Fine Arts Fridays

I don't know about your family, but by the end of the week, we are ready for a day that is different from the rest in homeschooling. For the last couple of years I have dubbed Fridays as "fun days" or Fine Art days. I try to have more hands on type of activities and a lighter load of the basics. We work hard on an intense schedule Mondays thru Thursdays, and Fridays, it is time to let our hair down a bit.

Normally through the week we have Math, English, Readers, Bible Study, Read Aloud time, morning devotions, personal Bible reading, History/Geography, Science, Phonics (to those to whom that applies), Preschool stuff,Spanish, music practice.

Fridays I like to have Art, Music appreciation, Home Ec. type of activities (sewing, knitting, baking... etc.), and even games that promote logic or help us use our reading or math skills.

Just for the fun of it, here are some pics of our school day.

After breakfast and morning chores, we start our learning time by learning from God's Word. Those that can read, take turns in reading the Proverb for the day, and I read an excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.




In the morning hours, while I am working with the littles, we have stations set up for some of the older children. There is piano practice everyday:



We also do Spanish on CD by Visual Link Spanish. This has been a wonderful program for us to follow!



We have another computer where I do all the online work and set up for History/geography, and Science. Right now we are reading The Young Carthaginian by G.A. Henty, and doing a Unit Study on it. For Science, my oldest is doing Apologia, and everyone else is doing a unit study on apples.



Speaking of which, Thursday I did an apple craft with Caleb and Jerusha. I cored and apple, then cut the core in half and it made a nice little stamp with a star in the middle.




Elizabeth walked by and wanted to try it out too! LOL



I allowed Caleb and Jerusha to eat the apple slices, but they didn't finish them all, so Benjamin's part of the craft was to eat the rest of the apple pieces.



There are times when we will watch a video or a documentary on Netflix that may be realted to what we are studying.

Usually I like to have some classical music or sacred instrumental music playing in the background. Lately I play music by whatever composer we are looking at. We just started studying Beethoven, so I was pleased to dig out my three CD's full of his music. One is orchestral, one violin, and one is piano. I hope the interest in Beethoven lasts a long time! We did Brahms recently, and just this morning I heard Caleb (7 yo) humming the tune to the first selection on our CD. So precious!

I love the opportunity to watch my children learn, and doing the many activities with them.