Art, Artist, Composer, & Music Study for Term 1 - Frederic Chopin & John Singleton Copley

Composer & Artist Study for Term 1 2015/2016
Frederic Chopin & John Singleton Copley

Composer- Frederic Chopin (1810-1849; Romantic)

Weeks 1 & 2. Listen to Chopin-Op 09 no 2 Nocturne in E flat maj here
Weeks 3 & 4. Op 10 no 3 Etude in E-maj - here3. Op 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude in C minor
Weeks 5 & 6. Op 21 Piano Concerto number 2 in f minor- here
Weeks 7 & 8. Op 28 Preludes no's 15, 20 and either 16 or 17 here (15),  here (20), here (16), or here (17)
Weeks 9 & 10. Op 53 Polonaise in A flat, Heroic here
Week 11 - go back and repeat Weeks 1 & Week 3.
Week 12- go back and repeat Weeks 5 & 7.
(list taken from Ambleside Online's schedule for 2024-2025 Term 3

Read about Chopin on your Kindle here.

Add Chopin to your timeline & create a notebook biography page about him using these notebooking pages.

More Free (blank) notebooking pages.
Great lense about Composer study with Chopin here.

OR
Read, Chopin His Life & Music by Jeremy Nicholas (listen to audio CDs included according to the schedule) (we found a copy at our local library)

Week 1- Read, Chopin His Life & Music Ch 1. Listen to CD 1, track 10 several times this week, add him to your timeline and begin a notebooking page about him (links above).
Week 2- Read Ch 2- Listen to CD 1, Tracks 1 & 6-9 where instructed and throughout the week.
Week 3- Read, CHL&M Ch 3- Listen to CD 1, track 2.
Read Ch 4- listen to CD 1, track 3 & CD 2, track 5.
Week 4- Read Ch 5- listen to CD 1 track 3 again this wwk.
Week 5- Read Ch 6- listen to CD tracks 6-9 again this week.
Week 6- Read Ch 7- listen to CD 1, tracks 4, 5, 12
Week 7- Read Ch 8- listen to CD 1, tracks 13, 14, & 16.
Week 8- Read Ch 9- listen to CD 2, tracks 2 & 3.
Week 9- Read Ch 10- listen to CD 2, track 4
Week 10- Read Ch 11- listen to CD 2, tracks 6-10
Week 11- Read Ch 12 & 13, listen to CD 2, track 11
Week 12- Read Ch 14, listen to your favorite piece throughout this week.  Finish your notebooking page/biography report.

Paul Revere by J.S. Copley- Week 1 Study

Artist- Copley
View & Study each of these paintings for two weeks (set as background on laptop).
John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815)
   Weeks 1 & 2-. Paul Revere, 1768-70
   Weeks 3 & 4-. Watson and the Shark, 1778 (Graphic depiction of a real event)
   Weeks 5 & 6-. The Death of the Earl of Chatham, 1779-81
   Weeks 7 & 8-. The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782, 1783-91
   Weeks 9 & 10-. The Red Cross Knight, 1793 (Lynn Bruce's study notes)
   Week 11. Saul Reproved by Samuel for Not Obeying the Commandments of the Lord, 1798
         Further Interest: The Nativity, 1777
Week 12- Choose your favorite & duplicate it.
(list taken from Ambleside Online's schedule for 2027-2028 Term 1)

Weeks 1 & 2:
1- Read about Copley here.
2- Add Copley to your timeline, locate his birth place and main residence as an adult on a map. 
3- Create a notebook page with biography information on Copley.  Get the notebooking page here.

Weeks 3 & 4:
1- Read book, John Singleton Copley, here
2- Continue to add interesting information and details to your Notebooking pages
3- Add any interesting dates to your timeline

Art History Study
Each week read a 2 page spread and visit the internet links from The Usborne Introduction to Art.
Week 5- pp 6-7
Week 6- pp 8-9
Week 7- pp 10-11 (small nudity)
Week 8- pp 12-13 & visit internet links
Week 9- pp 14-15 & visit internet links
Week 10- pp 16-17 & visit internet links
Week 11- pp 20-21 & visit internet links
Week 12- pp 22-23 & visit internet links

Art Skill & Practice- Term 1
Book- Art for Kids - Drawing by Kathryn Temple
Week 1-
Day 1- Read pgs. 8-11
Day 2- Read pgs. 12-15.  Complete a "Scribble Art"
Day 3- Read pgs. 16-19.  Complete a Blind Contour Drawing & an Upside Down Drawing to warm up.
Project for this week- pg.18-19, Abstract Magic

Week 2-
Day 1- Read pp. 20-26.  Warm up with Draw Using Simple Shapes on pg. 21. Complete Drawing Positive & Negative Space on pg 26.
Day 2- Read pp. 27-33.  Complete Drawing Apples on pg 27. 
Day 3- Complete From Apples to Cats on pg 28-29.
Project for this week- Choose either More Cats or For Dog Lovers to complete.

