Here’s a little look at our “row” of Mirette on the High Wire.  Printables are from HomeschoolShare or EnchantedLearning.  Here’s the inside of our lapbook.  We still need to add in some photos, but otherwise, all the projects are here.

Life Skills – Chores/Cooking

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get photos of any of this.   The first day, Autumn learned how to make an omelet!  We had fun and we each got our own yummy omelet.  I think I need to get her to make them again for breakfast tomorrow – yum!

Mirette’s mother is a boardinghouse keeper and Mirette spends most of her time doing chores to help her mother.  Autumn tried lots of chores Mirette does in the book, including scrubbing floors, washing windows, chopping vegetables, washing sheets, etc. She decided that running a boardinghouse would be too much work.  I agree!

Eiffel Tower

This was visit number four to France with five in a row, so we decided to focus on the Eiffel Tower instead of the broad look at geography/culture we usually do.  We watched The History Channel’s The Eiffel Tower movie on Netflix streaming while Autumn practiced taking notes.  Then she narrated her version of the history for this report.

Vocab, Drama, French Words

We have been making drama cards for each unit, since Autumn so enjoys acting out the stories. Vocabulary cards and French color word cards are from HomeschoolShare.

Geography – Bellini’s Career, Circle Map

We pulled out Autumn’s new globe (the main thing she wanted for her birthday) to trace the career of Bellini the high wire walker all over the world.  We marked each place mentioned on the map.

I’ve seen this idea for “me on a map” all over the internet, but adapted it to our book.  We have been studying the continents in geography, but Autumn has a hard time with getting continents and countries mixed up.  This helped her with the concept – the continents fit in the planet, the countries into the continents, the city into the country, etc. We may add this as an element for upcoming units as well.

Character/Bible

Our topics this unit were “practice makes perfect” and boasting.  Both printables were from HomeschoolShare.  The practice makes perfect mini is a cool pull tab that Autumn wrote on, adding a list of things at which she wants to excel.  Love that there are lots of school things on there.

Language Arts – Compound Words

Autumn loved learning about compound words, especially since it involved a timer!  We used the printables from HomeschoolShare and played a game to see how fast she could match them up. Forty-three seconds!

Art – Complimentary Colors

The coolest part about this activity, was the fact that we got to pull out our Papa Piccolo lapbook and use the color wheel we made in our last unit to figure out which colors are complimentary.  Love it when the learning builds like this, especially when you are not doing the units in order!

Science – Ears/Balance

Delightful Learning (one of my favorite homeschool blogs) used experiments on balance from Usborne Science Activities Vol. 3, so I ordered it from the library.  My mom and little sister were in town (helping me out while I had surgery), so Autumn and Miriam got to do these projects together. Glitter in a jar of water to show how we get dizzy…

Feeling the vibrations as you talk against a balloon…

Diagram of inside of ear, finding the parts that help with balance.

Art – Renoir

We did Renoir for this unit.  We read Mike Venezia’s book and then did an activity from Discovering Great Artists.  Autumn collected various items from the yard and the house and arranged her own still-life and painted her impression of it.

I had never read this story until we started studying it.  What a sweet picture book!  We used lots of printable resources from HomeschoolShare and Enchanted Learning for this lapbook, as well as lots of ideas that other homeschoolers shared online. Here are pictures of part of the inside of our lapbook.  (And yes, I just noticed one of Autumn’s beloved chick-fil-a sauce tubs made it into one of those pics!  lol.)

And now, in no particular order, some of the things we studied:

Science: Salt Crystals

In Venice: Birth of a City we learned how Venice began and gained wealth based on the salt harvested from the seawater marshes.  So we made salt crystals!  I was surprised by just how easy this was and how much A enjoyed it. We made several colors.

Art: Michelangelo

After reading about Michelangelo, we did an activity from Discovering Great Artists.  Autumn did some “ceiling painting” using paper taped to the bottom of a card table.  She decided that this would have been a horrible job and that she does NOT like painting upside down at all.  (Gotta love the concentration though – watch that tongue!)

Social Studies: Venice

We read about Venice and also watched an A&E video on netflix streaming about the Canals of Venice.  Autumn colored this little mini-book, and we used it to record her narration of the history of the city.

Art: Drawing Cats

A google image search led to a kid’s tutorial for drawing cats.   Autumn drew TONS of them and then added Piccolo, Marco, and Polo to her lapbook.

