Addendum to this Week's Studies

Three of the kids and I entered photos in the Old World Wisconsin photo contest. Though we didn't win anything, we did attend the little reception where all of the photos were laid out on tables (and the winners framed on the walls). There were about 600 photos in all and the very nice judge enjoyed chatting with everyone about their photos - especially the kids. It was an interesting and unique learning experience!

Family Learning This Week

I'm thinking of trying to get back to updating this blog more often with general and informal things we're learning together - beyond the math and Latin lists and such. Here's what our week has looked like so far:

Monday:

Ria and I went on a homeschool group trip to the Art Institute in Chicago (and a brief visit to Holy Name Cathedral). Ria and her one fellow Greek student who was also on the trip had fun attempting to read the signature label on an El Greco painting. John stayed home with the kids who covered their basics and did some fun science stuff on light and color (involving a spinning paper wheel on a motor).

Tuesday:

Read a great deal of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight aloud. Had a lot of fun identifying the alliteration in various lines.

Wednesday:

Ria got two hours of make-up time in for her art class. She's working on a concentration piece relating to Ancient Greece.

Watched "Teddy Tucker: Adventure in My Life" (Documentary about an Underwater Archaeologist)

Ria and Gus watched an lecture from the T.C.'s Classical Archaeology of Greece and Rome on Greek Pottery as a follow-up to our visit to the Art Institute of Chicago (which had a wonderful collection of Greek Pottery).

Note: Have to share that on Sunday John and the kids were playing a travel/geography game from National Geographic. Gus got a pretty tough question: "In Norway, what female author will you find on the 200-krone banknote?" Thanks to the Chesterton Conference, he didn't even need the four options given before giving a rather educated guess that was correct: Sigrid Undset. :)

Lots of Art

I haven't managed to add it to all of the individual days, so I thought I'd post on it separately... Gus, Terri and Bernie have been working very diligently on their Illuminated Ink coloring contest page. They've been working on these for many, many hours with quite good results so far (I think!) due to inspiration from the Winner's Gallery and some helpful tips (particularly in the areas of shading and gradation - which had plentiful examples in the previously-mentioned Winner's Gallery) that Ria brought home from her art class.