Art Journals

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January 14, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 16 Comments

I got the kids supplies for art journaling for Christmas.

They’ve been DYING to try it out!

Amazing how some notebooks and stamps get kids so excited.

Kate had asked me a couple months ago: “What’s scrapbooking?”

I seriously felt like a failure. I need to turn in my girl card, y’all.

I have failed as a woman.

My girls didn’t know what scrapbooking is.

So, of course I showed them some examples on Pinterest.

They picked out some complementary papers and got to scrappin’.

My son, Alex, wanted an art journal too. So I relinquished the one I bought for myself.

Sacrifices, people.

And he wanted a flower sticker on his cover page.

Of course.

Alex really loves the shaped scissors that cut in pretty designs. He LOVES the paper punch outs for stars.

The hibiscus paper was his very favorite since he was born in Hawaii.

Katherine loved the letter stickers.

And of course, there’s no pattern. That’s how she rolls.

I am very impressed with her pattern pairing. She also loves the stamps and paper punch-outs.

She won’t need much guidance with art journals as we work along. I won’t even try.

Tori used a flower sticker for her letter O.

I’m surprised she didn’t get a ruler to line up her letter stickers or something. She’s my perfectionist and I hope that art journaling will help her confidence.

I love love love Tori’s paper choices.

She said the blue was like water so she stamped swimming animals.

I plan to be more diligent with arts and crafts this year.

I will get out of my comfort zone and allow my kids freedom of expression. And messes. Maybe even glitter glue.

Baby steps.

Art is good for the kids and for me.

It will help my kids express their individuality and have some fun yet productive downtime.

It’s good for me to embrace a mess and realize it doesn’t matter as much as the process.

Check out my art board:

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages

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Homeschool Planner

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January 7, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 12 Comments

The kids are finishing up curriculum and January is typically when we evaluate our successes and whether we need a change.

We tend to follow a calendar year rather than a fiscal or traditional school year.

I realize that my teen needs some direction for time management and must learn to keep a time budget for herself so she can stay on track with her school assignments and not get further behind.

I have some great planning printables on my Pinterest board, but I realize that some of them aren’t exactly what we need.

There are some great calendars and planners for sale all over the Internet but they’re not exactly what we need either and I’ve been so disappointed when I’ve purchased them in the past and they didn’t work well for us.

We made our own student planner.

Here’s what we found and put together for the perfect planner.

A pretty cover.

We love this neato zebra cover page that’s just perfect (she has oodles to choose from).

Goal-setting pages.

Since I’m raising servant leaders, we need goals. I love these free printable goal-planning pages.

I plan to take some time after our holiday to discuss goals with my kids. She can have these planning pages to refer to throughout the year and make sure she stays on track. I think this would be a great motivational tool so she will complete her work.

Calendar pages.

I love the colors for these monthly calendar pages!

And I printed some pretty weekly planning pages to help Liz keep track of her school and extracurricular schedule. I saved them ages ago and have no idea where I got them.

Assignments pages.

I designed some weekly assignment planning pages of our own. There are some really beautiful pages out there, but I need simple, lots of room to write in assignments, checklists, and no bells or whistles to distract. Download our simple student pages below.

As we complete her planner and get all the pages printed for the rest of the year, I will comb bind it and help her fill it out and coach her to keep track every day.

What I’m not including:

cutesy journal pages
artsy freestyle pages
Bible study journals

I saw oodles of these pretty pages to print, but I just know it would end in disaster if I included these in this planner. They would distract the girls and take the focus off time management. They would waste lots of time playing with filling in the blanks and doodling rather than completing and checking off appointments and assignments.

I have an art journal and a great Bible study for teen girls as part of regular homeschool work.

I pray that this pretty new planner will help Liz with time management this year!

I also like this blog planner for me.

Subscribe to the blog and download our student planning pages:

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Christmas Unit Study

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December 19, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We like to slow down for the holiday, but the kids still love learning.

I use this time to make learning fun.

The kids are enjoying some fun Christmas themed school time this week.

I got the reindeer idea and Very Hungry Reindeer printables here, but it doesn’t look available anymore.

Counting ornaments and matching with the correct number on the stars. I got these over at Musings of Me, but I can’t find the direct link anymore. They’re super cute!

Matching capital letters with lowercase letters in puzzles. I’m pretty sure these puzzles are from 1+1+1=1 somewhere. Alex loves the letter mazes too!

The whole family enjoys the history behind The Twelve Days of Christmas and these are fun printables for Alex.

Throw some baby Jesus clipart on a page and it’s “Christmas math”! It’s amazing how excited the girls were to do these.
$ChristmasMath.jpg$

I printed Christmas tree outlines and the kids used rosemary, glitter glue, stickers, and sequins to decorate those.

