Edgar Degas

... and all things Ballet

This term BlueBelle started attending  ballet class 

with her friend DollFace.  DollFace started school this year, 
and so it is an opportunity 

for them to see each other, though it doesn't make up for 
a day of free play.  
Bring on the school holidays I say!! 

Anyway, so, in Natural Learning stylie, March morphed 
into Ballet month.
  

Our artist for the month  - Edgar DEGAS

our composer - DEBUSSY

country - FRANCE

 city  - PARIS

 language - FRENCH


I was unable to convince BlueBelle to try  snails.

We've read a number of books about Degas and the Impressionists.  And we've discovered that there is a Degas painting exhibited a train ride away at  QAG/GoMA! 

Edgar Degas | France 1834-1917 

Trois danseuses à la classe de danse (Three dancers at a dancing class) | c.1888-90 

Oil on cardboard | 50.5 x 60.6cm 

Purchased 1959 with funds donated by Major Harold de Vahl Rubin 

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

We discovered that Edgar Degas was one of the first artists to popularise the use of pastels.  BlueBelle was fascinated by his bronze sculpture that makes use of real hair and real fabric.  

The only sculpture Degas exhibited during his lifetime -''Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer''.  

A couple of other favourites, 
aren't these paintings exquisite ....  

Edgar Degas | France 1834-1917 

The Rehearsal c. 1873-78;
Oil on canvas, 41 x 61.7 cm
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Edgar Degas | France 1834-1917 
Ballet Rehearsal on the Set. 1874. 
Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Franc

Of course, little Miss had to modify her ballet shoes, and wear 

a ribbon around her neck.   Ballet teacher was not amused, and 

BlueBelle had to remove all adornment before going into class.  

I understand both sides .......

This is a small part of our Ballet / France / Paris stack

 (no, they are not in alphabetical order!)

 Edgar Degas : dance like a butterfly   Wenzel, Angela

 Little ballerina : inspired by a painting by Edgar Degas   Kerillis, Helene

 Ballet : a step-by-step guide to the secrets of ballet   Hackett, Jane

 Edgar Degas, 1834-1917   Growe, Bernd.

 Portraits : dancing through fire   Lasky, Kathryn.

 The life and work of Edgar Degas   Woodhouse, Jayne

 Children's book of music   Lock, Deborah

 Angelina on stage   Holabird, Katharine

 Lettice : the dancing rabbit   Stanley, Mandy

 Gina the dancing queen   Alo, Marisa

 Olivia leaps!   Shaw, Natalie

 The mice of Bistrot des Sept Freres  - Le Tourneau, Marie 

  

I can't recommend this book enough - it is so cute 

and sprinkled with French vocabulary.

This book is also cute.  

Pom Pom takes a tour around Paris,

but ends up in the best place of all.

[sound recordings] 

Madame Pamplemousse and her incredible edibles - Kingfisher, Rupert

Madame Pamplemousse and the enchanted sweet shop - Kingfisher, Rupert

The twinkling tutu -  Rees, Gwyneth

[videorecordings]

Paris: Capital cities a tourists' guide  

 The Eiffel Tower 

OOOh, we've also added an interest-led component to our spelling.  

I ask BlueBelle what words she'd like to learn,  we write the words on slips of paper and then keep them in an envelope labelled with the theme/topic.  This month we have added these words to the Ballet envelope:    

• ballet
• ballerina
• beauty
• beautiful (eat apples up!)
• dance
• satin
• ribbon
• point
• stockings

And finally, before the crashing pc annoys me further, some Debussy for you :)

A day in our Life

As earth turns around the sun, so are the days of our lives ...  (or something to that affect!).


Two days a week that are assigned to extramurals, and though we often do 'work' on these days I don't count on them.   So, an average non-extramural day goes something like this.


06:00 - Alarm sounds.  DH gets up to shower etc.  DD is up shortly afterwards.
06:30 - DH and DD have breakfast together while I shower, make bed, put a load of washing in.  
07:00 - Wave DD goodbye, get ready for the day. Load dishwasher, put the kettle on for early morning tea. 
07:30 - Maths: prepared activity, times tables or some kind of maths game.
08:30 - Music: either practice, theory or history / Japanese / Botany
09:15 - English: writing, reading or spelling 
10:00 - morning tea,outside play  (chores)
11:30 - Geography or Science activity 
13:00 - lunch (hanging washing, quick vacuum and tidy)
14:00 - art, craft or some sort of 'making', often related to, and whilst listening to an audiobook. 
15:30/16:00 - afternoon tea, outside play


We swap things around every now and then.  And, sometimes find that we hit on something particularly interesting and keep doing that all morning, or all day.  I'm trying to fit early morning gym in .... getting there!


