Louis Comfort Tiffany

It's taken me a little longer than I anticipated to get back to that post about the Tiffany stained glass that I promised you. Sorry about that! Life got a little busy. 

But without further ado, here are our pictures of the Willard Memorial Chapel in Auburn, NY. It is the only existing chapel in the world that was completely decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany. 

He designed not only the stained glass windows, but the tile mosaic floors, the pulpit, the gold leaf stenciled ceiling and even the pews. It is stunning! Two sisters originally commissioned it in 1892 to honor their deceased father.

The chapel is now open to the public and is used for concerts and weddings as well. It was sold to a NYC antiques dealer in the 1980's and he planned to sell off all the stained glass and then turn it into a nightclub! Thankfully, a group of citizens joined together to raise enough money to buy it from him. Whew!

This is the glass tile mosaic side panel of the 

gilt bronze relief in the picture just above it.

The enormous pipe organ

Our tour guide said, "how would you boys like to see what's underneath this pipe organ?" 

She even let them preach!

This is a close-up of the front of the pulpit.

And when it was time to go, our guide let the boys find the secret panel where the light switches are hidden and turn off the lights. 

We all agreed that it was definitely worth the trip!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Friends!

I thought I'd share some of our Easter projects with you tonight. We've been doing a Grapevine Bible study on The Last Supper and found this adorable craft to go with it:

The bowls hold some of the results of a wonderful tradition of getting together with our friends to color eggs every year. We've been doing it since our oldest God-daughter, Sarah, was 4 or 5 years old. This year, her new husband joined us!

And yes, we do blow out the eggs so that we can save them. A drill and a bicycle pump make that job a little easier!

Of course, we had to look at Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper. This link will take you to a page where you can view it pre- and post-restoration. And here is a short video that discusses the painting.

Since we studied the artist Benjamin West last year, we took a look at his version of the Last Supper as well. It's very different, but you can see that he was influenced by DaVinci's painting.

This evening after dinner, we made these little empty tombs for tomorrow. The directions can be found here. They were so simple but the boys absolutely loved making them! Tomorrow, they will all have little "He is Risen!" banners. Before bed, we read a book that we just discovered and absolutely LOVE about a rooster that witnesses the crucifixion but rejoices in new life 3 days later.

Have a blessed Easter!

Our Week with Ping

Ping holds a special place in my heart because this Five in a Row unit was the very first thing that Z-Man and I ever did in the way of "official" homeschooling. This week, I was so happy to re-visit it with Little Man!

Some of the things we did:

• Found China on our huge, shower curtain map from Target. That was a great purchase.
• Read about China in our atlas and found the Yangtze River.

• Tried our own colored pencil sunsets, using one of the pictures in the book as a guide.

• Read the book, Ducks by Gail Gibbons and learned about different types of ducks.
• Learned how preening makes the duck's feathers waterproof and did an experiment where we tried to mix oil and water.

• Read the book, Floating and Sinking by Franklyn Branley, and did our own buoyancy experiments, using this chart from Homeschoolshare.com. We discussed what a hypothesis is and I taught Z-Man, who couldn't resist tagging along, how to calculate percentages.

All in all, a great week of fun and learning!

Fun and Messy Pastels

We tried pastels this week for some great, messy, artistic fun. I found 30 pastels tutorials at Hodgepodge. The instructions were easy to follow and I think the results were stunning! The tree reflections tutorial is number 15 in that link if you'd like to try it.

Little Man, hard at work and sporting a green cheek and multi-colored sleeve.

To LM's way of thinking, if it's a picture of trees, then it should have as many trees as he can fit on the page.

Z-Man wasn't quite as into the mess, but we had baby wipes on hand for clean-up.

I think they both did a great job.

And I gave it a shot too.

We'll definitely have to try some more of these great tutorials!

Day at the museum

To wrap up our study of photographer Ansel Adams, the boys and I went to an exhibit of his work! Thank you, Mom, for financing our field trip!

We couldn't take pictures inside, but the boys were happy to pose on the front steps for me.

Before his death in 1985, Mr. Adams selected a group of photos that he felt best represented his work and this show contained about two thirds of those, in addition to some of the camera equipment that he would have used. It was wonderful to see the prints up close.

Among those we saw were Monolith: The Face of Half Dome and

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

Our favorite biography in this study was Ansel Adams: America's Photographer.

We also watched a nice interview from 1983 on YouTube here. It is in four parts and that link takes you to the first. The other three can be found on the right side of the screen. I can't really recommend the Ric Burns PBS documentary. It seemed to me that they misrepresented him and there were a few things that weren't suitable for younger viewers.

All in all, we have enjoyed this artist study immensely and I think we all have a new appreciation for the art of photography.

Our Ansel Adams Photo Safari

We're continuing our artist study with Ansel Adams this semester. Our study is very simple - we look at some of the artist's work, discuss it, and read a biography or two. Today we took advantage of the lovely September weather and went out in search of high-contrast nature images to capture in the style of Ansel Adams.

And then we waded in the river to cool off.

I'll leave you with a poem that seemed just perfect for today:

SEPTEMBER

by: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

HE golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.




The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.




The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.




From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.




By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

Finding the humor in artist and composer study

As I was going over the artists and composers plans, I saw that last time I posted about our art and music plans, I left out a few really great resources we're planning to use. I did link to the Classics for Kids site, which is wonderful, but I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention some CD's we've all enjoyed in the car for over a year now:

There are now four volumes (I just this minute found out about number four - that's going on my wish list!) We have the first three and they are really funny. Check out the lyrics to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony here. No, really, do. I'll wait.

Funny, huh? Now if that doesn't get a reluctant kid interested in classical music, what will?

Maybe these - author Mike Venezia has written a whole slew of books covering artists, composers and presidents in his own amusing style.

And as I looked up pictures of these for you, I just discovered they've added inventors and scientists to this series! How grand to live in the information age!

While we're on the subject of humorous books about artists and composers, be sure to check these out:

Now these are just plain quirky and no one loves quirky more than I, but you may need to edit a little if you don't want to explain cirrhosis of the liver and, ahem...worse. For that reason, they'll be read-alouds here. But you can't beat this for getting a kid's attention:

"As a young music teacher, Bach was out walking one night when six of his own students attacked him. They wanted an apology. Bach had called one of them a 'nanny-goat bassoonist' - someone who makes a bassoon sound like a goat. But Bach wouldn't take it back; he drew a knife in self-defense. Luckily, the fight was broken up before anyone was really hurt."

Who knew?

At the other end of the spectrum is this book, which uses primary sources to shed light on each composer's relationship with God. These are wonderful, inspiring stories that you will definitely not hear in public school.

And last, but definitely not least, a wonderful blog I've been following for quite some time: Harmony Art Mom. Love it! Scroll way down on the right hand side bar for lists of artists and composers. She keeps everything very simple - Charlotte Mason style. Lots of great stuff!