The Tutor

Del Sarto was somenting of a domestic tragedy but inspiring none the less.  Several hundred years after his death Robert Browning wrote a first person poem about him.  It is written in del Sarto’s voice and he is addressing his wife.  The link is here http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section10.rhtml.  It is interesting but proved a little long for the younger kids.

Today we examined del Sarto’s art that is included with The Tutor.  It is understandable why he was called faultless - his work is very impressive at least to this untrained eye.  The kids were impressed too especially when we did our project of having them try to copy one of his pieces.  Nothing makes a person appreciate talent then trying to copy it.  Sometimes we do this with paint and other times crayon or just pencil.  It creates the same result a greater appreciation for the art.

Well we are back to school after taking our normal seventh week off.  We take every seventh week off to clean house, catch up on stuff and work a fun day in.  This week we switch to autumn clothes - oh the joy!  Anyway today we read from the fine art section of The Tutor about the artist Andrea del Sarto.  He may not be a household name like some others but his peers referred to him as faultless.  But you know his life seemed just as tortured as many of the others you may know about which makes you wonder if you must be a tormented soul to be of value in the art world - Andrea’s wife was a nightmare.

I have included a picture of the woman below:

We listened to the selections from Madam Butterfly today.  It is different for kids used to hearing pop and rock on the radio and it took some patience but they at least appreciated the story and came ti understand what the songs were about and even liked one or two.  If they are like me they will resist a bit on this but will come to appreciate the exposure and even come to be a season ticket holder later in life.

Well, after a long weekend to allow proper celebration of Adam’s birthdat (he turned 6) we returned to school.  And moved to a new section. Today we read the Madama Butterfly section.  Opera has this reputation as being some sort of high brow entertainment for the tuxedo and gown crowd and while it is nice to get dressed up and go out, opera was originally entertainment for the masses and losing that has made opera seem off limits to many.

Hopefully we can help introduce opera to more people and expand the enjoyment of it for many.  We always found that when we went to the opera we enjoyed it more when we attended the background lecture and hoped to do the same thing in The Tutor.  Butterfly is a good place to start since it is English and involves Americans.  It is a sad story but gripping and the kids seemd to be interested as I read it to them.  Tomorrow we will do some listening.

Today we read again from The Tutor, reading The Intelligence of Ants.  They are fascinating insects and have fascinated people for thousands of years, maybe becasue they reminds us of ourselves so much.  They live in communities, help each other in times of distress, farm, take captives and slaves, store food and in some sense encapsulate the whole human experience both good and bad it seems.

The story in The Tutor spends time focusing on the Fuscous ant.  I have included a picture of it below but the story tells us that there are over a thousand species - that’s alot of bugs!

Ant (or uncle?)

Today we took yesterday’s reading about bees as a launchpad to a broader discussion on insects.  We did not actually read from The Tutor today we read from the Handbook of Nature-Study by Anna Comstock.  This book is still available (http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Nature-Study-Botsford-Comstock/dp/0801493846) and a wonderful resource.  We discussed some traits on insects such as six legs and how many of them go through a metamorphisis and found some very interesting pictures on the internet again.  I have included some. 

You would never know these are bug eggs

Some bugs are truly magnificent

Well we got started using The Tutor.  All four of the children gathered around and we read ”A Swarm of Wild Bees”.  This pushed the attention spans of the three year old and six year old and we will probably use some hands on activities to occupy them in the future.  Since we read about bees a coloring picture of bees would have been perfect. 

We looked up several things from the story on the internet.  We found a picture of black bees and learned where Burma was and what a cantilever bridge was.  The nine year old enjoyed the story and looking the details up on the internet.  He talked about it several times during the rest of the day.

Hi

As part of our effort to show folks how they can use The Tutor we will be blogging about our own experiences here and how we implement it into our home school day.  Our approach of course is only one of many but it may give some ideas to others and we are anxious to hear from you as well about what you are doing and how The Tutor is supplementing your education efforts.

So check here regularly and you may get a good idea or two!