Why Beauty Matters

More on beauty. (HT: Tucker Teague, of course.)

“If a work of art is nothing more than an idea, anybody can be an artist, and any object can be a work of art. There is no longer any need for skill, taste, creativity.” ~Roger Scruton

(Heads-up: There are some very crass, un-beautiful images in this documentary.)

Fine Arts Study: December 2011

Composer: George Frideric Handel

We spent some time with Handel last December, but we’ve added a few things to our studies this year.

Watching: Handel’s Last Chance

(We recently added this 6 DVD set to our collection. We’ve watched and loved the artists and inventors sets.)

Reading: Handel, Who Knew What He Liked by M. T. Anderson

We are still enjoying all our other books and CDs (at the link above), especially our Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader.

 

Artist: Norman Rockwell

Reading: Norman Rockwell: Storyteller With a Brush by Beverly Gherman (Have I ever mentioned how much I adore really great picture book biographies? Put this one on the list!)

(We also have a couple great over-sized books of Norman Rockwell illustrations to pour over.)

Watching:

And the perfect blend of art and poetry for this December:

Norman Rockwell’s Christmas Book--filled with Christmas poetry by Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, and more. Synchronicity!

 

Christmas Poetry

Memorizing:

Christmas Bells

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
    “For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Fine Arts ~ November 2011

Poet/Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Reading:

Poetry for Young People: Robert Louis Stevenson
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

Memorizing:

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
’Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

‘Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Listening:

Artist/Illustrator: N. C. Wyeth

Reading:

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth (How is that for synthesis?!)

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth

N.C. Wyeth’s Pilgrims, text by Robert San Souci

Watching:

 

 

Composer: Edvard Grieg

Printing:

Edvard Grieg at Making Music Fun.

Listening:

Radio shows about Edvard Grieg at Classics for Kids.

And (be patient…it really gets going about 1:40):

Fine Arts Study ~ October 2011

(Finally adding to my Fine Arts Monthy Features resources…)

Poet: Robert Frost

Reading:

A Swinger of Birches: Poems of Robert Frost for Young People illustrated by Peter Koeppen

Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost

Listening:

(Which led to the interesting discovery of birch swinging.)

 

Artist: Edward Hopper

Reading and Looking:

Edward Hopper: Summer at the Seashore (Adventures in Art by Prestel)

Edward Hopper (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists)

Art Appreciation Lessons at Garden of Praise

Watching:

(An excellent, short, family-friendly, biographical video about Hopper.)

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist.

~Edward Hopper

 

Composer: Igor Stravinsky

Listening to radio shows at Classics for Kids.

Reading Igor Stravinsky (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers).

Listening and Watching:

(The complete ballet is available in five parts on YouTube.)

Fine Arts ~ January

In continuation of our Fine Arts Monthly Features:

::For January, we are reading about the artist Thomas Gainsborough at Garden of Praise, and we've purchased small art stickers from Dover.

::We're printing Franz Joseph Haydn's biography page over at Making Music Fun, as well as printing and playing his Surprise Symphony. And we are enjoying another one of Anna Harwell Celenza's beautiful composer picture books, The Farewell Symphony. We'll also be listening to the radio shows about Haydn at Classics for Kids.

::We're savoring A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (and illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, two of my favorites!) and Poetry for Young People: William Blake.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

::And copying a few reasonable words in our best handwriting:


Two wrongs don't make a right.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Fine Arts ~ Hallelujah!

Artist: Botticelli

Learn about Botticelli and his painting, Madonna and Child, here at Garden of Praise.

Composer: George Frideric Handel

Printing: Meet George Frideric Handel at Making Music Fun.

Listening to: Classical Kids: Hallelujah Handel!

Reading: Hallelujah Handel.



Sharing: The Handel's Messiah: Family Advent Reader. (More about this here.)

Singing:

Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kindom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!

Watching: 650 singers burst into Hallelujah as part of a Random Act of Culture.

Christmas Poetry:

A Christmas Carol

by G. K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,

His hair was like a light.

(O Weary, Weary were the world,

But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,

His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the Kings,

But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,

His hair was like a fire.

(O Wear, Weary is the world,

But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,

His hair was like a crown,

And all the flowers looked up and Him,

And all the stars looked down.

