It’s that time again! Yep, it’s time for our third annual Great Big Ole Book Giveaway! Woohoo! As our family reorganized our bookshelves this summer, we decided to release a few of our books to bless another family who may wish to add some Ancient-and-World-Empires-History related reading to their home library (along with some books […]
Christmas wRap 2016
’Twas the week before Christmas in 2016 We hadn’t yet written about all that we’d seen. Looking back at a year full of changes galore Let’s try to wRap up what this year held in store… In late February, after David’s tenth birthday Gary returned from Brazil, from the rig home to stay. An unexpected […]
Reality Check: Our Semester in Review
It’s that time again. Every semester or two I take a look back at how our plans panned out and share what really happened because… although I try to piece together an ideal plan, I’ve also been homeschooling long enough to accept that Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21, NIV […]
Morisot Art Project: Globby Textures
I can’t think of a better way to end a semester than to paint in the style of Morisot! Berthe Morisot used a nearly-chaotic globby technique that provides for some fantastic opportunities to play with paint. After studying the images in the Morisot Picture Study pages in the Great Artists Picture Study Packet (pictured above), […]
Degas Art Project: Depicting Motion
Here we move on to Impressionism with a twist: depicting movement and motion. Edgar Degas composed off-center drawings and paintings depicting “real life” situations at unusual angles and many times he showed a sense of movement using repeated and blurred lines and edges. He is especially known for his paintings of dancers and horses. The […]
Monet Art Project: Impressionist Art Technique
Have you ever read the book Ish? Well, Impressionism is just that – ish! Diving into Impressionistic art is a ton of fun, even for the non-artsy type like me. And it’s wonderful to explore art in a way that helps even the perfectionists let go a little bit. (Perfectionists? In our home? Believe it or […]
Gainsborough Art Project: Portraits on Landscape
Of all the art we have ever done in our home, this project surprised me the most. To be honest, a sense of dread settled upon my heart as I wrestled with the idea of something so complicated, especially with two of our children who aim for each art project to be a masterpiece. How […]
Linnaeus Art Project: Botanical Illustrations
So… it’s December and we’re studying flowers. Not real ones, though. There just aren’t a whole lot of real flowers blooming in middle Tennessee right now. I had all these ideas – a poinsettia, a pine cone (but we don’t have any pines growing close to us), or even a cedar (which is not nearly […]
Rembrandt Art Project: Facial Expressions
Life etches itself onto our faces as we grow older, showing our violence, excesses, or kindnesses. -Rembrandt Last week our family dove into sketching facial expressions with a simplified art study/project in the style of Rembrandt. If you fear art study – or if you don’t have special art supplies on hand – this is a fantastically […]