When I first began homeschooling I searched for a good history curriculum and was surprised (not really) that the textbooks where dull and the "story" moved intractably from one violent event to the next with little human empathy or emotion being imparted to the reader.

Inevitably I found that I needed to create my own curriculum if I wanted to get my students' attention. In the past 6 years we have studied the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Greeks and Romans, the history of China from 1000 b.c. through Mao and the Cultural Revolution to the present, the history of Japan, the American Revolution, slavery and the Underground Railroad, World War I, the inter-war years and World War II, and at least another dozen sub-topics.

I have found that the best approach is to start with a simple skeleton or outline of the basic facts. This is reinforced by having my students create their own timelines of the key events. For this we have used long rolls of paper that stretch across the room. The timeline can be marked with measurements reflecting the desired time intervals. The students then write draw and create a collage of events, images and accomplishments from that section of history. We have also used printed book timelines that allow multiple timelines to be created on the same page so that various events from around the globe can be compared and the student can appreciate the different events that were occurring simultaneously. We have also used digital timelines that create the same effect but allow for uploading images and films to create a newsreel effect.

I have found, not surprisingly, that the best materials are the primary sources. When we are able to read a first person account of an event then the moment truly becomes "alive." Suddenly it is apparent that real people have lived and thought and tasted these events. We care about the event because we care about the people. Wasn't that the whole point anyway?

We have also had great success reading literature, seeing theatrical pieces and visiting museums. All these resources give a sense of how the past is both similar to and different from the present. We always consider the questions, "How is this similar to today?" and "In what ways are these issues still affecting our society?" also, "Is our culture really different or have these driving forces just manifested themselves differently?"

Ultimately we still turn to respected historical resources for information and analysis. After doing so much of our own research these texts provide real benefit. The student can discern from what viewpoint the text has been written and can evaluate which information has the most value. The study of history becomes the study of our lives and our predecessors, and as such, the study of history becomes indispensable to our study of humanity.

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Filed under: Art, Geography, History, History, Humanities, Literature, World Awareness | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Literature as a Window on History: The Crucible

Posted on September 15, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

We are opening our school literature season with a reading of the play, The Crucible by Henry Miller.  This play, written in the 1950’s, revisits Salem Massachusetts at the time of the Salem witch trials.   Today we discussed the nature of the insular Puritan society and the perceived impropriety of two girls caught dancing in the woods.  We discussed the ease with which a small lie can escalate into a communal lie and how quickly a community can rush to persecute the individual, in particular to protect itself from humiliation, or in this case, death.

This play was produced during the era of McCarthyism and ominously warns of the dangers in fearing the unknown and in erroneously accusing others. The notorious witchhunts of the 1950’s ruined the careers of many artists and playwrights as they hastened to defend themselves against accusations of Communism.

We talked about modern applications and the efforts that we make today to avoid these types of global persecutions.  The Crucible portrays fear, persecution and the phobic need for continuity of the current society as unfortunate aspects of the human condition.

Filed under: Art, History, Humanities, Literature, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

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