Benjamin West

Harvesting at Windsor

Continuing with our monthly fine arts studies, we are learning about American painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) this November.

Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry (the author of the much beloved Misty of Chincoteague) is a lovely chapter book with delightful illustrations. It was a nice change of pace to have a longer story to soak up and a little glimpse of life in an early American Quaker family. Loved.

The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West by Barbara Brenner falls under my favorite category of books: beautiful biographical picture books. This is one we had to have for our bookshelf! Children will enjoy reading about Benjamin West's childhood and how he became a painter at a very young age in a Quaker family with no drawings or paintings!

Fine Arts ~ October

Shakespeare (again), Vivaldi, and Rembrandt

I've had a few other things on my plate {grin}, so my monthly fine arts features post for the month of October went by the wayside. Since it is still October (by the skin of my teeth), let's pretend that I'm still on schedule and enjoy a little culture, shall we?

In honor of St. Crispin's Day (this past Monday, October 25th), how about a lovely speech from Shakespeare's Henry V:

(Incidentally, we were learning a bit about the Hundred Years' War between England and France for Classical Conversations this month. I love it when lessons converge like that. Sweet!)

You can't go wrong with Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Autumn, of course) a la Disney's Fantasia:

Be sure to listen to the great radio shows about Vivaldi over at Classics for Kids, listen to Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery from Classical Kids, and print the Vivaldi page from the Famous Composers Wall Chart at Practical Pages. Print the composer's biography or print and play a simple version of Vivaldi's Spring at Making Music Fun.

Looking for an exquisite picture book to read while listening to Vivaldi's music? Look no further, I, Vivaldi is just the ticket.

I just can't help myself. Rembrandt's self portraits... wait for it... set to Vivaldi's Winter:

We read the Rembrandt book in the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series, but I made a lovely discovery. Our library now carries the DVD version. Score.

And here we have more Rembrandt at Garden of Praise and Practical Pages.

Let's wrap up with a few reasonable words:

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Make hay while the sun shines.

Voila, my work here is done.

Fine Arts ~ September

Our Fine Arts bulletin board is now up! I found the perfect empty wall space facing the boys' bedroom door, so they will see it every time they come out of their room. Excellent. I used an old bulletin board I had and painted the cork black. Then I used foam letter stamps to paint Poetry, Words, Music, and Art at the top. (Okay, so the words aren't perfect, but better done imperfectly than not at all....)

Artist: Francisco Goya

I printed the Goya page from the Famous Artist Wall Chart (scroll down a bit to #2) at Practical Pages. This is posted on our Fine Arts bulletin board. Then I printed the featured work by Goya at Garden of Praise along with the description at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for our picture study (which will also be posted on the bulletin board when not in use). We will do a few of the Goya activities at Garden of Praise and read Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Francisco Goya.

(All printed pages for the bulletin board go in page protectors. Printed worksheets are saved in the same sleeve as the picture study for easy access. Each month, we'll take down the pages and put them in a fine arts 3-ring binder with tabs each for artists, composers, and poets.)


Composer: Henry Purcell

We are reading about Henry Purcell at Wikipedia (and listening to samples of his music!). I printed his portrait with basic biography information for our bulletin board. I have the DVD of Purcell's opera, Dido and Aeneas in my collection, so we will dust it off and watch it.

Selections from YouTube:

Poet: William Shakespeare

I've posted previously about our Shakespeare studies. This time around, we'll be reading about Shakespeare in A Child's Introduction to Poetry and enjoying Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare. I also printed his portrait (from Wikipedia) along with one of his poems for our bulletin board.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

by William Shakespeare

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Reasonable Words:

To go with our theme quote for fine arts studies ‎("One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), I thought I would add a few reasonable words to our bulletin board each month. I'm using Proverbs and Idioms from A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. (We will also use the proverbs for handwriting copy work during the month and those pages will go in the fine arts notebook.)