Week 3-
Day 1- Read pp. 34-35.  Complete several Value Scales in your sketchbook using the techniques described.
Day 2- Read pp. 36-37.  Complete Finding and Drawing Shadows.
Day 3- Read & Complete pp. 38-39, Shadows on Spheres.
Project for this week- pg. 40-41, Multiple Light Sources

Week 4-
Day 1- Read & Complete pp. 42-43, Add Shading to Your Line Drawings
Day 2- Read & Complete pp. 44-45, Revisit Your Apple and Add Shading to Mouse the Cat.
Day 3- Read & Complete pp. 46-47, Drawing on Colored Paper.
Project for this week- pp. 48-49, From Tubes to Trees

Week 5-
Day 1- Read pp 50-53.  Complete The Famous Pencil Trick.
Day 2- Read pp. 54-55.  Complete Using Grides to Draw in Proportion pg. 55.
Day 3- Read pp. 56-57

Week 6-
Day 1- Read pp. 58-63.  Complete Drawing with One-Point Perspective pp. 62-63.
Day 2- Read pp. 64-69.  Complete Two-Point Perspective pp. 66-67.  Practice perspective drawings throughout the week.
Day 3- Read pp. 70-75.  Complete Draw a Basketball Court. 
Project for this week- pp. 74-75, Draw a Landscape.

Week 7-
Day 1- Read pp. 76-81.  Complete The Face Map pp. 77-78
Day 2- Read & Complete pp. 82-83, Draw a Face.
Day 3- Read pp. 84-89.  Complete Draw a Profile pp. 84-85.

Week 8-
Project for this week- Complete pp. 86-87, The Three-Quarter View, add hair and an expression to your drawing.

Week 9-
Day 1- Read pp. 90-95.  Complete More Body Building pp 94-95.
Day 2-Read & complete pp. 96-101,Complete Draw Your Arm and Pump it Up.
- Work the rest of the week on practicing drawing bodies: hands, legs, different gestures.

Week 10-
Read pp. 102-105.  Work this week on Draw an Imaginary Portrait of your Best Friend.

Week 11-
Read pp. 106-107
Work all week on Draw a waterscape. pp. 106-107

Week 12-
All week- work on drawing If Kids Were in Charge, pp. 108-109

Weaning Rabbit Kits- Our Process

If you follow us on our Facebook page, then you already know that we sold most of the farm just before Thanksgiving last year.  My health continued to decline after the issues last February and sadly it became too much for me to keep up with. 

The blessing of it all is that we were able to find a home very close to family, that cut my husband's commute by over an hour, and allowed us to continue showing and breeding our beloved rabbits.  The Egg Basket has become Four Corners Rabbitry and we are enjoying the new journey immensely.  Without the farm to care for, we have been able to travel to shows for the past couple of months, I can focus my energy on my family and home and we are finding the rabbits to be a great joy and full family hobby (yes, even my dear husband has a few!)

I've been missing in my blogging because we have had so much going on- all good but I did want to get back to it.  The rabbitry has been more challenged than I ever anticipated- in a great way!  There has been so much more to learn in husbandry, genetics, showing- the rabbit shows are miles different from the poultry shows we use to attend.  It's hustle and bustle and fun competition in a much faster pace! 

I wanted to go over our process in weaning kits today, handling their weaning properly is so important for their overall health and even future potential.  There's an old saying that, "A show winner starts in the nestbox!"

I'll discuss pregnancy and nestboxes in another post, today I wanted to start with what happens once the babies ar active and moving around and how to gently wean them.  The gentler you handle weaning, the less stress on them and the less chance of dealing with weaning enteritis.

