Art Lessons: The Renaissance Part 1

We are now half way through a multi-week art lessons about the Renaissance. I really wanted Brandon & Sophia to learn and know about the Renaissance. When I was going to art school at CCS, the Renaissance was by far my favorite art history topic. And when Dea & I discussed about teaching the kids about that time frame and the amazing artists of that era, a bolt of lighting hit me…we will study and learn about the 4 great masters of the Renaissance: Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo…also known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This blew the kid’s minds! They have learned about Contrapposto,

Sfumato,

and Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

In the next few weeks we will be moving on to Raphael & Michelangelo, stand by for Part 2.

So... How do you like it?

That's pretty much the first question I get when my kids answer the awkward question: "What school do you go to?" They answer, "Uh..." and then the questions ensue: "How's it going so far? Do you like homeschooling? Are you going to continue?"

These days, I think that homeschooling is not all peaches and roses (as my FB pictures may suggest). Don't get me wrong, we are having a great time: long road trips, tons of field trips, etc. BUT, at least once a week, someone is in tears and I need a drink!

I get it - it's hard to be a homeschool student. There is nowhere to hide! No desk mate to copy off of, no place to get lost when you don't know the answer, no other students to blend into when the teacher has to move the class along. Every answer is corrected, every question analyzed, every test grade picked over, every piece of work made to be YOUR BEST work. It's good in the long run, but hard in the short term.

So, when people ask, "How's it going?", I'm trying to keep it real. This is hard - on all of us - and exciting, fun, rewarding, challenging... I just hope the benefits outweigh the hardships. And I think I know the answer.

Cell Blobs

On of things I was really excited about starting was the science of the human body. So, the first thing I did was have a conversation with my kids. It went something like this...

"I think you are mature enough to learn about the human body."

See how I pumped them up first! HAHA! Then, I threatened them!

"If you can't be mature about it, then we won't continue learning about this."

And so yesterday, we started human anatomy. There were a few giggles, but no fart and poop jokes YET...

The first section was on cells and how we all start out as a single cell and how we divide and there are many types of cells, etc. Well, low and behold, guess what I have?!?!

Most of you know about our struggles to get pregnant. Brandon and Sophia were second round IVF babies after almost 2 years of failed other procedures. And, because I'm a keeper (in so many ways!), I kept the original image that the Doctor gave us for the 2nd round of IVF that showed us which 2 embryos she was going to implant. They were blobs of 8-24 cells at the time (ok, not blobs, they were Blastocysts).

And so now, here are the first pictures of Brandon and Sophia that most moms don't even have! (They are the 2 circled blobs on the top left and top right corners. And no, I don't know which one is which!) Pretty cool full-circle science homeschool day!

Brandon and Sophia as cell blobs.

Sophia and Brandon with their baby books, each with a cell blob photo.

Music UPGRADE

One of the main things that I wanted to add to our "schooling" this year was MORE music education. I've always wanted the kids to learn an instrument (Fernando and I know nothing about music, besides how to recognize RAD 90s music in a few notes!), and we never really had time to pursue anything beyond the occasional week-long camp.

So, one of the first things when planning out homeschooling was find a local piano teacher. We specifically chose a public charter school to homeschool with because they provide instructional funds for each child for us to choose how to use. A lot of our money goes to buy curriculum (math books, grammar, science, etc.), but a lot of it goes to semi-private piano lessons every week.

The kids go on Friday, review what they've been practicing, learn new materials, get their assignments for the week and we head home to practice! Well, our practice just got a SIGNIFICANT UPGRADE this week!

On loan to us through a friend, a BEAUTIFUL white baby grand piano was delivered and has been added to our living room. The kids were doing well before on their piano lessons are are now EVEN MORE EAGER to practice! (You see, before the keyboard would only play one key at a time, which was hard when you are trying to play 2-handed chords with your melodies! HAHA!)

So, thank you to our friends for helping us provide an even more RAD educational experience for our kids (and helping my ears). Here's to listening to beautiful Christmas music in a few weeks!

Bower's or Bust?

