Weekly Wrap-Up: Science & Art Edition

This is my first attempt at doing the Weekly Wrap-Up which is hosted by Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Check out more weekly wrap-ups by clicking here.

We did a lot of art activities this week. We went to a homeschool class at the public library that was about Mexican Folk Art. The girls made sugar skulls which is what is made in Mexico to celebrate Day of the Dead (not a gruesome holiday, but rather a celebration of life and loved ones, or so the librarian told us).

We also had our art appreciation co-op. We learned about Rembrandt. We made etchings since Rembrandt did a lot of etchings. Unlike Rembrandt, we used crayons for our etchings, but we got the idea. We've discovered some terrific videos about artists that are funny and educational. Gotta love that! The moms in the co-op get a kick out of how the animators cover up certain parts of certain works of art, if you know what I mean. The DVDs are from a series called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists. There are books and DVDs in the series. Our library has several of both which is fantastic.

We're making little scrapbooks from paper lunch bags as we study each artist. We glue on a picture of the artist and/or a picture of some of his greatest works. Then the girls write down (on an index card) some things they've learned about the artist. The card then can go into the paper bag.

Before he painted them in a picture, Rembrandt sometimes liked to dress people up in funny clothes, so the girls put together some fun outfits before we started our etchings.

The girls also attended a birthday party at a local pottery painting place and got to make and paint three Christmas ornaments each. They were in craft heaven this week, especially Lauren!

On to science:
For our regular science studies, we use Apologia's Young Explorer Series. We're doing Land Animals of the Sixth Day which we love, love, love!!! I've heard that some people think these are too in-depth for their kids, but I'm wondering if those people either just read too much each day or started when their kids were a bit too young. My girls are 6 and 8 and ASK to do science. They DREADED science for the last two school years, so it's wonderful to hear them asking to do it now! We finished up our study of marsupials this week and began the chapter on primates.

We threw in some more fun science when we took a field trip to a local hands-on science center. Some out-of-town homeschooling friends met us there which was very fun!

Lauren and I got to ride this bike that is on a track waaaaaay above the ground. It was very strange to have such a big drop-off next to you! Stranger yet was the fact that I actually rode the bike given my adult-onset fear of heights! (Really, it's a fear of anyone falling from any height.)

And of course we did our regular subjects like math, reading, language arts, and history this week, but the theme of the week seemed to be science and art!