17:30 - tidy, bath, dinner, teeth
19:15 - storytime, sometimes a little time to read 
20:00 - mommy time after cleaning the kitchen! prep, emails, skype, CQHS, scrabble, assignments.
23:00 - bed, which is too late and has to be changed.


Great Not Back to School Blog Hop ... 4 weeks left of the term?!?

Our plans for the year

I approach this post with trepidation.  The next in the Not Back to School bloghop .   


We are naturally eclectic, strewing, neo-classicists. There, I've said it! lol.


As this is our first year of official schooling, I'm approaching the year using the National Curriculum  (version 2 ) guidelines, and seeing how they apply to us, where BlueBelle is situated according to these (arbitrary but Dept. Ed necessary) and getting my head around reporting for HEU.


English Language 2012
Mathematics 2012
Science 2012
Social Sciences 2012
The Arts 2012
LOTE 2012

Hat-venture

Over the weekend, while DH was mowing the lawn a gust of wind blew his hat off.  Now, this is no ordinary hat, so it had to be retreived, and in a hurry!  The hat had landed on the dam and was heading towards the swamplands.   Nothing for it but to call back into service our, mostly ornamental, row boat.

she doesn't look like much, a duck haven at best

but, amazingly, she floats!

hat was retrieved with the multifunctional rake-oar

all parties safely ashore, mission complete

Dad had to be reassured that being called a water rat with a mole for a passenger was a good thing!

Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame

Our learning places and spaces

Week 3 in the Not Back to School Bloghop.   

The topic this week, learning spaces.   Well, we work and learn in numerous places.

at the writing desk

at the outside table

at the dinning room table

at the lounge room table

basically, any unsuspecting table .... 

in the 'playroom' on the floor

on the deck

on the grass

at the park

at the library

in the car

at the art gallery

at the EcoScience building
oOOH, and how could I forget? The Kitchen!

and all over the world

After the last big rain the playroom sprang a leak which saturated in the inside skin of the walls, as well as a strip along the edge of the carpet.  
On pulling up the carpet we discovered funky mould - out it went, all of it, including the wall skins.  
So, at the moment the playroom looks like this ....  

The assessor came last week, and hopefully we can start fixing the room next week.  I'm planning to paint everything white, and let BluebBelle and friends treat it like the Kusama exhibition -  ' Obliteration Room'. Husband has resigned himself to the idea, poor chap, lol.

http://interactive.qag.qld.gov.au/looknowseeforever/works/obliteration_room/

If you haven't played the game have a go ;)    Kusama's World of Dots 

Earthly Worms

After planting some zucchini Blue Belle dug in the veggie patch for a while.  She ran to the kitchen very excitedly, to tell me that our soil is good because it has earthworms in it - big ones!

catch and release

No earthworms were harmed in the making of this blogpost.  This earthling was returned safely to the vegetable garden after lengthy negotiations.

more about earthworms

Not Back To School Blog Hop - Meet the student

Okay, well,  the Keeper of the ning (and we all know who she is! ) has dragged, or at least prodded me, kicking and screaming into blogland.  I love the idea of a blog, I love reading the blogs of people I know, but I am also quite reticent about having my own.


Anyway, I'm not sure how many years we've been home schooling, I'm going to say that this is our second year.  DD (aka Blue belle), is officially doing year 1 this year, but it's not as simple as that ... of course!!   


STUDENT PROFILE  (she's our victrix!)
Favourite colours:  
lots of favourites, but yellow and red and blue and pink and orange
Favourite books:  
Horse,  Charlotte's Web, Little Bear's little boat
Favourite things to do: 
riding bikes, climbing, swinging and running
Favourite 'work': 
drawing and reading, learning anything, music
Favourite music: 
vioin, trumpet, piano, flute, accordion
Favourite animal:
horse and tiger
Favourite plants:
roses and sunflowers
Favourite fun:
swimming and building castles at the beach

We aim to cultivate the natural love of learning by preparing an environment that provides width and depth for exploration, and offers exposure to opportunities and real-life experiences, while keeping  in mind the balance of character, knowledge and skill.  

