Titanic at Night

I thought it would be fun to do some art activities that took place at night.  Working on black paper gives different effects but we don't do it very often.

I took this coloring page at Kids-n-fun and redrew a simplified version on to black paper.

Titanic at Night

I cut a sponge into a star shape and glued it on to a cork.  Keeping my Toddler entertained did a blog post about her button stamps that gave me the idea for this.

Then I gave younger Toad his paint which included iridescent medium.  It's the best thing ever because it makes all your paint shimmery.  The boys went through a phase where they refused to paint without it.  The picture above is his interpretation of the project.  He had colored pencils and a paint brush too.

For older Toad, I took one of his premade books and glued black paper to the front.  On the back I glued his ticket from the exhibition.  I talked about the exhibition in my first Titanic activities post here.  I gave him our box of Prismacolors and asked him to do a drawing of the Titanic hitting the iceberg.  I said the project as a whole was to describe his experiences the night the Titanic sank from the perspective of Nils  Odahl.  Mr. Odahl is the passenger that he was assigned for the exhibition.  Then he chose to fill one whole side of the book with a drawing of the Titanic with its lifeboats being lowered.

On the other side he wrote his story.  It said:
The night was quiet.  Suddenly the Titanic crashed into an iceberg.  Just before the Titanic sank it split in two.  The bow sank right away.  The stern bobbed for a few seconds then sank.  The Titanic was gone.  Survivors huddled in lifeboats.  Around 3:30 AM a signal rocket streaked the sky.  Mr. Nils sank in the disaster.

  
To focus on the good things about this story - Older Toad's handwriting is soooo much better.  It's great that it's legible.  His spelling is awesome.  Now I have to interject as the nitpicky teacher and detective of all things curriculum.  We've been using All About Spelling as our spelling curriculum.  I've been really pleased with it and have continued to use the lessons in order thinking learning each spelling rule would give him a good foundation.  Which after doing this story I think I need to reevaluate.  Toad's become a cautious speller.  He wants to confirm every letter before he commits it to paper.  If you press him he will spell every word orally fine.  I think I'm stifling his writing by focusing on the handwriting and spelling.  

During this story I told him he spells great and needs to be more confident and just write it down.  I told him I'd help him with his spelling after he was done but I'm sure he'd spell everything right.  Starting with ...Survivors and ending with..sky, rather than try and spell he got out one of the Titanic books we've been reading to confirm the spelling of the words since I said I wasn't helping him until the end.  Coincidentally, those two sentences in his story sure sounded exactly like the ones in the book.  When we read his story together at the end, we had a talk about what plagiarism is and why it's bad.

Moving forward on our creative writing journey I think I need to jump ahead in the All About Spelling curriculum so he's being pushed more.  If he's being pushed he'll make some mistakes and correct them, and see it's all okay and part of learning. I'm also going to get the Grammar Island curriculum from Royal Fireworks Press.  I've heard good things about it and I think focusing on aspects of writing more than mechanics at this time would give him more opportunities for creativity.  I'm hoping it'll help him see his story as a large work of art rather than focusing on the minutia of each letter.



 
 
 

Iridescent Medium 2.5 oz. When mixed with watercolor, this medium gives an iridescent, glittery effect.

Premier Colored Pencil Sets set of 36 These soft, thick lead pencils have been enhanced with a better bonding process, providing professional, artist quality color while resisting breakage. They provide high blendability, excellent lightfastness, and a smooth laydown that will not scratch.Unmatched in brilliance, Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils are perfect for illustration, renderings, landscape, and portraiture. The pencils are non-toxic, AP certified, and do not contain rainforest wood.

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Sharing All About Spelling and Life of Fred

While my nephew was here, I did slip away one evening for our local homeschool association monthly meeting.  It was the annual curriculum showcase night and I volunteered to bring All About Spelling and Life of Fred which had not been shown before.  This is our second year using both these programs and here are my pros and cons.

All About Spelling:

• It's easy to modify every lesson.  Each lesson has multiple components, if we're struggling with an issue we may do all components over one or more days.  Conversely, it's super easy to abbreviate a lesson to not overwhelm a short attention span.

• It's multi-sensory.  Each lesson has components that are heard, said, moved and written so it works great for sensory learners.

• It builds on previous work.  We started with book one, which was below Older Toad's spelling level but learning the rules from the get go allows us to refer back to them if we run in to trouble.

• It's a stand alone spelling program.  We have no issues with reading.  Many programs for early elementary are combined.  Toad just needs to work on his spelling.

• On the downside, it feels expensive for what it is.  It's hard to find used so it's a given expense.  Also, since it has many components, you'll need to find a way to store all the parts so nothing gets lost.

Life of Fred:

We started homeschooling with Math U See.  After one week, Toad said, "I hate math."  Toad loves math so I knew I'd made a mistake.  I bought Math U See because it was similar to the Cuisenaire rods we'd used for preschool.  I struggled for several months with what to do and then found Life of Fred.

• It's a narrative based, contextual math program.  There are no pages of worksheets that don't seem to apply to anything. 

• It's funny.  I actually have a two chapter a day rule.  Toad would read the whole book in one sitting if I let him.

• The lesson lengths are just right.

• It's more about math concepts than rote memorization.

• It's durable and you don't work in the book so you can pass them on or resell them easily.

• Which is also it's downside, sort of.  Every kid needs more or less help with something and you'll need to supplement in areas that are giving you trouble.  If you need all the curriculum laid out for you and really need to stick to the plan, this may not be for you.  It could still make a nice supplement but couldn't be your spine.  I do supplement.

* I did not receive any compensation, in kind or paid, for this review.  These are my opinions based on curriculum we've used.