Life on the narrow path ...: Cave Paintings, seals and a tiny blue bead ...

Academy of Zion Week in Review Week Three ...
(better late than never)

Well, we have officially wrapped up our third week of school. As I've mentioned in several other posts, we are still not quite into a solid routine, still working out the kinks, but the girls are learning, nonetheless.

This week was certainly an "off" week. We left our favorite little vacation spot on Monday about lunch time and headed straight to the beach for a quick picnic. We then spent some time with friends only to make it home in time to feed and bathe the girls, get them to bed, clean the house and settle in for some Monday Night Football ...

Tuesday was a planned "LIFE catch up day". The girls had their list (put away toys, clothes and books from the trip, clean up their room, relax, play, enjoy the break) ... Momma had her full list (balance check book, pay bills, catch up on laundry, the house, the library, etc). We had a nice day of LIFE SCHOOL (as a good friend of mine puts it). I had "planned" to get back to it by Wednesday, but as usual, that just wasn't the case. The Fairy did manage to do some reading and they did some crafts. Momma, of course, was still playing "catch up". We also had to drive an hour away to finish "officially" adopting our newest family member (an adorable little mutt we call Sweet Pea). Between that and errands and LIFE, the three Rs and such just got put on hold for a minute ... Such is life.

Let me share with you all the things we DID do this week (even though it didn't match up to my schedule or spreadsheets) ...

We read in the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History about the first artists. We learned that the first paints were made by grinding soft rocks into a paste. We learned that the first artists used their fingers to draw the outline, then dipped animal animal fur in the "paint" and pressed it onto cave walls to shade in their picture. In addition to painting on cave walls, people used to paint themselves with sacred symbols ... first tattoos, maybe?

Of course, the best part of our education is learning something and then driving it home with a hands-on activity. So, as is usually the case in our school, we made our own cave paintings. Here we are crumbling up our brown paper and reshaping it ... this was to ensure we had a rough surface to start with, just like those first artists so long ago ...

Now, for authenticity I decided to only give them black, red and brown ....

First step, outlines ...

Let me just pause to tell you that the Fairy (above) told me at this point that since we don't eat meat, this cave person was pointing her arrow at a PEAR. Yep, you "heard" that right. I said pear. Notice the legs and feet on the pear, so that it can run from it's attacker. Gotta love her! Now, for a couple more shots ...


The Fairy's first cave painting, note the skateboard the girl is riding to get that pear!


The Princess's horse ... more on that in a minute.

Okay, here's another tidbit. Above you will find the Princess proudly holding her cave painting. She started out painting a horse (because the girl LOVES horses and draws them every chance she gets), and then she told me that she remembered that this was a cave painting so she had to make it dead so that the little guy next to it would have something to eat because she knew that they needed to eat meat to survive way back then .... gotta love the mind of a six year old!

The Fairy's final cave painting ... two stories ... the one on top involves an army of fairies attacking the stick person or something like that!

We also read about the first farmers and the first towns in the Encyclopedia of World History. This was information we had already covered last week in our Story of the World book, but it's always nice to touch on the info in the encyclopedia as well. Plus, it has great illustrations!

To sort of bring all of this history to life in their minds, we also read this beautifully written book:

I know I've said it before, but man does the Fairy LOVE the Mind Benders! She requested to do them during a "non-school" time and nearly finished the book ... the book that I thought would be for the YEAR! Haha ...

We made our weekly library trip, and while Momma was checking out several pounds of books about Ancient Egypt, the Fairy checked out (on her very own Library card) TONS of craft books (as always) and the Princess checked out (also on her very own Library card) two more horse books (as usual). These two are pretty easy to predict these days ... horses and crafts, crafts and horses, horses and crafts ...

We had a wonderful day at our Homeschool Co-op this week. Both girls enjoyed the beautiful weather as they played all sorts of games with balls. I think they must have played dodge ball because I seem to remember someone complaining about throwing a ball too hard at each other when we were playing at our friends' house later. Regardless, it was SO nice outside, finally. The first few weeks of PE were rather hot, but not this time! Oh glorious fall, how I love thee! Back to Co-Op, the Fairy learned about Matisse this week, and made the following replica of a Matisse work:

pinnipeds. I just HAVE to share the picture that the Princess drew for her notebook page after the lesson ~ check out the detail! She hasn't had a chance to color it yet, but I love the work she did with a plain old no. 2 pencil.

Probably the best part of our Fridays is going to our friends' house afterward for tons of socialization ~ for the kiddos AND the grown ups! Last week, while Momma and Daddy hung out with the grown ups, nine (and eventually eleven, counting the 4 month old baby) kids played so wonderfully together! Surprisingly, there were no fights, not too many tears and loads of fun. Who wouldn't enjoy time spent with 11 kids, 5 grown ups, 3 dogs, 2 cats AND chickens?

So, the school week TECHNICALLY ends on Friday afternoon, but my awesome youngsters wanted to continue just a bit! On Saturday we enjoyed an impromptu art session and even read three Ancient Myths ~ one from Italy, one from Japan and one from Egypt. Check out the girls' Saturday morning art work:

The Princess painted, wait for it ... you guessed it, a HORSE! And, my little Fairy painted a beautiful Hawaiian princess on the beach with a gorgeous sunset in the background. These look quite lovely on my sliding glass door ~ so pretty when the sunlight shines through.

Well, there you have it. That's about it for our school week where we didn't really "do school" much. Life School, cave paintings and art. I'll leave you with some other images of the learning that happens so naturally when you keep your family home together! Love and blessings to you ...