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A Net in Time

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Art

Art Book: Miniscapes – Create Your Own Terrarium

July 19, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

I recently contacted my “person” at Raincoast and mentioned that my lad was into making terrariums lately so she very kindly sent me a book that she thought might be a boon to him… and it was!   Let me tell you about Miniscapes: Create your own Terrarium.  I know I know..not your typical art book, but making a terrarium is a form of art you know?   Can you put different mediums together in a way that will balance and create something beautiful?   Miniscapes helps you to gain the know-how to do this yourself.

 
 I love the logical step up in Miniscapes.  Walking the reader through what a terrarium was and how it worked.  Being walked through all the parts of a terrarium, learning why you need the different layers, the types of plants you can use and more.  The Close of Miniscapes leaves you with several projects you can complete to get your feet wet, or to at least give you ideas for creating your own.   It’s a rather neat book.

The first half of Miniscapes is devoted to teaching the reader about the various plants, and parts of a terrarium.  The different styles of glass bowls, types of rocks, plants, substrate, tools, and accessories . 

I found the text easy to read and understand.  The author was very good at explaining how everything works, making this an ideal book for a novice to terrariums, while including lots of projects to intrigue the more seasoned.

 
The Projects, more than 15 projects, each with an ingredients list, with step by step instructions for completing them.

My Thoughts:
This is a helpful little book, full of ideas and images and creations.   It’s great to look through to garner ideas for different types of terrariums, or to actually create one of them as written.  My son liked it and didn’t want me to add it our “let’s rehome it” pile so it will sticking around for a while.  ๐Ÿ™‚  (not many books make it to that status which tells you something eh?)  ๐Ÿ™‚

But it’s a great book to teach you how to make your own garden art form. 

Oh!   And check it out!   My lad made his own terrariums!!!

Miniscapes – Create your own Terrarium
Clea Cregan
Hardie Grant Books
Pages: 160
Approximately 8 x 8 inch square 
Type: Hardcover

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where to find it: 
Amazon.ca: Miniscapes: Create Your Own Terrarium

Amazon.com: Miniscapes: Create Your Own Terrarium

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This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Books, Art Series, child-led learning, delight-directed learning, hands-on learning, Science, Series

Art Series: Home School In The Woods – Artist Pack

July 12, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Today I am reviewing for you an Activity-Pak rather than a regular book.  ๐Ÿ™‚   Home School in the Woods has put together the Artists Activity-Pak that the lad and I have been learning from for the past few weeks.   I’ve been sharing some of the pictures on Instagram, but I want to tell you all about it right now!  ๐Ÿ™‚   This unit is part of a larger series of Activity-Paks.

 Home School in the Woods has kept my son and I busy learning about Artists throughout history for the past several weeks.   Activity-Paks are lap books designed to be more than a lap book.  Students should be able to complete them independently (depending on their ability) along with additional activities to add to your study.

You can use the lapbook elements to add to your own study, or use the lapbook as a basis for a larger study.   Some independent research will be required as you do them.

One of the things I liked about this pack is the conversation it provoked as we went through some of the elements.  

These elements include:

  • Art Media
  • Art Movements
  • Art Exhibition
  • Paint Box Vocabulary
  • Paint like the Masters
  • Art Gallery, File Folder Game

I have to admit that I struggled with two of the elements. I found it impossible to put together The File Folder Game and the Artist Exhibition.  I tried printing them off several times but just couldn’t figure out the orientation between two separate files for the same element.   Everything I tried had it coming out incorrect so we just simply by-passed doing those elements as written, rather we talked our way through them, taking our time to examine some of the artists and the work they did.  

I am not sure what they could do to make it easier… possibly put arrows in the margins to show which way it should go or something?   It was extremely frustrating. Or make it book format with the proper orientation done already?   Just thoughts.  We didn’t miss out an anything in the long run, just didn’t do the elements as designed.

Admittedly an element was a touch fussy to make, but as the lad said “I can help you and you can help me”.  I LOVE THAT.  It’s good to have a lad help out his mom and vice versa.  It’s great to laugh and talk together. And if in the process you both learn something, it’s a good thing indeed.  ๐Ÿ™‚

One of the things I most appreciated was that html link.   That provided us with a really really easy way to find the files I needed.  It allowed us to skip around and use the elements that interested us the most at the time.  See how they the instructions are in the brown and the elements are in blue?   Makes it so easy to navigate!

We learned about different types of mediums you can use (clay, marble, acrylic etc), artists of old (Michelangelo, Santi, Rubens etc), new types of artistry we hadn’t heard about before (monoprint, pointilism etc).   So many different forms of art, and then we got a chance to try our hand at some of them.

Oh Oh!   before I forget.  There’s an A La Carte Option!