I was pretty impressed with the tracing the outline with glitter glue.

Then we hunted elves. We hid the cards and the littles found them. Bubba circled the numbered elves on his page as he found them. Sisters had to practice writing where they found the cards. Download Elf Hunt printables here.

Elf hats help.

We love fun free Christmas printable activities!

Christmas Resources:

12 Days of Christmas Printables:

Check out my Christmas Pinterest board:

Follow Jennifer’s board Christmas on Pinterest.

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10 Ways to Narrate

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November 24, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

Not all of us have super literate kids who can write pages upon pages of exquisitely written narration after listening to read alouds or quietly reading her literature and history assignments.

Narration is a great assessment tool.

We use narration regularly to check for comprehension and understanding.

We seldom do any formal testing until high school. I love to interact with my children and we can’t do that when they’re sitting at a desk filling in little circles. We hope to instill a love of learning for a lifetime.

What to do for narration with those kids who might be more oral or artistic:

Mix up the options for narration so it doesn’t get boring!

1. Draw or Paint a Picture.

A great way for a child who doesn’t write well yet or who prefers art to express herself. As the child grows, she can freehand write about what she read.

2. Coloring Pages.

Great to print for younger kids who need some guidance. Add words, phrases, or sentences as copywork later as they grow.

3. Act a Scene.

Have your child prepare a skit, complete with costumes and set. A great group activity for co-op or families.

4. Puppets or Paper Dolls.

Who doesn’t love a puppet show? Your child can make simple little paper finger puppets, use stuffed animals or dolls she already has, or make fun sock puppets with all those mismatched socks and some crafty items. Print images from online or have your child draw and color her own and attach wooden chopsticks for creative play. A great co-op or dad performance. We also like themed Toobs.

5. Building.

Use Legos, blocks, or some other fun manipulative to discuss setting and plot.

6. Notebooking.

These are way beyond worksheets. Adapt them to suit your child’s needs. We love Notebooking Pages where we can print a huge variety or make our own.

7. Lapbooks.

These are like fun scrapbook projects about your subject. Lots of printable kits online. Homeschool Share has lots for free!

8. Flashcards or a Card Game.

Use index cards to create a memory game with words or pictures or concepts. Or print graphics to glue on and laminate.

9. Timeline Work.

Create or find pictures and words for kids to cut and paste to a poster. Great for history or literary chronological order work.

10. Sensory Bins.

For very (and not quite) little kids, provide fun multi-sensory activities and teach narration through asking questions and listening to your tot’s creative play. We did a great bin for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Tips for little kids with listening and behaving during read alouds.
For older kids, I still like traditional narration. With Technology. And having a literature reader notebook.

What are your favorite narration activities?

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Fall Leaf Crafts

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November 19, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

You know you’re a homeschooler when you save interesting packing material with plans for crafting later.

We’ve loved the changing leaves on our nature walks.

We decided to do some fall leaf crafts.

We got these sheets of semi-shredded paper and I thought it would be a fun textured paint craft.

I helped Alex cut out pieces for a tree.

We used little sponges to create splotches for leaves.

Kate used clips on her sponges for more delicate stamping.

The trees turned out well, kinda like Impressionist paintings. And the kids had fun!

Fall Leaf Crafts | https://www.jenniferalambert.com/

We also painted leaves against paper for neat silhouettes.

And used pencil shavings and glue on a printed tree outline.

I’ve really been making an effort to do arts and crafts with the kids and they’re enjoying the creative time!

More Fall Activities:

Preserve leaves by dipping them in melted beeswax and make a leaf wreath or garland.
Make a fall leaf crown, wings and a leaf star wand to become a forest fairy.
Collect pine-cones, nuts and acorns and transforms them into fun little critters.
Make your own eco-confetti using leaves.

Follow Jennifer’s board Autumn on Pinterest.

Linking up: Crystal and Co, The Natural Homeschool, Glimpse of Our Life, Happy Blessed Home, Crafty Moms Share, Sunny Day Family

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Halloween Crafts

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October 17, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 10 Comments

The kids loved our Halloween craft time!

Alex made a cute paper jack o’lantern.

I used a ruler to draw orange lines for Alex to cut out and then we stapled the strips at the top and bottom. He cut out the black shapes on his own to make the face.

They all made little pipe cleaner spiders.

We used up lots of empty cardboard tubes making monsters and robots.

And I remembered doing something ages ago in school and gave them white chalk and black paper and they had loads of fun!

I had happy kids.

We were together, making crafts, and enjoying ourselves.

And there wasn’t much mess.

It was about relationships.