So, my kids LOVE field trips - I mean LOVE them! We've been trying to work as many in as possible. We decided last week to try the Bower's Museum. They are supposed to have a great exhibit on Native Americans (did you see I used the word supposed?).

So, after our impromptu fabulous trip to the Old Orange County Courthouse and after getting some of our daily work done at the library, we headed over to the Bower's Museum. I had been on their website and printed out a worksheet of questions about the Gabrelino Indians, which I assumed we would find the answers in one of their exhibits. WRONG! There was no mention of this tribe in the entire museum. There was 1 room of Native American baskets and 1 room of Mission history. That's it. Maybe it was because the Kidseum is closed - maybe there's more information there? I was sure I was missing something and inquired - we weren't missing anything except the money we paid to get in (which was kindly refunded). Maybe we'll try again when the Kidseum is open?

The most interesting part was actually the Chinese Art exhibit preview. The kids loved it and we may need to go back and see that. Here are some fun photos from our busted field trip:

Taking Dad along on our field trips!

We are studying totem poles with Native Americans, so this was a treat!

The Basket Room.

Chinese Art Exhibit Preview.

Aztec Art.

More totem poles.

Loving the Chinese Art.

Bower's Museum

Accidental Field Trip

Last week, we had planned to accompany Fernando to Santa Ana for a doctor's appointment and then visit the Bower's Museum (more on that in a different post). We packed up our school work to hit the library to do our schoolwork. There was one problem... the library was not open until 10am (it was 8:30). So, what does one do? Goes on an impromptu field trip, of course!

One of Brandon's Cub Scout Requirements for Citizenship is that he visit a courthouse. We headed off to the Old Orange County Courthouse. They have a free museum there and there are some courthouse offices still performed there. It was right down the street. We zipped in and looked at the displays. We talked to the ladies working in the marriage license office (did you know it costs $89 for a marriage license?). Finally, we headed up to the third floor where they have an old court room preserved and a self-guided tour pamphlet to tell you all about it! The kids found it fascinating - the judge, jury (every citizen's duty!), witnesses, court reporter, etc.. It opened up a huge discussion on innocent until proven guilty, prosecutors vs. defendants and much more! They were super interested! (Guess I know what type of unit I need to plan!)

 
The best part of the day happened as we were walking back to our car. A lady overheard us continuing our conversation and was so "impressed" that we were there seeing the sites, that she gave each of the kids a map of all the historical places to see in Orange County. OC just turned 125 years old and they made a special map with 132 historical places to see in OC. So, now we are trying to visit as many as possible. 9 down, 123 to go! (Wish us luck!)

Totem Poles

Friends - 
Thank you to all of you who have reached out to me asking why I have not posted anything lately. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that anyone is really reading this blog and that people are really interested in our normal lives. So, thank you for your encouragement... I have a few new posts coming your way!

Our Social Studies weekly newspaper (which we LOVE) has had us studying California Native Americans. Each week we open up a new full-color newspaper with articles and activities (and a test at the end of each week). We have been studying specific tribes and so I took the kids to the library and got some non-fiction material (I sound like a teacher, right?) to study one tribe more in depth. The kids each read about their tribe and picked 3 adjectives to describe their tribe from a long list that I gave them:

The next day, we discussed animals that matched each adjective (you'd be surprise to learn that pigs symbolize organized, cows = swift?) So, then they chose animals to match their adjectives and therefore had their totem pole animals.

That was as far as I could take them. I knew what the finished product should look like because of an idea I had seen on Pinterest (you could lost there, right?), but I had no idea how to get there. That's where my secret weapon comes in! Fernando (Mr. Artist with a Master's Degree in Education) used his usual Wednesday art class to show the kids how to cut shapes and add detail to make these COOL totem poles.

