"Just as, in written poetry, it is not the way the words are put together that counts, but the mystery of creation that gives, or does not give, an emotion...so with colors, it is poetry and the mystery of an inner life that emerges, radiates and communicates. On that basis, we can freely create a new language." ~Sonia Delaunay Ukrainian-born, Sonia Delaunay used her amazing artistic talents and her love of color to not only create brilliant artwork, but she also created avant garde clothing. She integrated her love of color, into art, into fashion and textiles, and into a new movement in art, called Orphism. Oddly enough, this new movement was coined after Sonia had made a patchwork quilt using pieces of fabric like those she had seen in the houses of Ukrainian peasants for her newborn son. Isn't that how real life is for us as homeschooling moms as well? Maybe we aren't creating artwork or fashion that leads to us having our own exhibit at the Louvre; however, we are constantly integrating the concepts that we teach our children and showing them how life and learning go hand in hand on a daily basis. So, what are some easy go-to strategies that we can use to help our students integrate what they're studying? 1. Use a topic wheel A topic wheel is simply one circle drawn in the center and other circles drawn around it. Here's a visual example from classical conversations.com You can write any topic in the center and then have your student(s) discuss ways in which the central topic has to do with smaller circles. As you know, our family is part of a Classical Conversations co-op community. The topic wheel works brilliantly when you let the other strand (subjects) serve as your smaller outside circles. For instance, in Challenge B students read The Phantom Tollbooth. This could be put in the center circle. Then write the different strands on the outside circles and discuss with your student what connections they saw throughout the story to the other strands.
2. Rethink your child's assignments Often times as our kids get older and finish reading a book, we'll ask them to write a paper about it. Writing a paper is certainly a valuable skill for our kids to learn; however, what if once in awhile we had them show us what they gleaned from a book in another way. If you have an artistic student, have them draw a timeline of the events that took place in the book instead. Then pick a few events and ask them how that particular event effected the main character or how that event helped to move the story along. You could also focus on the time period in which the story was written by writing down several historical events that were taking place at the same time the author wrote the book. Then, have your student pick one of those events to research. Ask them what connections they are making as they read about the event and read their literature book. 3. Use Morning Time resources If you already incorporate Morning Time into your daily routine, this is a perfect place to help your kids integrate learning. For instance, let's imagine that you are introducing your kids to Sonia Delauney's artwork. You could have them observe one of her art piece's and then ask them questions such as:
What ways do you integrate learning for your students? We'd love to hear your ideas.
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Last year, I worked on a little project...writing a Morning Time curriculum that I could use with my kids. As my kids have gotten older and become more independent, I still wanted to be able to connect with them to study the beauty subjects together.
The problem that I was running into was that there weren't a lot of options out there that exposed my kids to poets, artists and composers from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. That was a very important goal in our home. When I think of what heaven is going to be like, I know that I won't look around and see only people that look like I do. It's important to me that the "greats" that my kids are exposed to are a reflection of the kingdom of God, which is very diverse, my friends. I test piloted my Morning Time curriculum to my own homeschool co-op families last year and also used it in my own home. I've gotten feedback and been able to tweak it to hopefully be even better! I'm so excited to share it with a wider circle this August. I have three options of my digital curriculum available: a middle school version, an early high school version and a late high school version. I can't wait for you to see all three version. I've given you a sneak peak of the middle school version above. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have! Let me know if you have any questions at all. Feel free to head on over to my products page to see samples from the Middle School and Early High School versions. If you like what you see, you can purchase the digital curriculum there too! |
AuthorThanks so much for visiting. I'm Heather. I'm a wife, mother and educator who loves trying to make beauty of the life around me. Archives
July 2022
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