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

Fine Arts Monthly Features

‎One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song,
read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible,
to speak a few reasonable words.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As I mentioned before, I'm setting up a composer/artist/poet of the month study. When I was plotting out the schedule, I tried to keep the flow roughly chronological, somewhat connected to the time period we are studying in history, occasionally in context with other activities/studies/holidays, and tied in with our Classical Conversations composers and artists. That was no small task for me, but I persevered. This is what I came up with:


2010

July: Mozart

August: Instruments of the Orchestra, Poetry Speaks to Children

September: Purcell, Goya, Shakespeare

October: Vivaldi, Rembrandt, (more Shakespeare)

November: Bach, Benjamin West, Milton

December: Handel, Botticelli's Madonna and Child, (Christmas Poetry)



2011

January: Haydn, Gainsborough, William Blake

February: Beethoven, Morisot, William Wordsworth

March: Brahms, Winslow Homer, Robert Browning (and Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

April: Dvorak, Seurat, Edgar Allan Poe

May: Wagner (opera), Cassatt, Emily Dickinson

June-Aug: Tchaikovsky (ballet), Degas (and Impressionists), Edward Lear (and Christina Rossetti)

September: Debussy, Carl Larsson, Walt Whitman

October: Igor Stravinsky, Edward Hopper, Robert Frost

November: Grieg, N.C. Wyeth, Robert Louis Stevenson

December: (Handel), Norman Rockwell, (Christmas Poetry)



2012

January: Grandma Moses, Puccini (opera), Rudyard Kipling

February: Georgia O'Keeffe, Holst, William Carlos Williams

March: Magritte, Gershwin, Sandburg

April: Dali, Copland, Hughes

May: Pollock, Britten, Edna St. Vincent Millay

June: Warhol, Bernstein, Maya Angelou


Each month, I will attempt to give details about what resources we are using for each composer/artist/poet, as well as how I'm using them. As I add resource posts, I'll link them through this post and try to keep it updated so all the details are available in one place. Any general resources will be listed at the end of this post as I find them.

Classics for Kids ~Free online composer studies. Excellent radio shows, printable activity sheets, and detailed lesson plans. Highly recommended!!

Making Music Fun ~ A WEALTH of free printable treasures. Composer biographies, free sheet music (including simple versions of classical music), music theory worksheets, and more!

San Francisco Symphony Kids ~Free online interactive site. Particularly useful for learning about the instruments of the orchestra.

Story of the Orchestra ~Excellent illustrated hardback book with CD. Covers the instruments of the orchestra and famous composers (and musical periods) listed chronologically. Recommended!

Classical Kids audio series ~Stellar series of audio productions introducing children to the lives of famous composers and their music. Highly recommended!

Practical Pages ~ Wow! Free printable lapbook pages. Famous artists, famous musicians, and art projects.

NotebookingPages.com has free printable art, artist, music, and composer pages available.

Harmony Art Mom ~ Free artist and composer studies, as well as many other art projects. (To find the artist/composer links, scroll down and on the left.)

Ambleside Online is an amazing resource for Charlotte Mason style education. Here are their music appreciation/composer study and artist study links.

Garden of Praise ~Free online art appreciation/lessons for children.

Art Projects for Kids ~ Be sure to check out this incredible blog. Many free art project ideas, often inspired by famous artists--check out the post tags/labels such as Van Gogh.

National Gallery of Art for Kids ~ (Free online) interactive art activities and projects.

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists ~Series of picture books about famous artists.

A Child's Introduction to Poetry ~Beautiful hardcover book with entertaining illustrations introducing children to the world of poetry. Second half of the book lists a selection of famous poets in chronological order with a short biography and samples of the poet's works. The included CD makes this book a unbeatable resource.

Poetry for Young People ~Excellent series of picture books, each featuring a famous poet. The books begin with biographical information about the poet followed by illustrated selections of the poet's works.

The Fine Arts

The internet is a beautiful, beautiful thing for homeschoolers. There is such an abundance of resources available to parents and their children for little to no cost.

My favorite new site: FAMOUS PAINTINGS Art Appreciation/Lessons For Kids.

These studies of Famous Paintings were written on an elementary level, but will be of interest to all ages. They will help students become familiar with and learn to appreciate the works of famous artists. Teachers, for each lesson you will find a biography of the artist, a study sheet, a worksheet, a greyscale print of the picture, a jigsaw puzzle, a printable and online crossword puzzle, word search, and word scramble, links for further research, and links to art lessons for many of the artists. There are posters, books, and videos you can order.

