Celeste knows what’s up.
The Most Accurate Summary of Greek Mythology Ever
Celeste knows what’s up.
Greek myths
Family Sunday at the St. Louis Art Museum
Sometimes, a completely unplanned, spur-of-the-moment field trip comes up at the last-minute, and you just have to roll with it. That’s what happened today, all because I was reading the newspaper. There was an article about the new restaurant in the St. Louis Art Museum expansion, and reading that made me realize that we hadn’t been there since the addition opened, and for quite some time before that. So I went to check out their website, to see what was new, and came across Family Sundays.
I have no idea how old this program is, but I had never heard of it before. The theme for August is ancient Greece, which is perfect because we’ll be studying the ancients in school this year. Since we already have plans for next Sunday, we had to go today if we were going to learn about the Greeks, so off we went!
The had a craft activity, which was only somewhat successful, but still fun…bead-making:
They also had a (free) tour of some of the ancient Greek art, along with a discussion about the Greek myths that the art represents:
The tour guide was awesome, and did a great job. And even though they already knew all the stories he discussed, Turkey and Bunny really enjoyed it. We’re hoping to go back at some point next month, when the focus will be on ancient America!
Making Connections
One of my greatest joys in homeschooling is seeing my children make connections to what they’ve learned, especially when the connections are made outside of our regular school-time.
We’ve been reading White Stallion of Lipizza, which is a fantastic book, and the children have been loving it. Even the two little ones have sat with us, and looked and listened–it’s just a great story. Last night, though, I got a glimpse of those connections being made, and it was so exciting!
In the chapters we read last night, there were several references to Greek mythology–both Atlas and Apollo were mentioned. And Turkey and Bunny were so pleased with themselves for knowing what those stories were, and figuring out how they related to the story we were currently reading. That’s another fun part of homeschooling–seeing their confidence grow as they learn.
We also stumbled upon the word coronation in our reading. Now, that may not sound terribly exciting, except that corona is one of our vocabulary words in Latin this week. Again, they were excited, because they recognized the root word, and knew that it was related to what we were learning. They needed a little guidance to come to the actual definition of coronation–how many of those do we see in America, after all–but the important thing was the fact that they could recognize a derivative when they heard it.
These connections show both that they’re remembering what they’ve learned, and that they’re getting how to apply it. And I have to say, that’s very beneficial to my confidence as teacher!