nature girl Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 My DD4 has always been driven to do the 3R's, she would push herself for hours a day if I let her. But I'd really love to show her there's more to learning than just LA and math, push back on those a bit and give her more of a well-rounded education when we start (informal) K this summer. We're already doing science experiments, using BFSU, and having a lot of fun with it, but I'd love to incorporate art, poetry, classical music/composer study and history/cultural studies in a very informal way. (I don't think she's ready for SOTW, and she's not all that big on art projects, to my dismay. The money I have wasted on art materials!!) Can any of you help me with fun, gentle approaches to exposing younger kids to the humanities? She adores books, but I'd also be open to online resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnaj Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 Have you looked into FIAR? It's really fun and gentle, and you can do so much with it. There is definitely art and music incorporated into many of the books, and my girls LOVE it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 The Beethoven's Wig CDs with a little biographical info (from Wikipedia or wherever) were neat for composer study. There are silly lyrics made up to go with the songs. Child-Size Masterpieces is fun for looking at art. I did a poem of the week with DS at that age, and just read it to him each day. Sometimes we talked about it a lot, and sometimes not. Sometimes I used poems meant for elementary children (from a Scholastic e-book) and sometimes just picked things I thought he'd like from Shel Silverstain, Edward Lear, Emily Dickinson, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommytoFour Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 Maybe the Kindergarten enrichment from Memoria Press. http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/kindergarten-enrichment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 For classical music, I've really been considering SQUILT from Homegrown Learners. It looks awesome! And I also want to do Memoria Press art cards. They look beautiful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Birdcage Press makes games like Go Fish with art cards. http://www.birdcagepress.com The Oxford First Book of Art is a gentle introduction to looking at famous paintings. We love the Beethoven's Wig CDs. Story of the Orchestra tells about different instruments and has a CD that shows you the different sounds. We are from Canada and listen to a lot of Canadian folk music. For any Canadians, Michael Mitchell has a set of CDs called Canada is for Kids which my children love. We do weekly poetry readings with extended family members where everyone takes a turn reading a poem or two, or an Aesop's fable. After your turn you get to enjoy a cookie. Our current favourite poetry book is Talking Like the Rain. We have the two A. A. Milne poetry books ordered as we have liked so many of his poems. We use BFSU for our science outline. Two other useful books have been "How to Think Like a Scientist" (teaches the scientific method) and "Teaching the Fun of Science to Young Learners" (science investigations). We like the book Children of the World. It has drawings, stories and poems from children in pretty much every country in the world. http://www.amazon.com/Children-World-Learn-Drawings-Photographs/dp/0789322676/ref=la_B00IYQN0YA_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399852541&sr=1-1 Geopuzzles are awesome for learning geography in a fun way. We have placemats with world maps, Canadian map, world flags, etc. We really like FIAR too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nature girl Posted May 12, 2014 Author Share Posted May 12, 2014 Thank you all so much. I've looked through all the suggestions, and they're making me salivate! Opening this thread is going to be bad for my pocketbook... We did a volume of FIAR, and loved it. But I stopped after looking through some of the books in the other volumes, Rag Coat in particular got to me so I ended up stalling on ordering the others. But it's definitely something we'll do more of in the future, maybe once she's old enough to handle the more sensitive/traumatic stories, or is ready for Vol 4. Are the MP art cards explained more in the K Enrichment? They're beautiful, but I'd love more points for discussion to build on. I'd actually put Beethoven's wig in my bottomless Amazon cart months ago when it was mentioned here, and then promptly forgot about it. It's in my cart again now, and I just bought SQUILT which looks absolutely fabulous! I also put some of the suggested books on hold at our library. I'm so excited to have some great, cozy discussions (and maybe learn a few things myself)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Thank you all so much. I've looked through all the suggestions, and they're making me salivate! Opening this thread is going to be bad for my pocketbook... We did a volume of FIAR, and loved it. But I stopped after looking through some of the books in the other volumes, Rag Coat in particular got to me so I ended up stalling on ordering the others. But it's definitely something we'll do more of in the future, maybe once she's old enough to handle the more sensitive/traumatic stories, or is ready for Vol 4. Are the MP art cards explained more in the K Enrichment? They're beautiful, but I'd love more points for discussion to build on. I'd actually put Beethoven's wig in my bottomless Amazon cart months ago when it was mentioned here, and then promptly forgot about it. It's in my cart again now, and I just bought SQUILT which looks absolutely fabulous! I also put some of the suggested books on hold at our library. I'm so excited to have some great, cozy discussions (and maybe learn a few things myself)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Sorry...I'm still trying to figure out the 'quote' thing! Yes, I believe the MP Enrichment Guide is where you find the art card info. I'm hoping to look at one this weekend in a Mardel store to see if it's what I want. So glad SQUILT worked out for you. I'm probably going to get it too soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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