And there are 48 artists/masterpieces to study!! You could study one artist a month for four years! Fabulous, I tell you!

I've mentioned it before, but have you checked out Classics for Kids? Learn about the instruments of the orchestra and famous composers with radio shows, games, worksheets, quizzes, and even detailed lessons plans covering concepts such as Rhythm, Melody, Form, Timbre/Tone Color, Harmony, and Style. You can study composers by Classics for Kids' monthly featured composer, alphabetically, geographically, by musical period, or in chronological order.

For more about the individual instruments in the orchestra, try San Francisco Symphony Kids. YouTube is an excellent place to search for composers, musical instruments, and artists, as well.

Art and Creativity in the Great Outdoors

Summer. There is something delicious about that word, especially for a mother of three young boys after an even-rainier-than-normal Pacific Northwest spring.

Children need to stretch their lungs, their legs, and their imaginations. The great outdoors are calling.

We may be inclined to set down our formal spelling and grammar programs, but summer is a great opportunity to sneak in some of the fun extras we might have trouble finding time to share with our children during a traditional school year.

Time spent outdoors lends itself to creativity and an appreciation for the art of nature. Many famous artists have been inspired by nature, and it is a joy to learn from the masters.

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and
more.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Here are a few ideas to spark a summer study of art and nature.


I'm over at Simple Homeschool, today. Head on over to read the rest.

On Art

The Milkmaid (c. 1658) by Johannes Vermeer



"What does Art do for us? It gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them, a seal representing all those works that, by means of a particular form, have incarnated the universal nature of human emotions."

~Muriel Barbery in The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Dutch Blitz

Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes
Beautiful picture book about seventeenth-century Holland, tulips, and Rembrant.

The Boy Who Held Back the Sea by Thomas Locker
(Another lovely picture book with oil painting illustrations in the style of the Dutch masters.)



The Vermeer Interviews: Conversations With Seven Works of Art by Bob Raczka
In a very entertaining introduction to seven of Johannes Vermeer's masterpieces, the author brings the subjects to life through imagined interviews.



The Wheel on the School

Journey from Peppermint Street

and Dirk's Dog, Bello (a favorite from my childhood)

by storytelling master, Meindert De Jong


Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge



Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates (on DVD, Classic Disney, 1962)



Dutch Color by Douglas M. Jones III
A mystery revolving around tulips and mixing paints, set in the golden era of Dutch art.

And, of course, Countries Around the World: Netherlands (DVD)

Magritte's Imagination

René Magritte (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

Magritte's Imagination
(Leif's favorite board book!)

POP!

I love art books for children!!

Andy Warhol: Paintings for Children contains a surprising amount of information, paintings, photographs, questions about the art to get children thinking, and more. (And age appropriate, considering the artist...) I was really pleased with this library book!

We have several of the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists books.

Andy Warhol is a wonderful addition to our collection, with information about the artist from birth until his death, large easy-to-read font for younger children, a bit about the Pop Art movement and examples of other art during the period, and cartoon drawings. (Again, nothing inappropriate or controversial.)

My favorite board books are the Mini Masters series (probably the only ones we will continue to look at when the boys have completely outgrown that stage...), and I was excited to find an Andy Warhol board book in another series. Leif loves it. He has been carrying it around everywhere and fell asleep with it a couple nights ago. Very fun and bright!! (Because of its simplicity and bright colors, this board book would make a great baby gift...)

After reading Andy Warhol: Paintings for Children, the inspiration hit me to have an impromptu painting project:
Rorschach paintings a la Warhol.

And, well, that put me in the mood to make a fun art display in the hallway.
I was thinking I needed more Pop Art.
Will this work?
I made matching collages for each of the boys.

Connections

Have you read this book?

When you are paying attention, you notice....

Patterns. Connections. Puzzles. Art as truth.

Love it!

pg. 8

Then Ms. Hussey asked if anyone in the class had ever received a truly extraordinary letter. No one had. Ms. Hussey looked very interested. They had ended up with a strange assignment.

"Let's see what we can find," Ms. Hussey began. "Ask an adult to tell you about a letter they will never forget. I'm talking about a piece of mail that changed their life. How old were they when they got it? Where were they when they opened it? Do they still have it?"