Science: Eyes, Peripheral Vision

In the book, Piccolo sees the kittens as a blur from the “corner of his eye” so we used this as a jumping off point for discussion of peripheral vision.  We did a few activities related to this, as well as reading about how the eye works and identifying various parts.  (more on this later)

Language: Italian Words

Autumn had fun learning new words for colors, family members, numbers, etc. with this mini book.  Then we printed out a picture dictionary which she has enjoyed coloring.  She loves finding words in it, so we’ve used it to work on the most basic of dictionary skills as well.

The Fox and the Grapes

This fable is illustrated by Piccolo’s actions at one point in the story.  Autumn leaned the fable and moral and then colored the front of this mini book.  In our geography book, she was learning about volcanoes the day we did this lesson. Later, as I was gluing this into the book, I cracked up as I noticed that she had turned the background mountains into volcanoes.

Drama Cards

Autumn enjoyed this activity so much, that it may be one we add to other units.  Each card lists a different action word or phrase drawn from the story.  I read them aloud, and she acts them out.  Great entertainment!

Gondolas and Gondoliers 

Autumn made this little gondola from a Crayola coloring page online.  Then made her own gondolier and several little cats as well (which I couldn’t find for the picture), so that she can play out the Piccolo story.

Language Arts: Vocabulary

We used vocabulary words from the story, as well as others we added from our rabbit trails.  Autumn illustrated each card.

Science: Cat Eyes

Using online resources, we read about the differences between cat and human eyes and then made a little flip book.  Autumn wrote most of it out herself, with a little help towards the end.

Geography: Italian Map Activities

Another printable activity sheet.  She identified various points on a map and colored accordingly.

History: Marco Polo

We found another animated video on YouTube which Autumn watched.  We then read a bit about Marco Polo and wrote a little report using notebooking pages from HomeschoolShare.

Art: Color Wheel

We both enjoyed making our own color wheels using watercolors. It’s fun to watch her do “magic tricks” changing the colors by mixing them.

Pussy Cat

Autumn memorized the classic nursery rhyme for this little mini.

Big Project – Eyeball Dissection!

I am forever grateful to have in-laws near by who can handle more of the gross science stuff than I can!  Autumn and her Aunt Miriam had a great day out with Autumn’s “Pop,” taking apart an eyeball.  (And I stayed far away!)

Monday: B) GF waffles L) leftovers D) vegetable omelet (Autumn is making these to go along with what we are studying in school)

Tuesday: B) leftover waffles L) bean soup (from freezer) D) roasted spaghetti squash and marinara

Wednesday: B) smoothies L) soup (batch cook) D) chicken satay, veggies

Thursday: B) cereal or oatmeal L) leftover soup D) out or baked chicken and veggies

Friday: B) cereal or oatmeal L) chicken tacos D) leftovers

Saturday: B) eggs and bacon L) taco salad D) roasted sweet potatoes

Going for simple this week.  I’m going to try to batch cook breakfasts and lunches on Monday to last through another busy week. We lost our chest freezer over the weekend , so will be cooking a bunch of things from the freezer, too.

Monday: B – breakfast burritos (make extra for freezer) L – leftover BBQ, salad D – pasta with homemade pesto and sauteed squash (make white bean and kale soup for week)

Tuesday: B – strawberry smoothies L – soup D – crockpot roast beef with baby potatoes, carrots, celery, onions

Wednesday: B – breakfast burrito L – soup D – salad with chicken or leftover beef

Thursday: B – strawberry smoothie L – out D – tacos/ taco salad with leftover roast

Friday: B – breakfast burrito L – roasted sweet potatoes or veggies (using farmer’s market produce) D – GF pizza with onion and swiss chard

Saturday: B – strawberry smoothies L – leftovers D – chicken satay on the grill with homemade peanut sauce and grilled vegetable skewers

I’ll admit that I wasn’t super enthused about this unit, but it ended up being really fun.  And I got to hand off field-trip duty to my father-in-law who loves planes!

Geography: We started off locating the English Channel on our world map and Autumn’s new globe.  Then we did a little review on France (which we had studied before with Madeline).  Autumn colored the flags of France and England, did a French flag activity, and traced Bleriot’s route across the channel. We also made gluten free crepes to eat.  Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I could get pictures of the finished product, but they were good!

