Saturday, April 16, 2011

I Heart Art!


I have been going to the best art class ever. It's called "Modern Art for Homeschoolers" and it is at the Painted Cloud studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I love the teachers Samara and Brendan! Each week we talk about a modern artist and then we do art inspired by that artist.

Here is my piece inspired by Franz Klein:



And here I am with the real thing at MOMA.



Here is my piece inspired by Helen Frankenthaler:



And here is me with a real Frankenthaler.



And here's my Warhol-like prints!



I love Andy and every time we go to MOMA we see his paintings.




And then we go say hi to him at Union Square!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

My Latest Reading



I did another bookstore reading. Here I am reading an Emily Dickinson poem, "Bee! I'm Expecting You," at Inquiring Minds Bookstore in Saugerties, NY.

Homeschool History Studies


In first grade, I read (with my mum) the series of kids' history books called The Story of the World (there are four volumes which go from Ancient times right up to the Modern Age). I loved them and learned lots and lots about Ancient Egypt and Greece and the Middle Ages, about the fire of London and Shakespeare and the World Wars and all kinds of things.

At the beginning of this year we started our history studies at the beginning again. But this time we're going into more detail and using this book called The Humanistic Tradition.



We are reading lots of plays (like Antigone and Oedipus), stories (like The Odyssey and Gilgamesh), watching lots of movies and documentaries, and going on tours at the Metropolitan Museum. We've also made a timeline!





Here is our reading list and my Lego history sculptures!

Paleolithic and Neolithic

Reading list:
The Humanistic Tradition – Introduction and the Birth of Civilization
The Story of the World, Volume 1 – Chapter 1

Films and Documentaries:
The Dawn of History (Documentary)
Secrets of the Stone Age (Documentary series)

Ancient Mesopotamia

Reading List:
The Humanistic Tradition – Chapter 2, Mesopotamia: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order
The Story of the World, Volume 1 – Chapters 3, 5, 7, and 17

Gilgamesh (trans. Stephen Mitchell)

Films and Documentaries:
Gilgamesh (free online documentary at Learner.org)

Tours:
Guided Tour “The Cradle of Civilization: Art of the Ancient Near East” at the Metropolitan Museum (see calendar – there’s usually one tour a day: http://www.metmuseum.org/calendar/)


The Hebrews

Reading List:
The Humanistic Tradition – pp. 48-54 (in Chapter 2, Mesopotamia: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order
The Story of the World, Volume 1, Ancient Times – Chapter 6, 14,

The Old Testament – Genesis and Exodus
Usborne Family Bible

Films and Documentaries:
The Ten Commandments, dir. Cecil B Demille (starring Charton Heston)
Walking the Bible (Documentary series "Bruce Feiler’s epic, ten thousand mile odyssey to explore the greatest stories ever told, in the settings where they actually occurred”)



Ancient Egypt

Reading List:

The Humanistic Tradition – Chapter 1, Egypt: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order
The Story of the World, Volume 1, Ancient Times – Chapter 4, 12, 13

I studied Egypt in more detail a couple of years ago with friends. There are lots of kids books on Egypt that we read at the time. See more details on my friends’ blog. http://diykindergarten.blogspot.com/2010/01/egypt-meet-ancient-world-5.html

Documentaries and Movies:
The Ancient Egyptians (Free online documentary)

Tours:
Guided Tour “Art of Ancient Egypt” at the Metropolitan Museum (see calendar – there’s usually one tour a day: http://www.metmuseum.org/calendar/)




Ancient Greece

Reading List:

The Humanistic Tradition – Chapter 4, Greece: Humanism and the Speculative Leap, and Chapter 5, The Classical Style
The Story of the World, Volume 1, Ancient Times – Chapter 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, and 25

The Odyssey
trans. By Robert Fagles
The Odyssey, a graphic novel by Gareth Hinds
D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths,
The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus, by Aliki
Greek Myths for Young Children, by Heather Amery
Sophocles, Oedipus
Sophocles, Antigone
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates

Films and Documentaries:
Ulysses, dir. Mario Camrini (movie starring Kirk Douglas)
The Odyssey, dir. Andrey Konchalovskiy (made for TV series)
The Odyssey (This video is a free online documentary from Learner.org)
Oedipus Rex (BBC production)
Antigone (BBC production)
Aristophanes: The Gods are Laughing (Pseudo-biography of Greek playwright, Aristophanes)
“The Rise of Greek Civilisation” and “Greek Thought” (2 documentaries, free online at Leaner.org)
Socrates, dir. Roberto Rosselini (movie/dramatization of life and death of Socrates)
Athens: The Dawn of Democracy (PBS documentary)
The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (PBS documentary)

Tours:
Guided Tour “Art of Ancient Greece and Rome” at the Metropolitan Museum (see calendar – there’s usually one tour a day: http://www.metmuseum.org/calendar/)