Wednesday 21 January 2015

It's Wild Out Here!

When we started our Calendar of Firsts, I expected our lists of sightings to thin out quickly and they sure did, when compared to our initial records.  From our lists in the past week:


  • a flurry of snow

  • lightning
  • thunderstorm
  • hail storm

 Listen to the noise and see how much hail accumulated on the window sill!


  • very strong wind

  • iced-over water droplets by 5pm

All quite wild (by UK standard), if you ask me.


Looking through our list for the week, I asked Tiger to choose what he would like to draw.  His first choice was to draw the hail storm, which both of us thought was the most interesting thing that happened, weather-wise.  However, I could not find any instruction to draw hail storms, so we settled for capturing the essence of the sudden flashes of lightning in the middle of the week and the thunderstorm that followed immediately afterwards.


As you can see from our entries below, we have taken a fair bit of artistic licence with our Calendar of Firsts.  Our entries probably won't pass the rigourous test of 'Charlotte Mason-style authenticity' (to whom the idea of Calendar of Firsts has been attributed) but doing it our own way has kept our interests up and more importantly, made us feel happy that we have remained true to our (my son's and my) uniquely defiant, non-conformist selves.  I realise that we will probably never become flag-bearers for anyone else's system, no matter how much we admire or are inspired by it.  Luckily, we are very comfortable with adding our personal touches to things/methods so what you see is more of a norm than an exception here!


As before, we noted the first sightings of nature occurrences in our books.  At the end of the week, we chose one or two items from that week's list to draw.  The first item we drew was the lightning, because that the most dramatic natural phenomenon for the week - this says it all, doesn't it?  We actually lead rather placid lives.


Then, Tiger wanted to draw some trees on fire, although we didn't see that happen here, thankfully.  By his logic, lightnight sometimes strikes trees which causes trees to catch fire, so drawing flames would be a suitably relevant addition to our entries:


The last thing we drew was the "Bang!" graphic.  Obviously, any self-respecting real, serious artist would not draw sounds in his/her drawings, but we are not that serious around here so it's ok to add visual sounds to our drawings, and we did hear the loud cracking noise of thunder so I'd consider the visuals as our attempt at a realistic representation of what we heard:


For someone who is looking to replicate exactly the Charlotte Mason-style Calendar of Firsts, our example here would probably 'lead you astray', so to speak.  However, it is an approach that keeps us interested and brings us joy, so it works for us.




This post is linked up to:
  1. Science Sunday #12
  2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/20/15
  3. The Virtual Refrigerator
  4. History and Geography Meme: Introduction to the Middle Ages
  5. Collage Friday: Homeschooling an 8th Grader
  6. Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the first week of workbooks
  7. My Week in Review #21

16 comments:

  1. What fun! I love the idea of drawing a storm, although I wouldn't have had a clue where to begin - but now I do!
    I think both your entries are unique and very good!

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    1. Thanks, Claire. The drawing part was really fun, once we found the instructions to get started! :-)

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  2. Being able to change things to fit our own style is one of the wonderful things about homeschooling. I have seen barns burn after lightning struck them, but it isn't something I'd choose to experience again. Thanks for sharing this! I'm going to read about the book of firsts.

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    1. The forces of nature are so powerful and fascinating, yet can be totally devastating if not handled carefully. I have caught sight of a lightning striking a tree before but it didn't burst into flames, as my son has imagined. :-)

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  3. I like the idea of a journal of firsts. Wonderful post.

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    1. Thanks, Phyllis. I think the Calendar of First takes the pressure off of us to make a full page of natural journal entry, while keeping up with nature study at the same time. :-)

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  4. My daughter is studying weather this year and has been drawing some of the weather conditions we've seen. But I'm not sure we would figure out how to draw a hailstorm either! Thanks for linking to the Virtual Fridge!

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    1. Weather conditions can be very tricky to draw, but it's interesting to know how to! Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment, Kym! :-)

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  5. Great project and fun for those artist in the house. Thanks for the video share. I'm visiting from weekly wrapups!

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    1. Thanks, Nita. It's fun to just draw and not have to worry about being too precise. :-)

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  6. I love a good thunderstorm and hail. (We don't get enough of that here in Southern California.) It makes me miss Alaska. (Where I was born and raised.)
    Have a good weekend!

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    1. Thunderstorm and hail are so dramatic! Alaska is so full of wild life that I'm sure you're feeling the huge difference living in Southern California, Lindsey. However, I think every place has its own unique climate and wild life so you'll probably find quite a few interesting things to observe in nature where you are as well. :-)

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  7. Loving the drawings. Looks like a fun week of weather learning too

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    1. Thanks, Melissa. We seem to lean towards weather studies this time of the year... probably because it's so cold and wet outside most of the time so we look for more interesting things to do indoors! :-)

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  8. How did we miss all that exciting weather?! You and Tiger are very observant! Seriously though, I'm loving your Calendar of Firsts, and I love how you're making it your own. Did you see the Wild Weather episode where they made hail? C(11) made her own in the freezer after that, although she conceded that officially it was round ice rather than proper hail, which has rings inside it like a tree.
    I like the idea of "capturing the essence" in your art.

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    1. Thanks for being so supportive of our efforts, Lucinda! Much appreciated! :-)

      Funny you should mention the episode 2 of the Wild Weather series. We just watched it! And from it, learnt that it was not hail that we saw, but ice balls! I shall have to correct that in my next post. We're watching the other two episodes for good measure, since we are learning a fair bit from the series.

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