Home School in the Woods has just introduced an a-la-carte options from some of their projects.   What this means that you can grab and use one or two smaller projects to use.  These aren’t complete unit studies, but rather smaller projects to meet a need or an specific interest.  You can learn more about it here.   

Home School in the Woods
Artists Activity-Pak
Received: Ebook with Html Support, comes as PDF files in a zip file

DOWNLOAD VERSION  $18.95

CD VERSION $19.95


You may find this video helpful in understanding the differences in some of their products:

The Crew has been reviewing a large selection of materials from Home School in the Woods. Home School in the Woods has a whole variety of hands-on history projects for your students to complete.  Here is what we’ve been looking at.

Time Traveler American

  • New World Explorers
  • Colonial Life 
  • The American Revolution
  • The Early 19th Century
  • *The Civil War
  • Industrial Revolution through Great Depression
  • World War II

Activity-Paks

  • The Old Testament
  • The New Testament
  • Composers
  • Artists
  • Make-a-State Activity

Lap-Paks

  • U.S. Elections
  • 20th Century in America
  • Wonders of the World
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Knights

Timeline Trio

To see what we all have to say about these products, click this link OR on the banner below.

http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/hands-on-history-home-school-in-the-woods-reviews/

Social Media Links

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  • Google+:   https://plus.google.com/+Homeschoolinthewoods/posts   +Homeschoolinthewoods 
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrKq6iLty2fpB6R6ZpcUb8A    

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This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Series, Curriculum, homeschool, Review, Series

Art Book: My Name is Georgia

June 14, 2017 By Annette1 4 Comments

YAY!!!   One of my favourite people is doing a guest post for me today.   Lori is going to tell you about a neat book and interesting person.
One of my favorite artists is Georgia O’Keefe. Partly because she
is New Mexican, partly because her artwork is just stunning, partly
because she is just an interesting person. Whatever way you look at it,
Georgia O’Keefe is worth learning a bit about. That is why, when I was
able to visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, I picked up a
children’s biography about her to share with the girls.

My Name Is Georgia a portrait by Jeanette Winter
This
is a lovely children’s book that takes us from Georgia’s childhood
through to her old age. She moved from her Wisconsin childhood home to
Chicago, New York, Texas, and New Mexico. She was always searching for
inspiration and she found it in nature.

This
is not a difficult book to read but it is an inspiring one. Reach for
your desires – this is the inspiration from Georgia O’Keefe. And if it
encourages you to read more about her and all that she did for the art
movement and community, well, that’s all the better.
This book is published by Voyager Books and was purchased at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, NM.

If you were inspired to learn more about Georgia O’Keefe perhaps this video might help.

You can find Lori blogging at At Home where life happens.  You need to visit her seriously, she writes well and has a good heart. ๐Ÿ™‚

Where can you find this delightful book?

Amazon.ca – My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter

Amazon.com – My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Books, Art Series, Books for Adults, Books for Children, Books for Middle School, Books for Upper Elementary, Books for Young Adults, Series

Art Book: Splash of Color

June 8, 2017 By Annette1 7 Comments

 Ah… I need to apologize to you all.. being away last week totally wrecked up my routine for getting posts ready for the blog.  TOTALLY!!!    I need to figure out a way to get caught back up!  

Anyways, I have a neat book here for you today… it’s not a little book by any means, rather long… think the size of those big sketch books you can buy for art … NOT the HUGE ones, but those middle sized ones.   It’s called Splash of Color.  It’s a painting and colouring book.

I know I know.. SAY WHAT?  

It’s a painting and colouring book, it’s made on watercolour paper so you can colour the pages with watercolour brushes or pens, or use paints OR use pencil crayons. 

The point is to colour.  ๐Ÿ™‚

 Isn’t that welcome lovely?   Makes me think of the pleasure it brings to share art with each other doesn’t it with you too?   And this book calls you to make art, to share that art on the easy tear off sheets. 

I have GOT to show you my favourite design in the whole book.  I have this major thing for chickens.  ๐Ÿ™‚  So guess what!   I found a chicken!!!!!

Though admittedly I also like this one: 

Lest you think they only have animals in this book, let me show you some of the variety.

The paper is a very sturdy watercolour paper, able to be pulled out easily to be displayed.  They are designed so they will fit in 9 x 12 frame.  The pages, as you can see pull up from the top.

The opening cover fits smoothly behind each page to provide additional support in your painting & colouring endeavors. 

I definitely recommend this book you and if you do get it, you might want to consider trying out their watercolor pencils as well!

 Splash of Color: Painting & Coloring Book
Author:  Liz Libre of Linda & Harriett 
Pages: 50
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.com – Splash of Color Painting & Coloring Book

Amazon.ca – Splash of Color Painting & Coloring Book

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Books, Art Series, Books for Adults, Books for Middle School, Books for Young Adults, Series

Art Series: A Boy Named Giotto.