Nestbox removal- We remove the nestbox as soon as we see the first kit "escape" out into the cage.  Once they can hop out on their own, it's time to rid the cage of the nestbox.  Whether they make it out or not, we generally remove it by day 18 -21 to prevent nestbox eye and other unsanitary things we want to avoid.  It's healthier for the kits to remove it as soon as it's safe for them.  Some breeders prefer to leave the nestbox at first and simply turn it on it's side.  We have friends that have had does jump off of the top and land on kits this way so we choose to just remove it.  We do fill a cardboard box (old oatmeal box, coke box, etc.) with hay so the kits have a hideaway spot to make them more comfortable.  The first day or two they will run into this often but they become brave quickly.  Their feet are tiny and they will have to learn to walk on the wire.  All of our rabbits have wooden resting pads in their cages and we make certain to add another small one or swap out for a larger one for the does that have kits coming out of the box.

Continue handling your kits daily and be sure to check their bottoms to ensure they're clean and free of any build up of feces or issues.

Weaning from Mom- We remove the dam from the cage instead of removing the kits.  This makes it much less stressful for the kits by allowing them to stay in a known environment.  If it is a very large litter and necessary to help mom dry up her milk, you can leave the smallest 1-2 kits with Mom.  Since we try not to wean the kits until at least 6-7 weeks of age, this isn't normally needed here.  However, if you do need to do this, remove those 1-2 kits from the dam and return them to their littermates in 1-2 days. 

Once removed from mom we leave them together for 2-4 days and make no other changes other than flushing them with lots of hay.  Anytime a rabbit is stressed, we've found it helpful to provide them with free choice hay to prevent any enteritis from stress. 

Tatooing- When we wean the kits from Mom is about the time we also tattoo the kits.  Usually around 7-9 weeks old.  I tattoo all kits that we're keeping in their left to identify them and enter their official name and ear number into our rabbitry software.   If the rabbits are culls (in our case being sold as pets) then we either do not tattoo them or tattoo them in their right ear.  This prevents them from being shown and hopefully bred as I don't sell our pets with pedigrees.  More later on my reasoning for this.

Weaning from Littermates- If your rabbits are sold, the kits need to be move to their own cage (without their littermates) for a minimum of 2-4 days before sending them off to their new home.  We give them at least a week.  There's a lot of stress in being moved from their littermates and then more stress in moving to an entirely new home.  We wait so as not to overload them.  We want our kits to be healthy and happy in their new home so we try to do everything we can to help achieve that. 

For the kits remaining at the rabbitry, we give them another week as well before separating them, if the mom weaned them on the younger side, we may not separate them by gender for another week. If they're closer to the preferred/older age, we separate them into their own cage at this point.  I try to rearrange the cages so that they can see a sibling.  The general rule of thumb is that by 9-11 weeks old, each kit should have its own cage.  This can be particularly important with lionheads as they may begin to chew on their mates' manes. 

Most of our kits still get to play together during "free play time" if I'm around to watch them.  They seem to enjoy playing with kits in similar age and as long as they're getting along and playing nicely we try to do this for a few weeks until they're of breeding age.

The Egg Basket is Four Corners Rabbitry (-:B

If you follow us on our Facebook page, then you already know that we sold most of the farm just before Thanksgiving last year.  My health continued to decline after the issues last February and sadly it became too much for me to keep up with.  

You may have even noticed that thankfully, after a long transition with Facebook, our page has now officially become Four Corners Rabbitry.  It's finally consistent with the changes we've made to our show and breeding focus, website, and this blog.  All of my old articles and information is still here, I left it for future use and because- hey- I worked hard on it and I'm sure it's information is still valuable to other homesteaders.   Gardening, baking, homeschooling, and other homesteading will still be a part of our lives (and my blogging) but in a suburban setting and a larger shift comes in our breeding and showing switching to our rabbits. 

The Egg Basket has become a small family rabbitry,  Four Corners Rabbitry and we are enjoying the new journey immensely.  Four Corners Rabbitry for the four corners our yard now has and the children and I being the four corners of it.   We are specializing in our lionheads still and have also added Holland Lops.  Our lionhead program has improved by leaps and bounds!

The blessing of it all is that we were able to find a home very close to family, one that cut my husband's commute by over an hour, positioned me much closer to my cardiolgist and pulmonologist, closer to my son's classes, and allowed us to continue showing and breeding our beloved rabbits. 

Without the farm to care for, we have been able to travel to shows for the past couple of months, I can focus my energy on my family and home and we are finding the rabbits to be a great joy and full family hobby (yes, even my dear husband has a few!)  We are happy and the rabbitry is already successful I'm happy to report.  I'm going to be posting our most recent three shows and the outstanding wins the kids have had at them in the next day or two.  In the meantime, if you're curious, you can view our beautiful herd on our new website.   Check out the Nursery page for the newest little kits- if you think baby chicks are adorable, wait until you see the rabbit babies!