Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Doing Art with the Greeks

This is simply a random what-we-do-for-homeschooling post. Since we had snow this morning, I felt Julia needed a slightly more fun day. First she spent an hour studying biology, poor lamb.
Then I declared a day of painting, while watching a video on ancient Greece: "The Greeks:  Crucible of Civilization." (It's quite good. You should watch it. It's on Youtube.)
our set-up for a couple of hous
Here's what Julia painted.





And I painted this.


I'm a silly painter, but I paint with her because she likes it when I join her, and it seems to motivate her and spur her creativity when we do it together. Plus, it's fun.
I open my pinterest page, "Art and Illustrations," for us to find a little inspiration.
Julia's painting came from this web page -- go check out this fellow's work.
Mine came from an "Owl and Pussycat" painting found toward the bottom of this page. It's a blog collection of illustrations.
The Greek documentary (narrated by Liam Neeson!)  covered some of the material we'll be reading soon in Herodotus, and each time "Harry's" name was mentioned, Julia perked up and noted it. Not all children are this way, but she certainly listens better and learns better when she's painting or drawing. She'd hardly make it through two hours of ancient Greek documentary if we sat on the couch. She's get bored, grumpy, and begin messing with the dogs.
Now for a little Khan math, and we'll be done for the day, I think. Oh, and I forgot -- we read "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Mr. Lear, of course, but that hardly counts for literature.

10 comments:

melissa said...

Julia definitely has a gift. Amazing how you can see it develop with each photo. Please tell her. :)

And yours is adorable. Of course!

Angela said...

I love seeing the progression of depth in her paintings. And I love yours, too -- one of these days that would look great hanging in a grand baby's nursery;)

Pom Pom said...

I love BOTH your paintings! It looks like so much fun!

Lisa Richards said...

Now see, if it had been me I would have thought I was finished with the first version of each of your paintings. You both added so much great creative detail!
You can't beat Liam Neeson for narrating...anything! Such a good way to study history!

Kezzie said...

Beautiful! Both of you. Ooh Herodotus-reminds me of my A'level historiography course! Will you be reading Thucydides too? X

M.K. said...

Oh, Kezzie -- I was planning to, but Herodotus is so LONG ... even though we are omitting big sections. We're reading it aloud, which takes more time, but makes it more engaging and memorable. Plus, I didn't want to miss out. I know I want to do Plutarch. We'll have to see how much time we have for any Thucydides at all :)

M.K. said...

I highly recommend those videos, Lisa. And I love the artwork you've posted recently -- the birds especially. Very nice :)

M.K. said...

Thanks, Pom - it WAS fun, and I think we may do it again this coming week, as we finish the documentary.

M.K. said...

Oh, how sweet, Angela :) I love the idea of a baby's nursery in the house -- for grandbabies! I'll have to see if the picture has that kind of longevity. I hope so.

M.K. said...

I will tell her -- thank you, Melissa!