Cézanne's Apples

Still Life of Apples and Biscuits, Paul Cézanne, 1880-82

Yesterday was Paul Cézanne's birthday.  We've been celebrating since last week with a lesson block on post-impressionism.  We began our studies with, Monet and the Impressionists for Kids by Carol Sabbeth.  This is a clever book with 21 activities for kids.


My goal was to expose A. to a form of art she hadn't seen before and inspire her with Cézanne's apples, Monet's lilies, and the dancers of Degas.  What happened was so much more...

We typically make time for art a few days per week with special projects like watercolor painting or sculpting with homemade play dough.  A. also enjoys drawing and coloring in her Main Lesson Books with beeswax crayons nearly every day to demonstrate her favorite part of a story, something we learned on a nature walk, or a new math concept (such as King Equal distributing jewels to the gnomes).  Until now, however, we haven't formally studied art or given it a regular place in our schedule.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1886

Last week we gave art top billing and sat down every morning with a new project.  We experimented with oil pastels and met five new artists.  A. learned to identify Cézanne's apples (he painted a lot of still-lifes on tipsy tabletops with fruit looking like it might roll right off the table), Monet's lilies (they look a lot like lotus flowers!), Degas' dancers (ballerinas stretching, yawing, twirling but never posing!), Gauguin's girls (Tahitian girls and tropical scenes often outlined in black), and Seurat's dots (he painted with small dots in a style called pointillism).  Yes, I know the "t' is Seurat is silent... but it's so much easier to remember when it rhymes!

Amelie's first still life (inspired by Cézanne)

We also moved piano to our morning session of school -- something else that I typically don't schedule but always encourage.  In the past my thought was to let her come to art and music on her own - especially piano - and not to push it.  She is only six after all.  But this week's change in our schedule really worked wonders.  

Moving the arts to our morning session breathed new life into our routine and fired up my girl's mind and heart so that the afternoon subjects were a breeze.  Studying the arts is not just about learning to paint or play, after all.  The arts, both visual and performing, actually enhance brain development in young children (read about it here).  It's such a shame that they're absent from so many schools today.  I suppose there's no time or money for the arts when we spend it all on test-taking though.

Bedroom at Arles, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

The highlight of our lesson-block came Tuesday with a trip to San Francisco to see the de Young exhibit, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.  Standing inches from the original works mesmerized us both... and it was here that A. met my favorite artist, Van Gogh.  I thought the star of the exhibit was his Starry Night over the Rhone.  A. preferred his Bedroom at Arles and has since created a little masterpiece of her own bedroom using oil pastels. 

Cézanne is quoted as saying, “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”  With the arts no longer present in school, who will start the revolution?  Will be become a world devoid of beauty and meaning?  I refuse to imagine that world.... so we're keeping the arts right where they belong -- as the first subject of the day.

The Art of Non-Doing

Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves and for those we love is put down the to-do list and let go a little.  For many of us, the results-driven world makes that a difficult task.  One place I can usually cultivate a little mindful non-doing is in the tub.  The bubbles, the warmth, the calm of the water all have a way of restoring balance.  Yesterday's art project taught me that we don't even need to get our whole body in the tub to reap the benefits.  

We began with an afternoon walk and collected stones that were round, semi-flat, and stacked easily.  We brought the stones home, washed them, and then I filled the tub with warm, soapy water.  The girls wrapped their stones tightly with wool, then dipped them in the bubbly tub.  When wet, the wool shrinks around the stones.  The process of dipping, squeezing, and swirling the wool-covered stones in warm soapy water might calm even the most cantankerous kid.  It didn't take long before the girls were immersed fully in the moment.  Anything can be an exercise in mindfulness.  

We started with solid colors.  Then we went back and added little wisps of additional color.  I reminded the girls that this project was about the process more than it was about the end result.  As they worked, they learned that they couldn't force the wool to take the shape they wanted nor could they try to create too specific a design with the colors.  The best results came from letting go and allowing the result to manifest in its own time.  This is the art of non-doing.  When we let go of our attachment to the results, we are free to enjoy the process.