Linking up: 123Homeschool4Me, Homeschool Creations, Crafty Moms Share, No Time for Flashcards, The Resourceful Mama, Life of Faith, Written Reality, Kiddy Charts, The Educators Spin On It, ABC Creative Learning, Living Montessori Now, Simple Life of a Fire Wife, Los Gringos Locos, Growing Hands on Kids, Hip Homeschool Moms, Wondermom Wannabe, The Natural Homeschool, Adventures of Mel, Teaching Mama, Home Stories A to Z, Your Homebased Mom, Snapcreativity, Homemade for Elle, Life with Lorelai, Happy and Blessed Home, Expedition Homeschool, Sunny Day Family

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Homeschool High School Schedule

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August 25, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We’ve gotten more relaxed in our schedule with moving and settling in Germany but still having no Internet.

I’m sure this schedule will change more after I don’t have to leave the house for Wi-Fi and can adjust to a healthier rhythm at home.

Trying to explain to Liz that high school level work requires more time and effort than the level the girls are doing. I know it’s hard and it’s often unpleasant. We need to work on balance and time management.

Homeschool High School Schedule

7ish:

I wake and prepare breakfast, we all help clean up, we often get dressed

8ish:

Read-aloud time with Bible, literature, history, science, Life of Fred math

9:30ish:

Liz goes off to do her own thing
supervised lessons and seat work for Tori, Kate – math, reading, science and history notebooking
Alex – All About Reading Level 2, math printables and manipulatives at his desk or on the floor

12ish:

Lunchtime (usually leftovers or something quick…sometimes with read alouds or a quick educational video), clean up

1ish:

Tori and Kate finish up their work or do arts and crafts or science experiments or history crafts. Alex plays. Liz continues her work.

2ish:

Outside play if the weather’s nice or indoor quiet time with games or fun reading or arts and crafts. This is when I get work done.

Evenings:

Mondays, Liz has Civil Air Patrol. Tuesdays, beginning this week, Tori will have gymnastics and Alex will have soccer practice. Of course, Kate has soccer practice on Wednesdays and games on Saturdays!

Dinner is usually at 6 and bedtime has been running as late as 9 since the sun is still well up.

Check out more:

our curriculum choices!
our school space

Resources:

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times by Katherine May
Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller
Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity by Saundra Dalton-Smith
Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening Your Soul by Bonnie Gray
Whispers of Rest: 40 Days of God’s Love to Revitalize Your Soul by Bonnie Gray
Finding Soul Rest: 40 Days of Connecting with Christ: A Devotional by Curtis Zackary
Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie

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Impressionist Art Study

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August 21, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

So, a big benefit to living in Europe?

We study Impressionist art…

We drove up to Frankfurt to the Städel Museum. It’s only about an hour away.

Along with some lovely Iconic art and some weird contemporary stuff, there was a lovely Impressionist gallery with Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and some others.

We have been reading about how the Impressionists mimicked the new invention of photography – and the perspective in this Degas shows that style, with the viewpoint from the orchestra and cutting off some of the other ballerinas in this picture:

Here, I taught the girls about the perspective and showed them how Degas made this look like a snapshot, focusing on the foreground of the orchestra and making it look like the artist is in the orchestra pit, looking up at the ballerinas, who are too ethereal to be on ground-level, and are therefore on a grand stage.

We admired the brushstrokes and color of landscapes:

Fascinating white landscapes that were quite lovely and looked like photographs with amazing details:

A fun scene of two couples playing croquet. I love the blending of blues and greens contrasted with the light clothing. And the one lady in blue. Tori loved her.

A pretty Monet and we noticed the open windows of the house don’t reflect in the water. The sky is quite lovely and there are a couple figures in the distance by the trees.

Monet, Houses on the Bank of the River Zaan

We had studied Renoir pretty extensively and were ecstatic to find these. Did you know he was trained as a porcelain painter? Look at the china cups and carafes. Such skill!

Renoir was famous for painting flowers, and you can see the lovely colorful flowers in the hat and vase and book:

Of course, we got yelled at and followed around by one of the guards. Apparently they have video cameras everywhere and he said we touched and he showed us we had to stay back at least an arm’s length. We certainly didn’t touch anything. We were pointing things out to the kids, you know, educating, and Tori pointed to a blank square in one of the altarpieces to ask why it was missing. We stayed behind the ropes. We are careful and respectful. It was very upsetting. The guard made me want to eat a sleeve of Saltines, but I didn’t want us to get thrown out.

Another guard was super sweet and she wanted to make sure we knew there was an outdoor exhibit and she got an English speaker to explain to us how to get there. The kids had a blast at the Städel.

Some of the main impressionist artists are Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas.

