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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

A Child's History of Art - Hillyer

Okay, I NEED the book "A Child's History of Art."

You know, in the same way I NEED every other book. :)

But I really know nothing of studying art. I'm just learning, and really don't know where to begin to teach my kids... well, okay I could start out where I start researching any subject known to man - google.com. I actually have already done that... but I love books best! And this seems like a subject you should read from a book about, not off the computer screen.

That said, I've been all over the internet looking for this book cheaper than $30. Everything I can find is either that expensive, in bad shape and really old, or more expensive, in bad shape and really old. So, I finally found a copy for $15! woohoo! Trouble is there was no description other than Child's History of Art, and there are several books with the same title but with different subtitles meaning they are actually only a part of the book (CHOW: Architecture & CHOW: Painting, for example). So, I went searching to figure out why this copy of the book was only $15 when I kept finding books that were upwards of $70!

Well, when I was searching I found it! There's a copy free online! Jackpot!

Now, why didn't anyone tell me this before I spent all this time searching?!


Without further ado... please go here and print yourself a copy too!
***Apparently, this book has been removed from archive.org.  
I'm thinking it's probably because of copyright issues...  I'm sorry about that.***



A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer


I just made my own day! :)

Amy

PS. You can buy the book for around $25 at amazon.com or alibris.com
There is also a full course based on the text (includes the text) offered by Calvert School HERE.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Artist Study: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

Our Artist Study for this term is, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840).

Our favorites of the selections from his work are:

The Wanderer Above the Mists

and


Woman at the Window


Here's a page with more of his works and a link to his biography on wiki.

We're REALLY enjoying Artist study this term because we're finally actually doing it! In previous terms and years I'd print off the AO selections of the artist's different works but we rarely did anything formal, just took them out once in awhile. But this time it's on the schedule.
I took the files to the photo store and they printed them off as 4x6 photos. I'm going to get 8x10s of the ones above and maybe get them framed and find a permanent place in the house for them.

This is one of the subjects that adds a lighter element to our day and the kids probably enjoy it almost as much as I do ;)

In my imagination, I think the woman is waiting for her Wanderer to find her. The man is searching the world over for his Woman who will always wait in the window for him :)

Amy

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Nature Study

An American Sparrow-Hawk paid us a visit this week WHILE we were doing nature study! What beautiful timing the Lord has!



As the kids and I were sitting reading in Handbook of Nature Study by Ann Comstock, the kids decided we'd learn about reptiles. After all, just last week they brought home a 10+ foot skin of a Montona snake from the Amazon regions of our jungle. So, we read the whole section on snakes. EEEUWWWW! I do NOT like snakes. But I find reading about them in a book a thousand times more pleasant than studying the live version, let me assure you!

Just as we were finishing up the section, a spotted sparrow hawk landed on our brick wall. It was there just for a few minutes, and I could not be dissuaded from attempting to retrieve my camera to get a permanent record of our welcome and admired guest... however he would not be persuaded to sit still for the photo and promptly left. Sad. Oh well, we will not soon forget him.

Then, as Science/Nature Study was on our schedule for Mondays, we finished our reading in the morning and then had a time-slot for an hour in our city's Botanical Garden in the afternoon. We witnessed them feeding the pigeons (they have several nests where they breed them, and harvest their eggs... they eat them!). We got up and close to the llama, but mostly just really enjoyed the pigeons. We proceeded to read the section in HNS on pigeons and answer the questions. All of us formed a relationship as Charlotte would say, with pigeons... which was a huge gain. I will post photos later on...

Amy


What a pleasure Nature study was for us this week!
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