last friday, i pulled out the prang pastel paints, a quick and easy renoir art lesson and we both enjoyed painting still life. we discussed the impressionism era and how van ghoh and renoir and degas were pals...even making merry at local pubs... so history says... this art lesson tied in nicely with our france study.

we're mid-way through the family under the bridge. today for a creative descriptive writing lesson, i required tommie to write a different ending to a chapter. a chapter which was describing a "home on wheels." although his creative writing has much to be desired... the lesson was well received by him and grammar, writing skills, and spelling was covered.

here's a snap of the nortre dame' cathedral, that tommie made last week. he used plaster of paris, a cereal box and other goodies from the recycle bin.

a fun writing exercise we both have enjoyed this week....creative christmas stories! we both wrote down five words each pertaining to the christmas season... mixed them up and then used each word in a clever 1-page story. i poured us each a cup of hot chocolate and we both enjoyed putting the pencil to the paper and getting creative! we'll be doing this again throughout the season! fa-la-la-la-la-...... la-la-la-la!

this morning, i stuffed these cute little dollar tree boxes with math review problems! one box had geometry instructions, another fractions, multiplication problems and subtraction problems and the last box had word problems inside! it made math a little more special and hopefully memorable! monday, i plan to gather christmas ornaments and decorations and "play store." .... with more word problems and change making.

just do it! right during lesson's... i plugged in the christmas tree lights and we plopped down on the floor and played yahtzee. this is out of character for me. i'm usually scampering around cleaning or doing housework. my babe sure liked the break!

since we're spending time in france this december... oh la' la' that sounds impressive! we're not actually in france but our homeschool lessons are taking us there! our chapter book is "the family under the bridge."


anyway, i googled easy french recipes and found a really nice site: click here.

I weaved a little cooking into our homeschooling and had tommie make poulet provencal (chicken stew in the crockpot!) it's amazing how when "he" prepares a meal or new recipe...he's all game to taste it! there are other really easy recipes on the site... i'm hoping to have him make more gourmet dishes... especially since our local meijers has a international food section!

we also enjoyed learning about the seine river watershed. i required tommie to read and learn about the vanishing salmon in the river and write a short report about it. by the way, since cleaning up the river, the salmon have came back!

i also used the book for dictation, sentence dissecting and "making new adjectives out of old ones!"

the other handy multi-subject lessons we did today... which covered european geography, the waterway system, tributaries, the french government, and french fashion... all of this was done by creating a poster about the above. simple and effective.

december in france

december homeschooling, finds us learning within the newberry winning pages of "the family under the bridge." since, i've had a tough time finding any unit studies on this book...i've decided to create my own.

the story takes place under a bridge on the seine river in paris. very near nortre dame cathedral. so, i thought we should learn about nortre dame in paris and indiana! i thought we should learn about gothic archetecture and i thought we needed a little art. having just studied napoleon boneparte, this ties in nicely. especially since this day in history, he actually crowned himself emperor of france at nortre dame.

so... here comes the gothic architecture art work... tommie is covering a cheerio box and pillars with plaster of paris. it's drying as we speak... and i'll post pictures tomorrow... i also had him use different items for texture: a comb, a woven towel, etc.

today, we also did a bit of microscope work. since the story talks of fibers and fabric, i thought it would be nice to include natural and synthetic fibers. we checked out six different fabrics and he sketched what he saw.

tomorrow, i have a seine river treasure hunt planned (on-line)... which will take us up and down the river, exploring the louve and eiffel tower. we'll also be learning about the seine river watershed.

this book is wonderful for dictation and wonderfully written for sentence dissection.

i'll be back soon, with more of our adventure in paris!