English - Grammar : How Creatures Move

We are at Lesson 129 of First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise today. The boys copied this poem. Their assignment was to identify every noun, pronoun, action verb and helping verb from the poem.

How Creatures Move
Anonymous

The lion walks on padded paws,
The squirrel leaps from limb to limb,
While flies can crawl straight up a wall,
And seals can dive and swim.
The worm, he wiggles all around,
The monkey swings by his tail,
And birds may hop upon the ground,
Or spread their wings and sail.
But boys are girls have much more fun;
They leap and dance
And walk and run.


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Art : Giotto and a Review of a Living Book

Our second artist study was on Giotto (1267 - 1337 AD), an artist in the Gothic period. He was a student of Cimabue.

We came across a picture book, A Boy Named Giotto, that describes the childhood of Giotto and how he met his teacher Cimabue. This picture book has illustrations done in the style of that period. The dark solemn colours and generous use of gold is apparent as we thumbed through the book. My boys could definitely relate to the story: a boy scratching on boulders to create pictures when he was supposed to be tending his sheep. It tells of how his father belittled Giotto's natural talent as an artist. His gift was not recognized until somebody great and respected, Cimabue, discovered this little boy by chance. An inspiring read. My boys loved it.

As a respond to this story, we tried our hands on some scratching fun. We pretended to be Giotto, shepherding and drawing on a rock what he observed around him... Here's are our scratch art pieces - oil pastels on paper. (Noticed there are 3 pieces here... I couldn't resist drawing as well!)


This is a timeline page one of my boys wrote on this Artist after reading the book and listening to the short write-up in our Artistic Pursuits book :


In addition to reading about Giotto, we followed what Charlotte Mason prescribed for Artist Study, by studying 6 of Giotto's paintings over 6 weeks. They are:
1. Adoration of the Magi
2. Marriage at Cana
3. The Kiss of Judas
4. Deposition of Christ
5. Preaching Before Pope Honorio III
6. Modonna and Child Enthroned with Saints

The boys are now familiar with this great artist's frescoes and were thrilled to see and recognized his paintings when we watched a YouTube video-clip on the frescoes in Capella Degli Scrovegni (Padua, Italy) where most of Giotto's frescoes are.

Here is a picture of my boys getting their hands dirty (again) with making paint from pounding coloured chalk, just like how Giotto would have done to make paint from pigments. We even added egg white in it. It is called egg tempera.



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History : Socrates

Today we read about the famous Greek philosopher Socrates in a children's picture book Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates by M.D. Usher.

We learnt that Socrates was one who loved to question about things. He was not proud but admitted openly that he knows nothing. And THAT was the beginning of his quest for knowledge and wisdom. It was a precious lesson on humility.


We made a little accordian file with pages in it that tells the story of Socrates. The boys had to read and decide for themselves what they wanted to write. I gave them 4 key questions as a guide. They are:
1. Who was Socrates?
2. What was Socrates like as a child?
3. What are some of Socrates famous sayings?
4. What happened to him in the end?

We googled and found lots of his quotes. Some of them were a little too profound for my boys to appreciate but they got the general idea for most of them. Here are some of our favourites:

* He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
* He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
* It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
* Let him that would move the world first move himself.
* Wisdom begins in wonder.
* Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
* True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.


Visit Rumphius History Webpage to learn more about how we approach History in our homeschool.

English - Copywork & Dictation : Gooney - How the Cat was Consumed by the Cow

From Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry...

Catman had never seen a cow before. Now he watched with facination as the cow moved slowly toward the other corner of the meadow.

He liked the way the cow walked, heavily and with determination.

He liked the way the cow smelled, of thick sunwarmed cowhide and meadow flowers.

And, as he scampered along behind the cow and the cow noticed and mooed, Catman liked the way the cow sounded. It was comforting, the low, throaty sound of a moo, and in the background was the buzzing of flies.

Catman began to purr.


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Science : Botany - Transpiration

My boys did this lapbook page - on Transpiration...


When you open up, this is how it looks...


Take note of the legend... dashes for liquid water and dots or water vapour (I got to sneak in a lesson on the 3 states of matter here. )

... And here's the results of our transpiration experiment. See the water droplets formed on the inside of the sealed plastic bag?



