I have the impression we love Monet--Monet for the youngest learners

We have been having a great time exploring the era, life, and art of Claude Monet.

I began this study using the great lesson plans provided by Harmony Art Mom.

(I have to apologize before you get started though, I can't get any of my pictures to change places within the post so this isn't in the exact order I would like it.)

We began by watching Monet: Shadow and Light by Nest Family.com. These are very entertaining hour long videos of the lives of artists, musician, and scientists. We own some of these, but have also been able to find them in our library system.

Amy's Monet inspired "bridge over the lily pond." Amy made this painting this past year, and it fit right in as we were studying Monet's garden.

This is a wonderful book, full of activities to do with elementary aged kids. It touches on many of the Impressionist artists. It most certainly would work with older kids (and moms) also.
This is our favorite book about Monet. It follows Linnea as she travels to Paris and Giverny to learn about Monet's water lily paintings. It is written in scrapbook fashion, and we all enjoying it. We learned about Claude Monet's art, life and family. I was also very pleased to discover that this book is also a movie--following the book exactly. I was especially pleased to discover that is it a Netflix view online movie right now also.

Here are some of our favorite books about Claude Monet. If you click on the book you should be directed to the Amazon link for more information.

This book is a board book, so that you can bring the lovely art of Claude Monet to the very youngest family members.

These cards are published by Dover publishing and contain six postcard sized pictures of some of Claude Monet's most famous paintings. Dover also publishes a little book of 16 stickers featuring Monet's painting.

Hopefully, you will be able to take a little time this summer for enjoy some great art, and teach the kids a little something also.

Maybe Mark is our artist...

Thanks to the Draw Write Now books Mark has become a wonderful artist.
He especially enjoys using the chalkboard in the dining room as his canvas so everyone can admire his artwork.
Great Job!!! Mark!!!

Author Fiesta for August-Tasha Tudor

I have to humbly admit--I did not know who Tasha Tudor was. We homeschool, we read picture books by the dozens a day, we love nature and the simple life-but I did not know who Tasha Tudor was, until Cay introduced her as the Author Fiesta author for August.

I know about her now, and I know that I will be reading and learning much more about this remarkable women in the days and years to come.

If you don't know her or haven't seen the video Take Joy! it is a video biography of Tasha's life, in which Tasha herself tells about her life, work, family and inspiration. I think that just this short video has introduced me to someone whom I will admire for the rest of my life.

My home library had a few of her titles and I have many more ordered through our interloan library service. I found this site that tells a little about her life, and it includes a list of her works near the bottom of the article.

This afternoon was used to get out our Author Fiesta binder and get started on this months fun. Tasha Tudor's art is striking in its charm and simplicity. I just love it, especially since many of her subjects are children, a subject near and dear to the heart of this family.

You can see a sampling of her artwork at this site.

Our first page in the Tasha Tudor section of our binder we glued a picture of Tasha in the center, and then we carefully practiced using her art techniques to make our own drawings. We then decorated this page, in much the same way Tasha did around the border of her stories.

Amy's work

Gracie's flowers

Mommy's attempt

Mark's sunflower

Amy has become very enthralled with this artwork. She loves drawing and now she has great inspiration to learn even more.

This and That

This post is just about "this and that."

Above are our copies of artwork by various Impressionist artists that we have been studying this summer. In fact, Mark impressed many people at the library when he was looking at the paintings on the library walls and said "That looks just like a Mary Cassatt painting." And it was. I was very proud.

Our monarch caterpillars are getting much bigger.(O.K.-not quite this big) To celebrate our butterfly unit, we made a very nice butterfly mobile.

Grandpa H has been having some visitors around his house lately. Two baby skunks visited over about a weeks time. They came out in the afternoon. I think that their mother was sleeping like all good nocturnal animals do during the day. (unless they are babies)

Grandpa also caught this red squirrel in his "Have a Heart" trap. He kept it long enough for this photo opportunity and then let it go free. He is pretty cute.