Resources:

We’ve also viewed art at the D’Orsay, Louvre, Netherlands, Dayton, and more
How We Do Art
Guide from The National Gallery
Impressionism Guide from Khan Academy
FREE Resources! Famous Impressionist Artists from Practical Pages
Impressionism Lesson Plan from Art Class Curator
Printables and Mini-Books for Art History – Impressionism from One Bright Crayon
FREE Impressionism Lapbook from Homeschool Helper Online
FREE Printable Impressionist Art Cards by Layers of Learning
Impressionist Artists Famous Artists Degas Matisse Monet Renoir Van Gogh BUNDLE from Magic Spells for Teachers
Life Beyond the Lesson Plan: Monet
Kitchen Table Classroom: Monet
Table Life Blog: Monet
Peanut Butter Fish Lessons: Monet
Monet Projects for Kids by Artsy Craftsy Mom
Make a Monet by Kinder Art
Artist Notebooking Page from Homeschool Helper Online
Monet Notebook Page: Intimate Impressionism from Harmony Fine Arts
Water Lily Pond Monet Art Lesson from Making Art Fun
Renoir Art Project for Kids from Teach Beside Me
Montessori Inspired Renoir Printables and Activities from Welcome to Mommyhood
Mary Cassatt – A Charlotte Mason Picture Study by Art Curator for Kids
Fun Mary Cassatt Art Projects for Kids by Happy Homeschool Nest
Edgar Degas for Kids- Printable Resources and Books from Kitchen Table Classroom

We like to narrate and notebook with these pages:

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Homeschool Space in Germany

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August 11, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We went from having a whole finished basement in Utah for school space to a little office in our new townhouse in Germany.

We’re about to get real.

This is not some Pottery Barn catalog. We don’t have the luxury of having the nicest furniture to last years and years and stay in one place forever. We don’t get to do fun DIY projects on Pinterest with reclaimed barn wood or pallets because all that would get destroyed in our many moves around the world.

We prefer to invest in travel and experiences than things.

But I need, love, want BOOKS.

One wall houses our bookcases.

Tori and Kate have their desks along another wall and on the opposite wall is Alex’s desk.

Alex loves his All About Reading board and the calendar.

One of the closets we are provided holds our sensory bins and some other school items in bins.

Our open shelf has other manipulatives.

The sensory table is in front. Yes, totally blocking the closet. That’s the plan to keep little fingers out.

In the upstairs landing, I put the art table and supplies. It’s a round dining table I got at a yard sale and it fits perfectly. I also recently scored a lovely Lane chest for $50 to store paper! You can see the round table in last year’s learning spaces post. I still want to paint the top.

Liz typically does her school work on the sofa…

Tori and Kate have a bookcase in their room with chapter books and historical fiction.

Alex has a bookcase in his room with picture books and early readers.

Liz has a bookcase in her room with sci-fi, historical fiction, and her Civil Air Patrol items.

Update: Still working for us after a year!

You might also like:

Homeschool Space in Ohio
Homeschool Space in Texas
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Homeschool Space in Utah

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Our Curriculum for 2014-2015

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August 4, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

It’s that time again. Back to school. And since we pretty much “do school” year-round, it’s rather anticlimactic around here.

We’re still finishing up some history and math before we’re able to move on to a new year’s curriculum. Liz has quite a lot of catching up to do with history, science, and Latin before moving on.

But when we complete “last year’s” work, here’s what we’re beginning!

Tapestry of Grace Year 4 is our core curriculum. Year 4 is contemporary history…and we’ve never really done this year in the history cycle since I couldn’t bring myself to teach WWII when my eldest was little. Since we live in Germany, I can’t pass up this chance to really teach it like few children chance to learn.

Tapestry of Grace encompasses history, geography, arts and crafts, and literature. There are writing assignments and lots of notebooking. It’s a great Charlotte Mason/classical curriculum and we all love the reading lists of living books – most of which I’ve never heard of before on the lower three levels. There are four learning levels – lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. Tori and Kate are doing some of both grammar levels and Liz is solid dialectic, but she’s beginning to read some of the rhetoric literature.

Tori and Kate are doing Singapore math 3. Liz is still doing Videotext Algebra. We all love Life of Fred math as read alouds.

Alex just completed All About Reading Level 1 and is beginning Level 2. He is doing some living math and random workbooks.

Tori and Kate are still working through Logic of English. We all love it! It’s slow going – often, 1 lesson takes 2 weeks – but they’re really learning all the nuances of English, spelling, reading, grammar, and writing.

Tori and Kate are going to start work in Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology – and Alex will listen and observe – and participate when he likes. Liz is moving into Exploring Creation with Biology!

The girls are all learning German, French, and Latin. Alex picks up some and loves language!

For Bible, we are continuing with the Apologia What We Believe series and other random readings I come across that I like. We’re also working on thankful journals.

This mama needs to prioritize and pick back up that prayer journal and get up earlier to do Bible study and devotional to prepare for the day. I need an empty lap and empty hands to nurture little hearts.

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