Science: We’re working through a butterfly/insect unit at co-op right now as well as continuing Beginning Geography at home.  For The Glorious Flight, we made paper airplanes!  Autumn folded the first one, but then she was done.  She told me which ones to make though. Autumn practiced her Roman Numerals in naming the planes and we drew an “English Channel” with French and English coastlines on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. A paper ship is in the channel to rescue downed planes.  Autumn also made popsicle stick spectators, but I don’t think those really show up in the pictures.

We made lots of different types of airplanes and had contests to see which kind of plane flew the best and what the best way was to throw them.

Language Arts: For language arts we did a little onomatopoeia book using examples from Glorious Flight, a book of airplane vocabulary words, and a descriptive phrase activity.

I especially loved the descriptive phrase exercise.  Autumn needed to write several short phrases describing anything she wanted to.  She didn’t have to make a poem, but…

“Sweet, yummy, mushy

Dried-up treat

Put in a box

For people to eat.”

Raisins, of course.

Math: In addition to Math-U-See, we did some work on Roman Numerals and Ordinal Numbers drawn from our book.  We checked out a couple books on Roman Numerals from the library, and Autumn caught on really fast!  We did a couple ordinal numbers projects, one a printed mini-book from homeschoolshare.com and the other was listing the different courses of a fancy French meal, along with illustrations.

Bible/Character:

Autumn made a mini about the concept of restitution – as displayed in The Glorious Flight and the Bible.  We also talked about the spirit of invention and how inventors display determination and dedication as they try, try, and try again.  Autumn did some copywork from II Chronicles on this topic.  She also watched a video about Edison and his many attempts to make the light bulb.

Art: This time we read about Monet and the impressionists.  Autumn did a fun painting activity dabbling in watercolors to create impressions of things she saw.  Then she made this one, imitating the bridge in Monet’s water garden, but adding a person walking over it and a setting sun.

History: We, of course, studied Louis Bleriot, the subject of The Glorious Flight.  We also read about the Wright Brothers in several books and found an animated movie about them as well.  Our library had a documentary on the history of flight, that she watched the majority of. Autumn dictated what she learned about the Wright Brothers for a notebooking activity as well.

Field Trip: I’m super happy to have in-laws close by!  Especially when it means I don’t have to spend all day at the Aviation Museum. Airplanes just are NOT my thing…Autumn had a blast though.  She got to see lots of things we had been studying, got to fill out her plane part ID book, and even got to ride in a real flight simulator.

Most of the printables here can be found at HomeschoolShare.  Thanks to Creekside Learning for the English Channel idea!

Will fall ever slow down???  There is NO TIME for anything right now.  With that said, it’s another simple menu plan.  And let’s try for the moment to ignore all the dishes that need to be made for the fair and the farmer’s market this week!

Monday: L) roasted sweet potatoes D) chicken satay with peanut sauce

Tuesday: L) chicken salad, with fresh vegetables D) crockpot chili

Wednesday: L) leftover chili D) quiche and salad

Thursday: L) lentil soup and homemade oatmeal bread D) crockpot orange dijon pork chops, salad

Friday: L) tomato basil soup with homemade bread D) leftovers

Saturday: FAIR

Monday

L) leftovers D) pumpkin soup, kale

Tuesday

L) lentil soup and salad D) squash casserole

Wednesday

L) leftovers D) chicken piccata (make double batch for freezer)

Thursday

L) leftovers D) chicken divan (make double batch for freezer), chard salad

Friday

L) tomato soup, toast D) chicken satay with peanut sauce (marinate extra for freezer) and stir-fried veggies

Saturday

L) leftovers D) baptism party – out!

Here is my method.

1. Pick a bucket full of basil and wash thoroughly.  Then take a picture because it is pretty.  If you are using spinach, you can use an amount equal to the amount of basil.  I find that the spinach doesn’t really change the flavor of the pesto much, but it makes the pesto stay green better in the freezer as well as (obviously) increasing yield.

2. Gather up the rest of your supplies.  You will need:

EVOO

Nuts of some kind (Pine nuts are too expensive, so I use what I have.  I’ve used walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.  You can also add in some sunflower or pumpkin seeds, though I use them sparingly.)