As Jon Kabat-Zinn writes in, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, "Non-doing doesn't have to be threatening to people who feel they always have to get things done.  They might find they get even more "done," and done better, by practicing non-doing."  

Too often, we sacrifice the joy of this moment for some distant objective.  We are already half way into the next moment before this moment ends.  Yet, enjoying our life requires that we are present for it.  Our striving, our constant doing, stands between us and our joy.  Non-doing may be a lost art in today's world; nevertheless, it's an art this home-educator intends to keep in the classroom.

Socially Conscious Math

Today was a Math and Social Studies day and our Main Lesson was the number ten.  After writing "t-e-n" and "10" on the board a few times, we used wooden blocks to answer math facts with sums of ten.  We also outlined our hands, numbered our fingers one through ten, and counted by fives and tens. Then I read a sweet tale about generating good karma, The Little Caterpillar's Stripes, from the Oak Meadow Kindergarten Syllabus.  Introducing math concepts through archetypal stories integrates Math with Social Studies and Language Arts.  For a great article on the significance of integrating subjects, read Why Integrate?: A Case for Collating the Curriculum.

In our socially conscious math story, a fuzzy caterpillar must do ten good deeds in his bug community.  After each act of kindness, he earns a yellow stripe.  After the tenth stripe is earned, he makes a soft nest called a pupa and drifts off to sleep.  When he awakens, he discovers the consequences for his kindness: he's transformed into a beautiful butterfly.  I had Amelie take picture notes while listening, then answer questions on content, characters, sequence, and moral.  We finished in her Main Lesson Book by writing the number ten a few times and drawing a picture from the story.

Wooden blocks are a great tool for nurturing creativity.  Amelie shared these today during Circle Time and asked to name some of the things about them that were the same and different.  Some of our observations were: they are all the same size and shape, there are different patterns in the wood grain, they all have light and dark colors, they all have faded  spots, and, like Friday's snowflakes, no two are the same.  Later, Amelie took a few minutes for building.

Next up, we kept up the social consciousness with a short discussion about the earthquake in Haiti.  We found Haiti on the globe, lit a candle, and had a few moments of silence.  I think we'll do this every day this week. While we certainly don't want our kids feeling scared about events like these, I think acknowledging what is happening in the world is essential to raising conscious, compassionate kids. 

After lunch, it was time for Art-Social Studies integration. This is the last week of our December-January thematic unit, Bringing Back the Light.  To honor the winter season and the various holidays, we've been discussing the return of the sun and what it means to feel full of light.

A dear friend just sent us, You with the Stars in Your Eyes: A Little Girl's Glimpse at Cosmic Consciousness, by Deepak Chopra.  This little treasure fit our thematic unit perfectly... "the stars gave us eyes so they could see themselves."

After five minutes of mindfulness with Susan Kaiser Greenland on mindfulness together, we finished our day with a little dancing and yoga stretching.  Tomorrow we'll see some friends, sign up for the new ballet term, and have a piano lesson.  On Wednesday, we'll revisit the number ten, explore it's essence, march and sing our math facts, and maybe start the letter P.

Music, Math, & a Wise Heart

Today was a math and music day so I set my mind to seeing numbers everywhere this morning.  In the process, a Social Studies lesson cropped up organically and reminded me that real wisdom is greater than knowledge.  

This week our Riverdog Farm veggie box contained about ten mandarin oranges. I noticed this morning that they were beginning to look mushy so we started the day with math.  First we counted the oranges -- ten.  Then I sliced them each in half -- twenty.  Only six halves fit on our cutting board and this created a great illustration of the number six as 3+3 and 3x2.  I juiced and Amelie handed the halves to me... this is subtraction.  Six pieces minus one piece equals five pieces. 

To a young one, making juice by hand demonstrates the amount of labor that goes into bringing just one glass to the table.  As we were juicing, I was reminded of a passage from Touching the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh and our Social Studies lesson began.

