Picture Study:Noah's Ark

Been slackin' again. We have not done much "school work" other than just the basics. We picked back up this past Thursday. We suspended doing the rest of our unit on the senses, but will pick up the rest later on. I did a picture study with Lillie Anna for the first time. This is one aspect of the Charlotte Mason Method. Ms. Mason suggested starting formal picture study at age six. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with introducing little ones under six to beautiful works of art. Picture study increases a child's power of observation as well as gives them an appreciation of the contributions that artists have made to our world. Now, in every medium of art or creative expression, there is good and bad. Music, art, literature, media etc. As a parent, you must choose only the best of these things to expose your children to. Charlotte Mason really "got" this.
Anyway, Garden of Praise is a wonderful resource and they provide picture study resources that are very Charlotte Mason-y. They chose "Noah's Ark" by Edward Hicks as their study but I went and googled some more of his works, chose two more, and will have Lillie "study" each one. We began with "Noah's Ark". Garden of Praise provides a list of questions to ask the student about each painting, but these questions were geared towards children older than Lillie, so I made up my own questions to ask her. Such as, what animals do you see? What colors? What animal isn't walking into the ark? What does the weather look like? What do you like about this picture? What do you not like? You could make up your own questions, anything to get them stimutlated and interested in looking at the picture. Then, I let Lillie Anna listen to an audio reading of Noah's Ark off the Garden of Praise site. Another resource they have is audio readings of many and most of the well known bible stories. After listening to it, I asked Lillie to tell me all she had learned about Noah from the story. We then talked about obedience to God and parents (had to get that in) how it is important to listen to God's voice, and how you can trust God to lead you in the right path. After the picture study, I read her a short bio of Hicks and let her paste his picture and a small printout of the picture we studied on an artist profile notebooking page I got off Homeschooling with Index Cards (another great resource).

We played a counting file folder game with a Noah's ark theme that I got off Christian Preschool Printables.

Lillie continued working on reading her "Autumn Fires" poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and did some addition practice. She is now where she can do the process by herself, though I still watch her and listen to ensure she's doing all correctly.
What was Jackson doing at this time? Between playing with his cars and begging for something to drink, he played with his magnet board (that's cheapo mother who doesn't want to seem cheapo lingo for discarded cookie sheet with dollar alphabet and number magnets) I bought Lillie Anna letter, number and shape magnets at the Dollar Tree about a year ago and Jack loves to shout out the letters etc. as he finds them. The metal cookie sheet insures that they stay where they're supposed to and not all over my floor.
I am amazed at how much Lillie has taught him :)
Here is another fine example of Jackson's super human ability to sleep anywhere and in any position.

And here is an example of Lillie Anna's not so super human ability to disguise herself so that she doesn't get caught out of bed at naptime. She really thinks that I can't see her!

Busted!