Over the summer, on our short getaway to Montréal, I bought Fina these Yarka "semi-moist watercolour paints" from Omer DeSerres art store (a lovely chain, if you ever get the chance to check it out). They are made in Russia (and were on the sale rack, which is how I found them).
What is neat about these semi-moist watercolours is that, as you can see with the Monarch above, they are so rich and thick and almost oily. Almost not like watercolours at all, which Fina likes, on occasion. Though it isn't anything like the dry-brush technique that Charlotte Mason encouraged (for a great introduction to it, read Jeannette Tullis' post at the Charlotte Mason Institute's page) I feel that detailed looking and replicating is the important thing in our nature study. So, traditional dry watercolours, these semi-moist ones, pencil crayons, even acrylic are all fair game, as far as I'm concerned.
ETA: do NOT use these in the nature notebook. They are so oily and sticky that the other page gets stuck to it, even after hours and hours of drying.
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Co-op meeting in the rain at our local park!
We had a lovely time. G, one of the families' grandmother joined us (from Ontario). The children were a little hyper to start (ha!) as we were outside, under the picnic shelter. We did our opening of O Canada (in French) and The Lord's Prayer.
The children (and most of the adults) recited something. Fina recited "Now Fairy Hippolyta" from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which she had recited in the spring. But we just haven't learned something new yet. It is so much fun to hear the children recite their passages.
We looked at Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" and the children had insightful comments, as they always do!
We finished reading through Nesbitt's retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. The children did a great job of narrating their way through it. (Fina did not. I'm thinking she was just having trouble paying attention. She usually does a pretty good job with the Shakespeare at home. I do recognize, however, that she isn't used to paying attention when there are distractions around her. The other two families have three kids each, so the older children who narrate are used to having noisy siblings around!)
Then we sent the children off to find something God-made to use for their nature study. A few people chose the same thing, but we didn't turn it into a lesson. The children just looked at their "object" and painted it as carefully as they could. They all did wonderfully!
L asked the children to tell their favourite part about co-op. Fina said "looking for something for nature study" was hers. We sang the Doxology and had lunch together.
Then we sent the kids off to play for the afternoon, often under pouring rain, while the adults had some lovely chats about this wonderful education we are providing for our children. These days are nourishing to the soul.
Here are some pics from our day!
This is the epitome of our co-op. These kids LOVE each other!
T was missing. What a great pic, though!
finding something for their nature study
L painted this lovely flower
Fina painted this Amur Honeysuckle
We left off handicrafts from this co-op session. Because we were outside, we wanted to take advantage of the nature study instead. Fina decided to do some embroidery the next day at home. She drew something on a piece of Aida cloth and did this for an hour.
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