Tchaikovsky Composer Study

This term's composer is Peter Tchaikovsky, probably best known (in America) for The Nutcracker! We love The Nutcracker over here at our house and I knew that this year I would be taking Louisa on a special trip to see the Joffrey Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker, so I intentionally chose Tchaikovsky as this term's composer. I was able to take Kailyn to see it a few years ago and we had a blast, however, Louisa hasn't really let me forget that she was not able to go so I decided that this is the year we would go! And here is our one (terrible) picture that we took of us:

Anyways, we had a great time at the ballet and Louisa was VERY excited to see it. It's a long performance and I knew it would be hard to sit through but she really didn't start to get antsy until the end.

So, for our Tchaikovsky composer study, we have been listening to Tchaikovsky's greatest moments (here via Amazon Prime music), and here for the Nutcracker music.

I must admit that Tchaikovsky has been much harder to listen to after Bach. My girls all grew to love Bach and his music. His is methodical and harmonious while Tchaikovsky's music is grand, very big, and all over the place. I am sure he will grow on us and listening to the Nutcracker sure helps. Kailyn also has been playing Swan Lake on the piano, so she loves him for that piece alone already. And, we didn't know that he composed the original Sleeping Beauty music!

We started off the term by listening to this program from Classics for Kids. They are always fun, short and interesting. I love the music added in to the program.

We also used this free printable last week (Nutcracker puppets to color) and the girls loved that. They colored them and cut them out while I read to them this book:

Honestly, I was expecting a little more about the creation of the ballet itself and there truly was very little mention of it. It was a nice book about that time of his life where he was traveling the world and creating ballets. We also have this book, which I am hoping will give a little more background to his life:

The other book we are currently reading is this Nutcracker version:

So far, we love it. It is not too simple (like so many of them are) and is the original storyline from Hoffman. The drawings are so beautiful, too! The girls are intrigued by the original story and it helps to make more sense of the ballet!!

So, apart from these things, we plan to simply listen to a lot of his music each day and I might see if I can find a good story book about his Swan Lake ballet, but that's only if there's time! :)

Our Advent gifts

I thought it would be nice this Advent for the girls to work on their "handicraft" skills, which have been very non-existent lately, and at the same time, do something for others in need. In the past, I have made items to donate to a local organization called, Giving Artfully, who in turn, sends the items to specific charities with real needs.  Anyways, I looked them up again to see if there was something we could make to give away and they had quite a few needs listed. So, the girls chose to make scarves and we will give them to homeless children and children on an Indian reservation who are in need.

They started their projects today and had a GREAT time doing it.

They both used the sewing machine to sew up the scarves and they did a great job with it.

Louisa was SO proud of that she completed one all by herself! It was very cute to watch and now they are excited to make more. We plan to make about 12 and mail them out before Christmas.

And, of course, Julia loved the scarves too.

Thoughts on our first term

Friday will be the last day of our first term homeschooling. It has gone quickly and I have some observations I wanted to make note of:

It's been more natural to homeschool than I thought it would be. This could be because I had spent so much time preparing and knowing what our days were planned out to be but it hasn't been weird or forced. I realize that when other moms tell me, "I could never do that..."  (referring to homeschooling) they think that homeschooling is on a different level than what we as moms do everyday. And it is- kind of. But the truth is that we are constantly teaching our children. And don't we, as mothers, teach our children about prayer, about God, how to write their name, how to count, have good table manners, tie their shoes, brush their teeth, how to get dressed, pick up their toys, etc? Don't we These mothers who say they couldn't do it don't give themselves enough credit. I was one of those mothers who never envisioned myself homeschooling but like I said, I have found it to be more natural than I thought. It's an extension of the teaching that we already do every day... just different subjects in an intentional manner!

Relationships have gotten better, not more strained. The other statement that is always followed by "I could never do that" is "I couldn't handle being with my kids all day" or "My kids would drive me nuts." Ha! Of course they drive me nuts! But the irony is that the more time I have spent with them, the better we are getting along. Before I decided to start homeschooling, one of my hesitations was that I already felt strain in one of the relationships with my kids. I thought that the decision to homeschool might hinder progress in our relationship instead of help.  The fact is, homeschooling has actually helped our relationship. I am not sure why other than the fact that we understand each other better now and have more in common. I really think she enjoys the family time together and appreciates the new learning atmosphere. She enjoys the connection with me as a mom, and as a teacher and we can appreciate the new relationship we have.

Sibling relationships are stronger. This is what I thought might happen and I am happy to say that things are improving. Don't get me wrong... it isn't all lovey-dovey around here (my kids still fight!) but the tone is definitely different than last year between the older girls. They appreciate each other more since they don't have a ton of friends to fall back on, and they get along better since they have more in common. This last point is huge.  I could sense a slight rift happening last year and a general lack of appreciation for the other sister, since they had friends at school and they were each doing their own thing (somewhat of a competition). Overall, they are more kind and thoughtful to each other and it is an improvement over previous years when they were away at school. 

Their capacity to learn and memorize is quite amazing. I am amazed at how quickly they can memorize and retain the memory work. We are two verses away from having Proverbs 3 memorized and I am so thankful we have this opportunity to do it together, the three of us. It is so much harder to try and do it during dinner time as a family since it obviously isn't the best learning environment but that's what we were trying to do when they were in regular school. But to have a regular part of our day be memory work is a blessing. They have also memorized two poems each and we are working on our third hymn being memorized (all verses!). Also, their desire to learn has grown since we have more freedom to learn and study what they want. "Education is an atmosphere", as Charlotte Mason says, and now I can see the wisdom in this statement after just a few short weeks of trying to give them that atmosphere. I hope to continue to give them resources that will encourage this learning and create an even better atmosphere of learning than we currently have, though I need to think through how.