Stick Insects

STICK INSECTS


Yesterday morning I went out onto the deck early.  I was collecting the washing as rain is forecast all week and I'm attempting to get all the laundry done (yadda yaddda yadda).  Perched on my mobile clothes line was a stick-insect, no ... two!  A mother (I presume ) with a baby catching a lift on her back. They did gril (gross) me out for a moment until I looked more closely and appreciated it.  I called to BB who came to wonder at them. We moved them onto a badminton racket head and after further inspection, transported them to a nearby tree, where the baby scurried off and mom, (missing a leg mind you), insect-shuffled along.  Stick insects are rarely seen around here, and only seem to end up on the deck after a particularly windy spell. Later in the morning BB and I were moving the car out of the garage (okay, I was reversing the car and BB was on my lap) when we saw another stick insect fly onto the trampoline, walk about a bit and then disappear again. The wings were a beautiful violet colour and I actually mistook it for a butterfly before it landed. I have since read that the females can glide but the males can fly, and that they are able to regenerate limbs.
Our afternoon drawing session involved stick insects, naturally.

Tuesday 24 Feruary, 2009

We had a lovely day. It started with swimming lesson, with Alex at Pizzey Park public pool, which started at 9am. BB was amazing ... she is teaching herself really.  Alex reckons she is 98% floating by herself ( using the holding by the head method ).  After the lesson we played a bit and miss insisted that I did not help as she ducked under the water and then reappeared all smiles and giggles. We had a quick shower and changed into clothes for smarties with Ms Lynda at 10:15 (just next door).

BB can hop on one foot and clap.  So Lynda asked her to stick out her tongue .... which she did. Apparently it's some kind of test - being able to do 3 things at once. Then Lynda joked and said 'Ok, the next thing is to sing as well', which BB proceded to do of course :)  Very funny. 
Anyway, the lovliest thing at gym today was BB helping the smaller ones to climb, and then sitting with Abbey ( just 2), commiserating while she had a cry about her teething molars.

After that we drove to Pacific Fair, just to go to Medicare, and on the way back to the car we passed a stall which sells shells.  BB had great fun looking, touching and comparing and came away with a $2 starfish, which we have added to the botanical/marine corner of the playroom. Miss fell asleep on the way home and I thought that I would have an hour or two to do something, but she woke up as we arrived home and refused to sleep.

We played with dough - which we made yesterday, drew a bit, played with the alphabet cards and then it was time to make dinner. It was chicken soup tonight - because I felt like it!  BB helped to wash the rice and barley. Then bathtime. And then dad was home. Dinner, reading and bed.

Gymnasts Of The Term

Gymnasts Of The Term

We have chickens

About 2 weeks ago we drove to SIL's house and collected 3 chicks. They are about 10 weeks old, so apparently due to start laying eggs anytime now. I can tell the three of them apart by their colourings. They are all white with brown markings but one's markings are distinctively lighter in colour, more of a ginger. The othere two are quite similar in colour, but one has colour on the neck speading evenly to the wings, and the other has slightly darker spots of colour down the neck and onto the body. We haven't named them, although the name 'Colonel' has been bandied about. BlueBelle enjoys opening the coup to let them out, and likes to throw feed at them, but runs to me when they make any sudden moves. She likes to stand 3 metres away and say 'Hello chickens!'. They are kept in a mobile coup which DH acquired on e-bay (where else?!), and when let out to roam don't tend to wander very far at all. In fact,  DH says that they follow him into the shed and find a corner to settle in. So much for free range .... I'll have to run after them with a stick. Their feed contains anti-biotics, which makes me think that they are not so 'organic' but I'll investigate that. They seem to prefer scratching around in the dirt and eating grass shoots anyway - they are chickens after all. Sooo, we'll see how the egg collecting goes. I'll have to make custards and get baking if they prove to be prolific layers.

Life's Gifts - Olive Schreiner

If there is a gift I could give my daughter and grand daughter it would be this : - Life's Gifts I saw a woman sleeping. In her sleep she dreamt Life stood before her, and held in each hand a gift - in the one Love, in the other Freedom. And she said to the woman, "Choose!" And the woman waited long: and she said, "Freedom!" And Life said, "Thou hast well chosen. If thou hadst said, "Love", I would have given thee that thou didst ask for; and I would have gone from thee, and returned to thee no more. Now, the day will come when I shall return. In that day I shall bear both gifts in one hand." I heard the woman laugh in her sleep. love you, g o g o