....Ms. Hussey suddenly clapped her hands, making Petra jump and setting the little pearl earring into orbit. "I know! Once you find a letter that changed a life, sit down and write me a letter. Write me a letter I won't be able to forget."

pg. 36

"You know," Ms. Hussey said finally, "Picasso said that art is a lie, but a lie that tells the truth."

pg. 247

My lie is that I am only canvas and pigment. My truth is that I am alive. Some might call this your imagination, but it's not. Art, as you know, is about ideas. I am as real as your blue china or the boy with the box or the girl who dreamed about me. I am very much here.

pp. 78-79

Too many people apologize when they are caught enjoying a book of fiction; they are afraid that it will be considered a waste of time and that they ought to be reading a biography or a book of information on how to pot plants. Is Jane Eyre not true? Did Conrad, turning to the writing of fiction in his sixties, not search there for truth? Was Melville, writing about the sea and the great conflict between a man and a whale, not delving for a deeper truth than we can find in any number of how-to books?

And Shakespeare and all the other dramatists before and after him! Are they not revealers of truth?

pp. 90-91

And what is real? Does the work of art have a reality beyong that of the artist's vision, beyond whatever has been set down on canvas, paper, musical notations? If the artist is the servant of the work, if each work of art, great or small, is the result of an annunciation, then it does.

Hamlet is. When the play has been read, when the curtain goes down on the performance, Hamlet still is. He is, in all his ambivalence, as real as Byron or as the man who cried out, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief," or as Ivan Karamazov. The flight of stairs up which George MacDonald's princess had to climb would be there whether or not MacDonald had ever written The Princess and the Goblin. The storm still rages around King Lear. The joy of Bach's gigue at the end of the Fifth French Suite does not depend on a piano for its being.

Write a Letter

Read Something Lovely

Those romance book suggestions I asked for a while ago?
Guess what I then added to my list and also arrived a couple days ago in a red envelope:

Speaking of connections...

Romance Movies, Scarlett Johansson
I rewatched this favorite a week or two ago:
(Costuming and setting: Oooh, la, la!!!!)


I feel a rabbit trail coming on...

Oscar Wilde
Minnie Driver cracks. me. up. in this one:

Oooh, lookie. It's Colin Firth (and Oscar Wilde and Rupert Everett....), again:

Speaking of Colin Firth, I also rewatched Pride & Prejudice last week!

Enough with the rabbit trails, already!
(Frog trails?)

I'm going to go put on my pearl earrings and get to work.
We're studying Vermeer. And Shakespeare.
(I just finished reading The Shakespeare Stealer... Hamlet, again! Review coming.)
And beginning our next read-aloud, The Princess and the Goblin.
And listening to a little Bach.
And making pentominoes for our math lesson.
And sorting and counting (and eating) M&Ms.
And diving head-long into my book club selection for this month, Jane Eyre.
And placing A Swiftly Tilting Planet precariously at the top of my towering and tilting book stack.

{Grin}

Nature ~ Playing, Creating, Drawing

Levi enjoys employing his imagination out-of-doors ~ making large nests out of hay, constructing a bow with stick and twine, and digging up fossils ~ but when his cousin, Ilex, arrives.... Well, the imagination is exponential. She directs plays, assigns kingdoms, builds miniature characters out of pine cones, sets up 'villages' in a large clearing under a grove of pine trees (think Roxaboxen), and the list is endless.

I am exceedingly grateful for the friendship between my son and my 13 year old niece. They are surprisingly two peas in a pod, and Ilex is an excellent activity director when she is with the boys.

I've shared her poetry before, but I hadn't ever posted photos of her nature creations or sketches. So, today is the day. Inspired by a book about fairy houses, Ilex whipped up this little abode. My favorite part: the nutshell bowls filled with single blackberries.

Nature's Art Box is a wonderful book full of nature craft ideas and instructions.

Keeping a Nature Journal is a gorgeous book of sketches (some color, some black and white), ideas, and instructions for keeping one's own nature journal. I could peruse this book for hours. I'll be getting a copy for Levi (and myself) in the next year or two, so we can begin our own nature journals.

That girl has talent coming out her ears!!