"Looking into my bowl of rice, I see clearly that this is the gift of the earth and the sky.  I see the rice field, the vegetable garden, the sunshine, rain, manure, and the hard work of the farmer.  I see the beautiful fields of golden wheat, the one who reaps the harvest, who threshes the grain, who makes the bread.  I see the beans sown in the earth becoming the beanstalk.  I see the apple orchard, the plum orchard, the tomato garden, and the workers who are cultivating the plants.  I see the bees and butterflies going from flower to flower collecting pollen to make sweet honey for me to eat.  I can see that every element of the cosmos has contributed to making this apple or this plum that I am holding in my hand or this leaf of steamed vegetable that I am dipping into the soy sauce.  My heart is full of gratitude and happiness."

I asked Amelie to think about all of the work that went into bringing these oranges to us and we talked while we squeezed.  "Looking deeply into our golden orange juice, what do you see?"  "I see the the seed that grew into a tree!"

The world is full of people who have accumulated information; however, a person who thinks with their mind and heart in alignment is a gem and often a real asset to our global community. Integrating core subjects helps develop a wise heart and honors the whole child. This encourages our kids to honor themselves and the world around them.  Since Kindergarten is a time for developmental play, awe and wonder, the last thing we want to do is override the senses, over-pressure a young mind, or put to much emphasis on the intellectual process.  If a child is directed into academic thinking too often and too soon, we risk getting them stuck up there in their head. 

One way we keep it fresh and fun is by making music.  Piano is a regular part of our curriculum and the benefits of music on the mind and body have been recognized since the days of the great Greek philosophers. Plato said music “gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything.” Visual and performing arts have a way of tapping into that part of us that is more than mind and, at the same time, music begins with math. 

According to the PBS Independent Lens documentary, Music from the Inside Out, A 1997 study by Rauscher and Shaw revealed that preschoolers who studied piano performed 34 percent better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers. Preschoolers who took singing and keyboard lessons scored 80 percent higher on puzzle tests than students at the same preschool who did not have music lessons.

After Circle Time, we moved right into piano practice and got her mind working in sequences, repeating patterns, and thinking forwards and backwards.  Then it was time for her lesson and a little socialization with her music teacher.  The focus today was learning about intervals. Up and down the keys she went naming notes, repeating patterns, accessing both sides of her brain, and lighting up that part of us that is more than mind.

Back home, we reviewed the four processes of math with an art project and used watercolors to paint brightly colored sets of bugs.  This was great quality time together and we both enjoyed painting and then using colored markers to write out the math sentences. Three ladybugs plus three ladybugs plus three ladybugs equals nine ladybugs.  This emphasized what we'd done in the morning with our oranges.

After playtime and dinner it was time for cookie math.  Three rows of cookies with three cookies in each row equals nine cookies.  Add one more row and you've got three times four.  Our cookie math was another repetition of what we'd done this morning with oranges and before bed we added the finished product to her portfolio and reviewed the equations one more time. 

While the art supplies were out we returned to today's Social Studies lesson, Looking Deeply into the Orange Juice.  I asked Amelie to think back to this morning and draw all of the things she can see looking deeply.  She drew the tree with oranges, an orange falling from the tree, the veggie box they came in, the halved oranges, the compost bowl, a hand-squeezer, a half-full pitcher, and a glass with a straw.  She numbered the steps one through eight which told me that her math hat was still on and that she's still thinking in sequences.

Kids don't need to sit at a desk for hours memorizing math facts on a worksheet to become good at math.  Boring a child with written work isn't going to spark their curiosity in the subject and, from my experience, is likely to turn them away from it for good. Too often we praise dry academics and test scores over actual learning and overlook the inner-lives of our children.  When we include and integrate art and music with other core subjects, our kid's inner light turns on.  This nurtures both compassion and creativity rather than just intellect or memorization. 

I agree with Einstein.  Imagination is more important than knowledge... but greater than the imagination is the content of one's heart.  This can't be measured by standardized testing and it is the one thing most central to the continuation of a humane society.  Before we send our young learners out into the world, let's make sure they are ready.  The first step is honoring the whole child.