They are now a wonderful addition to our classroom decoration. And the kids STILL remember (even though it was 2 weeks ago) what their tribes animals and adjectives are - which is the point, right? LOVED this project!

iHomeSchool

So, I recently was able to combine my obsessiveness for organization with my knack for detailed lesson plans all in one place: Homeschool Planel's planner! I LOVE IT! (Did you hear me scream that from the mountain tops?) I LOVE IT! Yes, it was painstakingly difficult to get all of the different subjects, assignments, tests, chores, and the kitchen sink into this program, but now that it's in, I LOVE IT!

My homeschool teacher (really, my babysitter who checks in on us to make sure I'm not destroying Brandon and Sophia's future) told me that one of her other families uses it. I checked it out and had not seen anything else like it and jumped in with both feet. It is a program that plans each day and each subject, allows me to assign and reschedule with a click of a button (so we can go on that last minute field trip) and set-up for the whole year to tell me (and each kid) exactly what we need to do each day to get through an entire year of well-research curriculum in an enormous amount of subjects. Now, if I could only give this RAD checklist to my kids every day for them to check off their work...

ENTER SUPER NANA! She says, "I think we should think about getting the kids tablets for their homeschooling and I'd like to help with that." So, with one click of a button (and one heck of a Christmas present already bought and delivered), Santa came to the door today dressed like a FedEx man with these 2 beauties...

 No, not the kids... the new iPads! See, the kids had been testing out this program (and a few other apps and websites that we supplement with our books) on tablets using Fernando's older iPad (which he can't give up to the kids because he needs it for work) for a few weeks now and it was working like a charm. They go in every day and can do their independent work without asking. I can check and see how much progress they've made as they check off their assignments. I can stop them and teach a lesson to break up the independent work based on what new lessons we have for the day. They have access at their fingertips to research, take tests, watch videos and look up what an ahtlatl is! And they learn technology to boot!

SO, a big shout out to Brandon and Sophia's Nana and Lola (who gave them money over the summer that we saved for such an investment) for helping us take a HUGE STEP in the right direction with their education. Each day, as things fall more and more into place, I feel more and more like we've made the right decision. Now, let's get on to iHomeSchooling!

Dinosaur Poop

The best thing about homeschooling (so far) is the ability to reward ourselves with a fun and educational field trip whenever we want. Today was our third field trip and we went to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. (If you haven't been, I highly recommend it ON A MONDAY MORNING!)

 
To celebrate the end of our science unit on dinosaurs, we went primarily to see the new Dinosaur Halls that they have. The new exhibits are impressive! I was able to download a fun worksheet from their website that tied in perfectly to what we had been studying. So, off we went with clipboards in hand to look at each fossil and determine who was a carnivore vs. an herbivore based on their teeth.

But, you know what else we found? DINOSAUR POOP. Because, you know, nothing is more exciting than poop, and even though it wasn't on our worksheet to learn about, it was the highlight of the day! (Specifically, it was T-Rex poop with pieces of a Duck-Billed Dino in it, which is how scientists know that T-Rexes ate Duck-Billed Dinos.)

We also had the privilege of being quizzed by the enthusiastic museum employees about hip joints, hollow bones, mating techniques, ancestry, etc. because we were almost the ONLY ones there - and definitely the only ones with clipboards actively devouring all the information provided.

The one with the best hoods get the girls!

Traveling as a family

Interactive exhibits

Eggs and embryos

Toothless carnivore (what!?!)

Paleontologist Practice

And last, but not least, for those of you who remember that I have an ostrich lover in my family - we hunted down and found at least 4 different ostriches throughout the museum in different areas, because, in case you didn't know, the most direct descendant of a dinosaur is ... a bird!

Ostrich skeleton

Male Ostrich (black feathers)

Female Ostrich (brown feathers)

Baby Ostrich

Incorporating the World

One of the advantages of being home, is that we can fit more into our day than we could otherwise. Two things I wanted to do was encourage was the reading of news/current events and using technology. The best thing on that front that we've done is the Smithsonian Tween Tribune. The Smithsonian has put together an online newspaper for kids with age-appropriate articles and quizzes for each. The kids can go on and choose an article that they are interested in and then either take a comprehension quiz or leave a comment to the article (which I get to approved before posting to the public). Some of the articles have been on kids crossing a river in India just to get to school, a dog with 2 legs and how much sleep kids should get (this sparked much discussion and won them a later bedtime!). They get a wider view of the world and practice with technology and social media and I hope that they are getting exposed to something more than our bubble of the world.

