I absolutely love our art study so today was especially exciting for me. We kicked off our study with Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch post-impressionist painter. We learned a little about the life that he lived and about his works. We discovered that he completed more than 800 paintings in 10 years but that he really didn't become famous until after his death. Before he committed his time to art, he worked as a store clerk, salesman, and preacher.

Van Gogh never could find happiness. I'm wondering if he struggled to understand who he really was in the Father's eyes. The children and I talked about this and talked about how sometimes we struggle with how we feel about ourselves and how many times, we just need to ask God to show us how much he loves us.

I really enjoyed watching the children paint their own versions of Van Gogh's Starry Night. You'll see pictures of their masterpieces posted here. They began their projects by painting with cotton swabs and popcicle sticks. Once they completed their paintings, the cut buildings out of construction paper. I was very impressed with the process and the product! What do you think? Oh, and ask your child who he/she thinks Van Gogh was thinking about when he painted Starry Night.

I'm working on lesson plans for next week. I got a little carried away buying our art supplies this week so I'm changing my lessons plans now so that we can use what I bought. I've got a lot of ideas and supplies but we only have four weeks of school left.

Here's a link to a Van Gogh online game: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/vangogh-sc.htm See you next week!

Mr. Al Concert and Homeland Creamery Pics

Pajama Day

Most of the children came dressed for a pajama movie party. Syan and Michaela came very prepared with sleeping bags and all! It doesn't seem to matter what I plan; the kids always get so excited about doing even the simplest things (I wish I was more like them).

We used the Resurrection eggs and an animated movie to learn more about Easter. I was impressed by how much the children knew about that first Easter. I really enjoyed the discussions. To top things off, we went on an egg hunt. Ms. Laura was gracious enough to hide the eggs while I kept the children busy playing in the woods. They had so much fun finding eggs that they wanted her to hide them again.

We won't be meeting for class for the next two weeks but there are a few field trips on the calendar. If you are interested in going to the Mr. Al concert, the link to buy tickets is http://www.mralmusic.com/. If I don't see you then, I'll see you back in two weeks. Happy Easter!