Composer Study: Franz Peter Schubert

I must admit, although I was pretty familiar with the name Schubert, I really knew very little about him and much of his music. We all found him to be very interesting and we will be adding more of his music to our collection.
Resources
Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends by Opal Wheeler & Sybil Deucher (1939) *****
We are working our way through the Opal Wheeler composer series. The stories are delightful (the kids beg me to keep reading) and we love being able to listen to samples of the music, using the companion CD. I even find the books to be helpful in teaching the kids how to read music, since the music is printed in the book. I didn't realize this the first few times we used the CDs, but they also contain coloring sheets for each chapter. I found the coloring sheets to be a great addition to our study because it gives additional opportunities for review and narration -- plus my kids like to color! We gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Franz Peter Schubert by Eric Michael Summerer (2006) ****
This non-fiction book had some helpful pictures and a few tidbits not included in the previous book. It is a perfect review book for the younger elementary student.
The Life and Times of Franz Peter Schubert would be good for the older student.


We're big fans of the Beethoven's Wig CDs, so we always listen to the songs that correlate with our current composer study. Schubert can be found on volume 2, tracks 6 & 17.
You Tube videos were a big part of our Schubert study. Sometimes I had to put Post-it notes over the comments, so be sure to look out for inappropriate language if you watch on You Tube.
Here are a few we watched:








I never posted a couple of our Mozart and Beethoven studies from last year, so I will try to get those posted too.

OHC: Snakes

Join us as we study nature using The Outdoor Hour Challenges. This year Ryne and Grace are joining with friends Cameron and Avery to explore this beautiful world God made. Moms, Kellie and Casey, are enjoying the adventure as much as the kids.
This is the story of four kids, a snake, and two chickens. But no geese.
It was our second attempt to do OHC #2: Geese, but we weren't really sure where to go about looking for them. The weather forecast indicated it was going to be a perfect day, so we decided to take our nature study on the road and go for a picnic. Our quaint little suburb has a nature sanctuary that, embarrassingly, neither of our families had ever visited. Who knows, maybe we'd find some geese there.
We were stunned. The nature sanctuary is amazing. It's been nine years since we moved into the Blue House -- how is that we're just now discovering this treasure?

Even more amazing: My son, the reluctant nature journalist, was the first to ask for his clipboard.

And this is where my camera batteries died. But Casey came to the rescue with the next three amazing pictures. Thanks, Casey!

The kids were much more observant than the moms. They noticed all the really neat things first. Maybe it's because we're so busy watching the kids. I think it was Cameron who spotted the praying mantis.

However, Avery was the one who made the big find for the day. Do you see it? My camera found one last gasp of battery life to take the next group of pictures before dying again.

It kind of creeps me out that any normal bush or small tree could be hiding one of these.

Avery actually first spotted the snake on the trail, but he quickly shot into the tree and slithered from branch to branch.

We spent at least 15 minutes watching our scaly friend. Absolutely incredible.

It's either a Smooth Green Snake or a Rough Green Snake. I can't tell the difference in comparing dozens of internet pictures to my picture. In our part of the state, it should be the Smooth Green Snake, but the state publication also said they haven't been spotted for years due to habitat destruction.

So what about the two chickens? That would be the two moms. We were too nervous to let the kids touch the snake. I think Ryne would have touched it if I had let him. Now I feel bad, because when I looked at the first two entries from the spring snake challenge there were pictures of kids holding snakes. And then there was this entry that really made me feel like the biggest chicken in the world. Now that's a brave mom!

Chicken or not, we had an incredible day. Next week we're going goose hunting.

OHC: Signs of Autumn

Join us as we study nature using The Outdoor Hour Challenges. This year Ryne and Grace are joining with friends Cameron and Avery to explore this beautiful world God made. Moms, Kellie and Casey, are enjoying the adventure as much as the kids.

I'm a little behind on posting this challenge! Two Fridays ago we were scheduled to do OHC #2 - Geese, but the geese did not cooperate. There is a small lake in our neighborhood that attracts lots of geese, but I guess it's too early for their arrival. So we decided to do the extra challenge Barb posted that week: Signs of Autumn. We limited our search to the front and side yards, but still found quite a few hints of my favorite season.

The first clue was the cooler temperature that day. The sky was so blue. It was a perfect day!

When we my husband and I lived in downtown Chicago, he said you could always tell it was fall when the ivy turned red on the outfield wall of Wrigley Field. But I like it even better when the red vine is crawling through a green tree, with a bright blue sky in the background.

If I hadn't started doing these challenges last fall, I still wouldn't know what this lovely yellow plant is called. Thank you, Barb, for teaching me about goldenrod. I notice it everywhere along the highways, but this is the first time I've seen it in our woods. I hope we get even more next year.

One walnut tree in the front was almost bare except for this pair of walnuts. They were so big that I wasn't sure they were walnuts (plus I thought all our walnut trees were in the back), so I hammered one open for the kids to examine (some even tasted). They are not easy to open and, two weeks later, my hands are still stained! We have walnuts all over our property, but we rarely use them for anything besides using them for golf practice, hitting them into the woods behind our house. : )

All but a few acorns had fallen to the ground.

I don't know if this is a sign of fall, but one of the kids found this neat fungus growing on the willow tree.

And here is another sign of autumn: children sitting at desks. It seems like just yesterday we were spending our days at the pool, and now we're already done with a month of school! The girls were finishing up their notebooking pages.

We had a great time welcoming the new season.