Beyond Co-op - Skylark #1

We've started our final book of the year - Skylark.  This is a fun follow-up to the book we read at the beginning of the year, Sarah Plain and Tall.  We have had a slow start (personally) so we are playing catch-up a bit in our home lessons, which is fine with me.  I love that this is a flexible curriculum and that the order of things we are learning is not so much of an issue.  It allows us to take breaks when we need them and use the curriculum as it best suits our family.  I don't want to be a slave to a curriculum, no matter how good it may be.  

One of our first co-op lessons was on the Dust Bowl.  What a difficult period of time for our country.  And one of the challenging aspects is that many people who weren't living in that area really had no idea of how difficult it was for the people there.  The entire country was working through the Depression.  

 Some of the resources used.  We also watched documentary called Surviving the Dust Bowl featuring interviews of people who lived during that time amidst many pictures.  Many told stories that were challenging and some were just very sad!  It is important to understand though and learn from the past so that hopefully we will know how to make better choices for the future as well as gain empathy for those facing challenges that are beyond their control.

 The second part of our day was spent in learning more about art, colors and the color wheel.

 We had lessons on color mixing, analogous colors and complementary colors.  While learning, each of the children made their own color wheel.

  I wondered if the color mixing would prove to be a challenge for my boys, but they both did a great job.  (They both have some degree of color-blindness.)

 They used acrylic paints and took great care to get the colors in the right places.

 Does watching your child paint ever make you want to try it yourself?  I know it does me.  Last week we did more painting and I decided to give it a try too.  It was fun!  Its something we  need to do more often.

 They worked on the warm colors mainly today in terms of mixing to show the shades of a color.

 This was a neat tip in learning to paint shadows.  Use the two main colors to create a shadow that works with those colors.

For example, the shade to the right is the "shadow" color created by mixing yellow and purple.  The children mixed the complementary colors to find the good shadow colors.  

Finished wheel.  Doesn't it look great?!

 Can you guess what we had for a snack?  Bet you can't - even with a picture.  LOL

Bison burgers.  They were delicious too.  Not pictured is a fun ice cream treat that they also had to go along with it.  As always a fun day and a great way to learn!  I'm so thankful to be a part of this group!

Blessings
Leslie