May 10, 2017 By Annette1 4 Comments

 I want to thank Kirsten for coming to my rescue this week with another guest post with an art book.  I am SO pleased to have learned about this neat book.   Won’t you join me in learning about it?

This is a wonderful treasure of a book that tells the
life of Giotto and explains his drive to create art that led him to
become one of the greatest painters of all time.

This is a book that tells most in its pictures and has
little text, although the reading level is beyond the reach of little
ones. It is a perfect book to give to older school-aged children and even
teens. But I used it as a read aloud book so my children could listen,
look at the glorious pictures, and discuss ideas that came up along the
way.

You can pair this book with a number of other activities
like painting with egg (as Giotto did), reading a short biography of
his life, and perusing a book by Madeline L’Engle that is filled with
his pictures telling the story of the life of Jesus.

So pick up “A Boy Named Giotto” at a bookstore or library today and open up a window to the past for your children.

Additional resources:



Egg painting activity – just like Giotto
Biography of Giotto

The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L’Engle:A retelling of the 25 important events in the life of Jesus in a beautiful picture book.

Title: A Boy Named Giotto
Author: Paolo Guarnieri

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: A Boy Named Giotto

Amazon.com: A Boy Named Giotto

Kirsten West is a Christian Homeschooling Mom who blogs at DoodleMom’s Homeschooling Life.  Isn’t she a delight?   She found time in the midst of a crazy busy week to share this lovely find with us.  THANK YOU Kirsten!  ๐Ÿ™‚

Learn more about Giotto, through Amazon.com:

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Books, Art Series, Books for Children, Books for Middle School, Books for Upper Elementary, guest post, homeschool, Series

Art Book Series: Spot the Differences

May 3, 2017 By Annette1 6 Comments

HI!   Guess what, Joanna is nice enough to guest post for me with what sounds like a fascinating book.  Joanna commented on my blog about this book and I asked if she’d please please please write a blog post for me as I wanted you all to know about it too!   Come check it out with me eh? 
I am always looking for ways to keep my boys interested in learning about art. 

We
have read many great books about artists, carried out artist studies
complete with copied works, and go on field trips to local art museums.  

But
I always wanted my boys to really stop and study the works of art.
 Look for the nuances that make them so spectacular, learn the names of
major works of art and the artists who painted them.  

I
was so thrilled when I stumbled upon the Spot the Differences book!  So
far we only have book 1 but there are 4 of them in the series.  

I love this series because my boys were excited about using it!  

The
book has 25 famous paintings– each painting is pictured twice.  The
first page shows the original painting complete with name and date it
was painted.  The opposing page shows the same picture with anywhere
from 6-14 change and you are challenged to find all the differences
between the original work of art and the changed picture.  There is an
answer key in the back of the book if you get stumped and a handy box
for checking off all the differences you have found. 



 Surrounding
both pictures are snippets of information about the artist, the
painting itself, and some facts about the historical period in which the
artist lived and painted. 

It has made art study so fun! 

  You can find Joanna over at Our Unschooling Journey Through Life.   Do be sure to visit her there as well eh?

Where can you find it:
 Amazon.com: Spot the Differences Book 1: Art Masterpiece Mysteries (Dover Children’s Activity Books)

Amazon.ca: Spot the Differences Book 1: Art Masterpiece Mysteries




Joanne Rawson is the author of the blog Our Unschooling Journey.
Known around the web as Mother of 3, Joanne began her blog when she
first started homeschooling her three boys in 2012. She lives in
Connecticut with her family and enjoys reading, crafting, and
travelling… all of which usually ends up on her blog.

Social Media:
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ahomeschoolingjourney
Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/ctcrafter/
Google+:Mother of 3 – Google+

 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Art Books, Art Series, Books for Children, Books for Middle School, Books for Upper Elementary, guest post, homeschool

Review: ArtAchieve

May 1, 2017 By Annette1 4 Comments

Imagine taking an art class in the comfort and freedom of your own home… professional lessons, art lessons for children, provided by ArtAchieve.  I don’t know if you remember that the lad and I reviewed this last year, and were delighted to review for ArtAchieve again, this year broaching the Entire Level III.  Boy.. has it been fun.  ๐Ÿ™‚

One of the things I love, after various conversations with John, is how he holds true to his statements.
He believes anyone can learn to draw, that it is not a skill only for the talented but for anyone.  It’s a necessary skill that improves one’s abilities in many other subjects. He structures his lessons in such a way that if you want to learn to draw a cat, your cat will LOOK like a cat.  ๐Ÿ™‚  At the same time, he leaves plenty of room for creative self-expression, so the cat you draw will be YOUR cat, not his, not your neighbours, but all yours.   Learning to draw means paying attention to what you are observing, it means thinking creatively which spills over to other subjects.  Doing art helps you cover history, geography, literature and more.   I know it has helped us in our Canadian Studies!  ๐Ÿ™‚

Come.. explore ArtAchieve with us, won’t you?