How do you make a parachute for a Toad?

One of the most exciting parts of homeschooling, for the kids, was the promise of a class pet! We had intended on getting new fish for the empty aquarium, but ended up getting a pair of fire-bellied toads! (Because, you can't just have one!)

After our first official day of school was done (organize binders, self-portrait. time zone lesson, 4th grade goals, etc.), we went to the pet store to learn about toad ecosystems and get all of the necessary items to bring these little buggers home!

We got them on a Monday. All was well. They only have to eat every 2-3 days, so we were in the clear until Wednesday. That's when all craziness happened! First, you have to get the crickets dusted with some insect vitamin (think shake and bake) and then you have to get the crickets and meal worms into a small clear container, like the ones you take fish home from the carnival in. Then, like the lady at the pet store said, you just pick them up and put them in the container with the insects for them to eat. EASIER SAID THAN DONE!

One of them like me - he pretty calmly let me pick him up and put him in the container. The other one - not so much! He writhed himself right out of my hand jumped up my arm, out of the cage, onto Sophia and onto the edge of the loft balcony. You know what happens next, right? He jumped right off the balcony down to the first floor! After freaking out and letting go of a few choice words, he was caught, but surprisingly didn't feel like eating much after his adventure. I think I'll need to get a parachute for him!
PS - the kids struggled to think of names for them until we looked up the names of the twins in the How to Train Your Dragon series. So, please welcome Ruffnut and Tuffnut to our family!

Noah's Ark Lesson Plans

While we are waiting for our official textbooks to arrive for the year, I needed a theme to help me organize all the things I wanted to hit in the first weeks of school! Noah's Ark seemed the perfect fit since I've always wanted to incorporate some religion in with our studies and it was broad enough that I could do other fun things that I thought the kids would like. These ideas took us through about 7 days. For example we did:

Language Arts: 

• Read Story out loud and choose vocabulary words for the week. At first we used the direct context clues to try to figure out what they were. Later in the week, we would look them all up in the dictionary and write them in sentences.
• Watched a Noah movie and worked on a compare and contrast writing prompt. We worked on an outline, rough draft and final draft of a 2-paragraph essay throughout the week.
• Ultimately at the end of the week, we had a big discussion on whether or not the story was real. Did a flood that covered the whole world really happen? After talking about ideas for both sides, they had to write their own opinion on the question. (They both decided it was real!)

Math:

• We learned 2x2 multiplication. Get it, two by two! Stretching, but still... We learned a new method each day: traditional, lattice, box and ended the week with a "test".

Science:

• After learning about the scientific method (question, research, hypothesis, experiment, analyze, report), we started up our own rainbow celery experiment. Each stalk of celery sat in a glass of colored water (except our control stalks in no water and clear water). It has to sit for 24+ hours. When we came back to it, the color had traveled up the capillaries of the celery to deliver the water to the leaves. It was funny to think that they thought worms traveled up the stalks before! It was a lesson in plants and roots, but also translates to the human body and how blood is transferred. 
  
• We also watched some videos on storms, although they weren't as meat-y as I would have liked.
• Finally, they each picked an animal that could have been on the Ark and we went to the library to research it's habitat, anatomy and patterns. They brainstormed research questions and then had to answer them in a powerpoint. So, we hit some language arts and technology here. I sat with each of them to teach them powerpoint, how to write for presentations, choosing appropriate slides and adding photos. They are pretty proud and we'll be presenting those to Dad this week. This has been the longest carry-over project since we work on this a little each day and they have to take turn on the computer.

Art

• We talked about did some drawings early in the week of what the interior of the ark looked like. Did all the animals sleep in their own rooms? Was is open on the inside to all the animals? Where was the food? So, they each focused on a deck and drew what thought the Ark looked like from the top down. Brandon did a reptile and bird deck. Sophia did a mammal deck. It was pretty cute and they had fun figuring out where all the animals went.

