Home Makeover: Entrance

We decided to give our home a complete makeover. And of course this will be part of DD-14's education. I expect her to learn a lot from all the projects we intend to tackle.

The first project was a complete makeover of the entrance.

Project: A clean, accessible entrance

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Happy Chanukkah

Tonight is the second night of Chanukkah.

"Al Hanisim v'al hapurkan
v'al hagvurot v'al hatshuot
v'al hamilchamot she-aseeta lavoteinu
bayamim hahem bazman hazeh."

(We thank you) For the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds, for the saving acts, and for the wonders which You have wrought for our ancestors in those days, at this time.

Chag Chanukkah Sameach!

It's coming: Chanukkah

Chanukkah is coming!

And I found some great tips on how to do my decorating and gift wrapping. I need to get myself some supplies, but I think I can still get this done in time.

Hanukkah

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Rosh Hashana 5772

Tomorrow night we'll celebrate the start of a new Jewish year, the year 5772.



May the new year bring you love, peace and good health to enjoy all the gifts the Creator gives to us freely, day by day.

May the year 5772 be a good and sweet year, and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Shana Tova!

Music History: Renaissance

When I ordered "Meet the Great Composers" I already knew I would want to supplement it. Although supposedly suitable for Grade 9 music education, the method does not entirely meet my standards. Not only does it seem to be a bit too easy for high school students, but there's no mention of any composers before the Baroque. Whatever happened to medieval music? And the music of the Renaissance? Surely, I want my daughter to learn about and appreciate music of those eras too.

I really wanted to start Fran's musical education this year with a few lessons on Medieval music, but since her Art History method starts with a few lessons on Renaissance artists, I decided it might be a better idea to skip the Middle Ages for now, and maybe come back to them next year.

So far, we've done music history lessons on:

Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina
My worksheet on Palestrina may be shared for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License.

Worksheet: Palestrina by Leah Witmond is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

William Byrd
Renaissance Worksheet (With not just William Byrd, but also Carlo Gesualdo and Giovanni Palestrina, and some general information about the Renaissance Era.) available at ClassNet.



Carlo Gesualdo
A biography of the troubled composer-prince can be found on About.com, Music Education.



Fran loved the music of these three composers, and I think we'll be both almost sorry when we'll move on to the music of the Baroque Era next week.

New Homeschool Year

We started our new homeschooling year two weeks ago, this year with just one child left to home educate. As of this year, Lizzy is studying Stories and Desing at ArtEz Institute of Arts, so it's just Fran now.


Fran working on a math problem with her Dad

I planned Fran's course of study for the first term of this school year way back in June, and so far Fran's been pretty good about keeping up with her work.

Having said that, I might just want to tweak the schedule a little to allow for some more time off on Thursdays, since Thursday is Lizzy's day off, and it would be nice to be able to do some fun things together on the days when she's home.

New books

We didn't need any more books. We honestly didn't. But then we went into town, and entered the bookshop. Fran and I, just the two of us - and she never even used to like books.

She somehow managed to convince me I needed to buy her these books:

Het menselijk lichaam - a Dutch translation of The Human Body, by Steve Parker, because "Look, Mum! A pop-up model of the brain!" and "Just look at this! Eyes!"

And it was only €10, so how could I possibly resist?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1, Poster Annual 2011, or actually the Dutch version, with those ridiculous Dutch names, but even so... I mean, Harry Potter.

Page upon page of movie pictures. How could I possibly say no?

Gebouwd in Verbeelding: Het Nederlands Stripmuseum. With works from not only Dutch comic artists, but also international artists like Lorenzo Mattotti - one of Lizzy's favourites.

How could I refuse?

Then there was this book on How to be a Viking, by Ari Berk, with beautiful illustrations, pop-ups and lots of little extras.

How could I deny her this little treasure?

And then...

Then there was this:

An antique copy of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

"Printed from the edition that was carefully corrected by the Author in 1867 and 1868."

With the original illustrations. The book smells of old books. When I turn the pages – not all of them of equal size – I'm not in my own living room anymore, but in the library of some ancient castle, sitting in front of a blazing hearth fire, while torrents of rain are whipping against the windows.

At only €10, I was sold.