Once you have logged into ArtAchieve you will be brought to a page with all your lessons.

Each lesson, if you click on the (+) sign opens into usually four sections.

The way you approach the lesson influences which version you use.  My son wasn’t keen on the video as he needed to stop and start it all the time.   He would rather not do that.  He quickly learned that the powerpoint version worked best for him.   One slide at a time with little dots below that he could shift between.  He could quickly skip ahead to see the final result or he could jump a few buttons back to review that he did a step properly.

The son was busy.. ever so busy with having fun about the armadillo as a turtle rabbit.  I raise rabbits so he was bugging me about how many some of them might want to become turtles so I better watch out for turtle rabbits. AND DON’T get him started on the German.. oh my!!!!    11 year olds and their sense of humour eh?  We could just see those little armoured turtle rabbits running around.  It just made us laugh together. ๐Ÿ™‚  Each lesson John adds these “curriculum connectors” as I call them, where he gives some of the history of the animal used, or the art form involved.  He throws in history, geography, science and what not.  Art is such a cross-curricular subject and it just neat to see the Cross Curricular Connections he makes.

Each lesson starts off the same (except for the stop action lesson at the end of level three).  A line drawing to complete (so you can practice drawing the parts of the subject matter) and a supplies list.  You can also find a supply list for all the lessons under supplies when you login, though I found it wasn’t as complete as the in-lesson supply list.

We ran into one lesson where we didn’t have the acrylic paints needed so I emailed John to find out how necessary they were or if we could make do with oil or tempura paints, or if pencil crayons might work as well.   He said “Go ahead all those will work”.  ๐Ÿ™‚  So we did.   I just love art programs that are accommodating as that’s how I approach art! I figure what is important.. the medium or the learning the style taught?   Granted, if a lesson is about HOW to do work with pastels.. well..then you want to use pastels.  But this lesson was about how to do form lines and plain lines so the materials used didn’t matter quite as much.

Each lesson contains a different art lessons, whether about form lines, working in 3rds, or working with different mediums like glue and aluminum foil.    The art lessons are short and illustrated well.  

The lad and I finished two projects.  We worked through them slowly as that helps my perfectionist son take the time that needs to do a job well.

For this project we were supposed to draw an armadillo.
But the lad wanted to do a pokemon character and I thought
I’d try a cat.   The lad helped with the cat feet as I was struggling with them,
I helped the lad with curving the leaves of his Oddish.
The lad thoroughly enjoyed this project once he saw it finished!
This totem project was a time-taker.  
We did one section at a time to draw, doing the black form lines went quickly.
The lad was hesitant about doing the colour, until he started
and then he figured out how he wanted it to go.

One of the things I really appreciated was how John showed us different options for how a finished project might look.  Sometimes they were quite different from each other but it drove home how different people do can do the same art project and have it turn out completely differently.  It gave the lad the freedom he needed to do his OWN art. We talked alot doing each art piece, discussing methods, colour, types of pencils, marker yes or not, how to make easy lines within a colour (use white crayon!) and so much more.  We learned alot about the Pacific coast people.  Here’s a bit we learned while doing our totem poles.
In fact we actually have a problem… we don’t agree on which project we should do next… should it be the frog (the lad) or the Canada geese (me)?   We can put a Canadian spin on both you know?  ๐Ÿ™‚

I have to admit, I’m looking forward to when we do the Canada Goose lesson, check out some of the Cross Curricular Connections we’ll be able to do.   We’ll be able to visit websites to learn facts about geese, do a character study via youtube, read good books about geese, and more.  I can see us looking up Canada Geese migrating and perhaps finding out why some geese stick around all winter!  You find this under the art lessons tab.

If you are intrigued by ArtAchieve I strongly urge you to try out the free lesson!  See for yourself if John’s way of teaching works well for you.  ๐Ÿ™‚  Really.. you won’t regret it!

Vendor: ArtAchieve
Product Name and Links: Entire Level III

Cost For Level Three: Individual Lesson $6 each, bundles of three for $16, or the entire course for $58.50
Received: One Year of Level III.

100 of us are reviewing John’s great art program.  Click here to read more (or the image below).     The other levels are: Entire Level I , Entire Level II and Entire Level IV

http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/art-lessons-inspired-from-around-the-world-artachieve-reviews/

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve   @ArtAchieve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland   @johnahofland
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtAchieve   @ArtAchieve
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve   artachieve
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+JohnHoflandartachieve   ArtAchieve

Hashtags: #hsreviews  #artachieve, #artlessonsforkids, #homeschool #artclassesforkids, #drawinglessonsforkids

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

ยฉ2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Filed Under: Art, Uncategorized Tagged With: Art, Canada, child-led learning, hands-on learning, homeschool, Review, TOS

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