Advent

Tomorrow is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, and this year for the first time I decided to do an Advent wreath with the kids. I had hoped to have this post published weeks ago, but with two December birthdays things have been a bit crazy.

At the end of November I started looking for a ready made wreath with candles to buy, but I couldn't find one I liked that much and they seemed over priced. So after emailing my dear friend Analisa (who is super creative) to find out what she was doing for her Advent wreath I decided to take her advice and make my own. The kids and I headed to Hobby Lobby (one of our favorite stores), and 20 minutes later we were headed home with Advent wreath materials for the bargain price of  $15. A little arranging at home, a place mat I already had, and voila! - a cute and functional homemade Advent wreath (not too bad for this craft and creativity challenged momma if I do say so myself):

After I had the wreath I set about looking for a devotional or list of Bible passages and found several online and as books. I settled on this one from Amazon because the price was right and, well, I love Amazon:) - We Light the Candles: Devotions Related to Family Use of the Advent Candle.

We have all really enjoyed lighting the candles, reading the devotions, celebrating and remembering the true reason for the season - Christ's birth, and of course the kids favorite part - blowing out the candles. This is definitely a tradition we will continue in years to come.

For those not familiar with the Advent wreath (like me) here is a quick overview:
The four violet candles represent hope, joy, love, and peace, and the large white candle is the Christ candle. The circle and greenery represent God's eternal love for us and the gift of eternal life through Jesus. The four small candles symbolize the passage of the four weeks leading up to Christmas (or the four Sundays before Christmas). Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, the lighting of a candle can be accompanied by a Bible reading, prayer, and/or devotion. An additional candle is lit during each subsequent week until the last Sunday before Christmas when all four candles are lit. The white candle represents purity and is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as a symbol of the birth of Jesus Christ, our sinless and pure Savior. HE is the greatest gift of all!

Artist: Fragonard

In addition to the composer study we also do an artist study each term, and I go about finding books in the same way. For artist studies the best books feature one artist, are oversized, and contain lots of big pictures of the artist's work.

This term's artist is Jean-Honore Fragonard and until now I had never heard of this artist before (not really surprising although I did take four years of French in high school and he was a French painter).  Unlike the composer for this term there were not very many resources available at the local libraries. The two books* we are using are:

Jean-Honore Fragonard: Life and Work by Jean-Pierre Cuzin
Jean-Honore Fragonard by Jean Montague Massengale

If books on a particular artist or composer are hard to come by the internet can be a good resource for finding photos or samples of an artist's or composer's work.
I found four good photos of Fragonard's paintings available for viewing on the web:
The Reader (my favorite)
Inspiration 
Blind Man's Bluff 
The Stolen Kiss

*Note: Some of this artist's paintings contain nudity.

Composer: Mozart

As part of our Charlotte Mason based homeschool we do a composer and an artist study each term, and since I know next to nothing about the famous artists and classical composers I am learning right along with the kids.

For each composer I start by scouring the online library catalogs for juvenile biographical books and musical CDs of the composer's work (I also use Amazon as a search tool to find titles and if I see something that looks good I search the library's catalog for it). If there are lots of options I narrow them down to the top 4-6 and those are the ones we use for the term.

This term's composer is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and in this case I waded through tons of hits. Here are the books and CD that made the cut:

BOOKS
Amadeus Mozart by Ibi Lepscky
Young Mozart by Rachel Isadora
Mozart by Ann Rachlin (Famous Children Series)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Barrie Carson Turner (Famous Childhoods Series)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Musical Genius by Steward Ross (Famous Lives Series)

MUSCIAL CD
The Very Best of Mozart Naxos

Ohio History

Our local homeschool co-op recently did a 7 week session on Ohio History. For the class we made a modified lapbook for the base of our study using the Ohio Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. This was our first time doing a lapbook for a group class and while it worked OK I would not recommend it for large groups with a wide range of ages; I think lapbooks are better suited for small groups or families. We modified the lapbook format in that instead of using file folders we used 3 ring binders and cardstock which worked much better for transportation and storage of the lapbook.

In addition to the lapbook we supplemented with lots of books:

Picture Books
Night Boat to Freedom by Margot Theis Raven
Cardinal Numbers by Marcia Schonberg
Ohio Thunder by Denise Dowling Mortensen
Nothing Here But Trees by Jean Van Leeuwen
Aurora Means Dawn by Scott Russell Sanders
The Floating House by Scott Russell Sanders
Warm as Wool by Scott Russell Sanders
B is for Buckeye by Marcia Schonberg
The Giant of Seville by Dan Andreasen

Other Books
A Kid's Guide to Drawing America: How to Draw Ohio's Sights and Symbols by Aileen Weintraub (my kids loved this book)
Heroes of Ohio by Rick Sowash

As part of the class we planned two field trips. For the first trip we went to the local County Historical Society. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and everyone learned a great deal. For the second field trip we went to Sunwatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park near Dayton, and again we had a wonderful tour guide. Seeing the reconstructed village and artifacts in the museum was really interesting and the trip was well worth the drive.
(Pictures from our field trips coming soon!)

The Orchestra

Earlier this month we took the kids to one of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's Concerts for Kids. As part of our music study this year we have been learning about the orchestra using the music of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev and Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. (Since we studied two musical works for our orchestra unit I decided to do a mini study of each composer; see below for a list of additional resources I used).

So, when I discovered that the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's upcoming Concert for Kids was Cinderella and Friends featuring the story of Cinderella performed by The Phoenix Theatre for Children to the music of Cinderella by Prokofiev, I knew it would be the perfect compliment to our studies. The tickets even included pre-show activities which consisted of several kid friendly booths by local retailers and organizations. The actual performance was one hour long, which was the perfect length for kids, and was conducted by the infamous Albert-George Schram (he is a riot and the audience of kids, both big and small, loved him).

Jordan and Carson enjoyed the performance and Corinne was entertained enough that she sat happily on Daddy's lap until the final notes were played.

     

Additional Resources:

*Dover Musical Instruments Coloring Book

*The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine (book & CD)

*The Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak (book)

*The Great Composers by Jeremy Nicholas

*The Love for Three Oranges Musical Stories Series (book - this is Prokofiev's most performed opera)

*Carnival of the Animals Classical Music for Kids Series

*Peter and the Wolf retold and illustrated by Michele Lemieux or Peter and the Wolf translated by Maria Carlson (Note: There are several picture books of this story, but these two are my favorite because they most closely follow the music and original narration)