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Mathematics : Pre-Algebra

I tried boys out on some more "interesting" Math. They liked to solve these "puzzles" and even asked for more ;-)


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History : Dig Up Ancient Greece! Board Game

I have just finished making a board game that I downloaded from the internet called "Dig Up Ancient Greece!"

This game dovetails perfectly with what we are doing for History now! Quiz cards test boys on the knowledge of ancient Greece. They were thrilled to be able to answer questions about the Minoans and Homer and such trivia. What's more, they will soon be familiar with the geography of that region. That will be invaluable knowledge as many of the cities there are mentioned in the Bible.

Anyway, who can resist the fun of collecting ancient treasures!


Visit Rumphius History Webpage to learn more about how we appraoch History in our homeschool.

English - Copywork & Dictation : Gooney Bird Green

From Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry...

When the door of the bus opened, the orchestra players came out one by one, holding their instruments. They arranged themselves in a semicircle on the lawn, facing the Watertower Elementary School.

The conductor, holding a baton, stepped to the centre and lifted his arms.

"Too bad he doesn't have long black gloves," Gooney Bird murmured.

Mrs Pidgeon opened the windows so that they could hear better. The orchestra geban to play a slow, stately melody.

When it was finished, the conductor bowed. Then he turned to the windows and explained,"That was a sarabande. It's a kind of dance. We'll play it one more time in honour of Gooney Bird Green."


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Fun at Rumphius : Flag Day

We participated in the Flag Day for Focus on the Family, a Christian organization. We volunteered to sell flags at the Woodlands MRT stations. It was interesting to hypothesize who would or would not donate. We have come to our own conclusions about this but won't tell you because it is so much more fun to discover it yourself!

Well, we clocked two CIP hours... haha...

Wild Day at Rumphius : Fishing at Bukit Batok Nature Park

Our homeschool group trooped to Bukit Batok Nature Park. The aim was to catch something. One of our friends taught us how to catch crayfish using bread as bait. Here's his catch:


and us trying...



Visit Rumphius Wild Days Webpage to learn more about how we approach Nature Study in our homeschool.

Science : Kids Science Fest at SSC

Our homeschool group made a school booking at the recent Kids Science Festival at the Singapore Science Centre.

Among the highlights of the day was assembling a mini circuit that is connected both in series and in parallel.Last year, the boys had a similar experience with soldering. However, they needed lots of help then because their little hands were not steady enough to do it. This year, they were able to solder all on their own! I was impressed.


Boys had a chance to play around with the stuff that bullet-proof vest are made of. Can you guess what it is?...


Some interative high-tech fun with the Nintendo Wii here...



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English - Copywork & Dictation : Galileo's Journal

From Galileo's Journal by Jeanne Pettenati and Paolo Rui...

August 9, 1609, Padua.

It is cloudy tonight. I cannot see Jupiter and that strange pattern of stars.

The changing formation from one night to the next puzzles me. Planets move in space, but stars do not. Are Jupiter and these stars connected in some way? How could they be?

My mind won't rest until I figure out this puzzle. But all Luna wants to do is go out and play.


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History : Greek Columns

Our History readings brings us through the ancient Greek civilization. Here's what we learnt about the contribution of the ancient Greeks to architecture. This little poem (from Ancient Greece by Altman and Lechner) aptly describes the three significant Greek column stlyes that are still seen in numerous buildings around the world:

Ionic columns are topped with scrolls.
Doric columns are flat.
Corinthian columns are much more ornate.
And now you know all about that.

Here's our replicas of these columns:


It took us 2 hours of gooey, messy fun to shape these!


Visit Rumphius History Webpage to find out more about how we approach History in our homeschool.

English - Copywork & Dictation : Galileo's Journal

From Galileo's Journal by Jeanne Pettenati and Paolo Rui...

August 3, 1609, Padua.

I arrived home and went right to work on my spyglass.

I began with just the curved lens in the tube. That didn't work. A concave lens makes objects look smaller. A convex lens makes objects look larger, but they are blurry and out of focus.

Then I tried using two lenses together. I put a concave close to my eye and a convex lens at the far end of the tube. There is was! Trees, houses people and animals all leaped toward me.


Visit Rumphius English Webpage to find out more about how we approach English in our homeschool.