Our Days in the UK

In January for our winter/snow theme for our learning, we looked at Monet's Magpie painting and studied impressionism. We read a few biographies and good books about impressionism (some of our favorite art books for kids are the Katie... series in which a little girl climbs into various paintings. Since nothing beats seeing actual real-live art in person, I also scheduled a trip to Oxford's stunning Ashmolean Museum to see their small but lovely room of impressionism. We've been to the Ashmolean several times before to wander its many rooms, but this was probably our favorite trip. This was the first time we went only to focus on a small part of the museum and to really look at just a few paintings in depth. Having read about the impressionists and their style, the kids could see in the paintings what we had learned about. I learned a lot, too! Did you know that Monet had a studio on a boat so he could paint the various water scenes he so l

Poetry teatime is sort of a "thing" in home ed circles, originally inspired by the Brave Writer curriculum. Traditionally it happens on Tuesdays, and the idea is to introduce kids to poetry while savoring tea treats and making memories. I have always loved the idea, but a weekly tea hasn't worked in our schedule for a variety of reasons, and consequently we never did teatimes at all. Then, as I was planning our 2020 home education year, it occurred to me that we could do a poetry teatime monthly instead. This works perfectly for us for a number of reasons: one, I already try to have a theme for our learning each month, so I can just fit tea time in with that theme; two, I can handle prepping a fancy tea once a month even with a new baby; three, it fits better into our schedule by giving us space in the other weeks to explore other interests. This is especially important for Justin who, in his own words, likes poetry "okay" but doesn't "

And just like that, another year, two years in the UK, and another breakfast in the pub we visited on our very first morning as immigrants. Hope you all have a blessed new year and decade!