Field Trip

• We went to the Skirball up in Los Angeles. They have a great Noah's Ark exhibit (see previous post). The best part to me was the discussion that they opened there about how each different culture has a flood story. Although each is different in some way, each culture survived a mass flood whether it be on the back of a turtle or in a large canoe. This was a big part of our "Did it really happen?" conversation.

So, that sums up our first week and our lessons on Noah's Ark. It was my first time trying to theme our lessons. I think they kids really liked it. Next up, Ocean Tides and Waves - with an accompanying field trip to the beach!

Why are we choosing to homeschool?

That is the first question people usually ask – after the audible gasp has escaped and the look of bewilderment stares back at me. The answer is not a simple one and not the same for any family

For us, homeschooling was a decision that we came to after much thinking and discussion over a 2-year period. First, let me say that our local public elementary school is FABULOUS! I have nothing but good things to say about the teachers/staff and community that continue to work hard to provide opportunities for our kids. My kids have benefitted from a quality education that will give us a great start to homeschooling.

If I had to sum it up, the reason we are homeschooling is EFFICIENCY. I don’t think that I can necessarily provide a BETTER traditional education for my children vs. teachers, but I think I can do it faster! There’s only 2 of them (not 30+) and they are smart! My goal is to open up our days to include the things that are AS important as math and language arts that we couldn’t do before, like foreign language, community service and religious studies and to ADD more music, art and science than a public school can provide. We are also striving to give our kids the downtime that they were telling us that they needed! Between homework, swim, football, martial arts, etc., they just wanted to play outside, build with blocks or read a book for fun!

So, what tipped the scale? After 2 years of careful internal consideration, I felt like I needed to talk to a “professional”! I ran my crazy idea by the kids’ teacher, who I respected and felt like she best knew my kids academically, and fully expected her to tell me I was crazy. Her immediate support and excitement for us was the validation I needed to move forward.

Now, I know how lucky I am. There have to be so many things that come together for homeschooling to work: a parent with the time and dedication to devote to it, kids who are willing to try, personalities that are suited to each other… everything has to align just right to even make this a consideration for most families.

I also know that this could be a short-term experiment, but I hope that it’s not. We will constantly re-evaluate our situation and adapt it, if needed, to provide the best learning environment for our kids. So, at the end of this year, we will discuss as a family how we should proceed – keep at the homeschooling or go back to public school. And as the kids get older, they will have more of a say in the decision to continue or not.

For me, the nail in the coffin to any decision always comes down to – would I regret it if I didn’t try. This was a total YES! This is something that I always would’ve looked back on and wondered if I could’ve initiated it for ALL of our benefit. The time that we get to spend with the kids and the bonds that we will share will be proof that this was the right decision for our family, regardless of what the future holds.  For now, we hope that you enjoy reading about the ups and downs of our new adventures of homeschooling and freelancing (and we hope we all survive the next year under one roof!)

First Art Project!

The first week of 4th grade is under our belt. The 2nd part of the Del Rosario Adventure is well on its way. My part of the home schooling stage is kicked off with an official School Seal.

 Their first art project was a multi-medium self portrait, which is an amalgamation of both digital and traditional (pencil, charcoal, and marker mediums) executions. First they took a “selfie” with my phone…yeah, that was fun. Then I printed each their picture. They then took the back of the print out and covered the back with black, using a charcoal stick. Then, they put a bigger piece of paper under the print out, traced their picture to transfer their image on the blank piece of paper.

 After that, Brandon & Sophia went over the transferred lines with black markers, they also added details to the illustrations based on what they see on their selfies printouts. The last step was to add designs behind their images. Dea & I wanted them to recognize who they are in the inside, their personalities, their strengths, and what they bring to the table. So they made a list and then designed it behind their self portraits.

I have to admit, as their art teacher, my love for teaching and the arts have elevated to a new level. In the 12 years of teaching, Brandon & Sophia are the most important students I will ever have. 

I am at awe in their abilities.