Fresh Garlic

Fresh Lemons

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Fresh Baby Spinach (optional)

You will also need Parmesan cheese, but not yet

3. Roast Garlic and Toast Nuts

Cook the nuts in a single layer until they just start to get crisp and golden, but be careful because it’s easy to overcook them.

Cut the tops off the garlic, just exposing the top of each clove. Then place in a baking pan and drizzle over the top with EVOO. Roast at 400-450 until golden and the cloves are beginning to pop out of the top.  Pull out of oven and let cool.  Then you should be able to just pop the cloves right out of the paper. Super easy.

4. Start throwing things in the food processor. I fill the bowl with spinach and basil, add some garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt and pepper and then start the machine.  Pour EVOO into the food processor slowly until it all blends up evenly.  When smooth, use a spatula to scrape the pesto into a big bowl.

5. Do this about a million more times.  Keep adding batches to the big bowl. You don’t have to worry that every batch has the same amount of all the ingredients because once everything has gone through the blender, you want to stir it up and taste it.

6. Adjust seasoning. Add whatever you need to taste.  The flavor will be strong because a little bit goes a long way.  So it’s not a big deal if it tastes a little too salty or peppery.

7. Run it all through the food processor again.  This will help make sure that everything is incorporated evenly and will hopefully make it nice and smooth.

8. Fill Jars. Or whatever freezer containers you are using.  I LOVE tiny little four-ounce jelly jars for this.  One tiny jar will actually make a lot of pasta!  We love to add the pesto to other things: instead of mayo on grilled sandwiches, to flavor roasted meat or veggies, etc.

9. Label and Freeze. Make sure to include the date.

10. Use. When you are ready to use, make sure to add Parmesan cheese to taste.  And if you are using it on pasta, reserve the starchy cooking water and add a cup to your pasta when tossing with the pesto and cheese.  So yummy!

Well, we’re so busy this week that at best, we are going to be home for dinner one time. The fall schedule is officially out of control.

Breakfasts: smoothies, toast, oatmeal, waffles

Monday

Lunch – vegetable soup, baby green salad

Dinner – roasted chicken and veggies, brown rice

Extra – Bake cakes for tomorrow, make salad for tomorrow

Tuesday

Lunch – quiche and salad

Dinner – Soccer award night, order GF pizza, birthday cake/cupcakes

Wednesday

Lunch – egg sandwiches, veggie dippers

Dinner –  CFA event

Thursday

Lunch – PB&J, veggie dippers

Dinner – birthday dinner

Friday

Lunch – leftovers

Dinner – book group dinner

Our core curriculum, Five In A Row, includes lots of art techniques and activities that go along with the children’s books we read, but I wanted to do more with the masters.  So we are adding in an artist or two (or more) that go along with the country we study for each unit of FIAR.

We check out a lot of books from the library but, Mike Venezia’s Getting To Know the World’s Greatest Artists series are by far my favorites for learning about the artists.  Autumn not only understands them completely, but she also reads at least part of each book aloud to me.  Yet, these books are not overly simplified.  I’m learning a lot. So is she. (This author also has a series on composers, another on inventors, and yet another on presidents!)

For activities, we discovered Discovering Great Artists by Mary Anne Kohl and Kim Solga. I’ve gotta tell you, I may be in love with this book.  It’s just so much FUN!  We’re loving every minute of it.  While the Venezia books teach you about the artists, this book teaches about their techniques and is super kid-friendly.  The activities are interesting and relevant, but generally don’t use any materials that you wouldn’t already have on hand.  I’m so happy with this book, that I’m planning of teaching a class based on it for our local homeschool co-op next semester.

Artists are sorted by the time they lived, the type of art they made, what you need for the activities, etc.  The only thing I wish was included is an index of what country each artist is originally from, as that would help with the way we are choosing people to study.  But I guess that’s what the internet is for.

Speaking of the internet, we’re also using the web for art.  While I would love to be able to see the artist’s works in real life, most of the time that’s just not possible since we live in the middle of nowhere when it comes to museums.  So the internet is extremely helpful to see additional pieces that are not in the books we read. You may want to check out this blog as well: Holly’s Arts and Crafts Corner.

At some point this year, I would like to make a special field trip visit to The High again.  Matt and I loved spending a day there before, and I’m hopeful that after spending so much time learning about them, Autumn will be able to appreciate the works and not be bored.