Visiting the Netherlands: Week 2

This week we started reading a new book, Boxes for Katje, and focused a bit more on a few artists, Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt. We also are learning more about Corrie ten Boom and reading a book called Keeper of the Angels Den about her life.

My mom is talking to the girls about her too, since she was a secretary for Corrie for a few years and Corrie ten Boom married my mom and my dad. The girls think it's great to look through scrapbooks and see pictures of Holland and everyone way back when.

Here's a peek at how our week looked:

Monday

• Review geography song
• Show where Netherlands is located on a map
• Talk about capital of Netherlands (Amsterdam and also Hague as seat of goverment)
• Type of government in Netherlands - visit royal website
• Read Boxes for Katje and talked about time book was written
  

Tuesday

• Review geography song
• Talk more about how WW2 effected the Netherlands
• Started reading Keeper of the Angels Den - a book about Corrie ten Boom. We love it!
• Talked about Holland's geography features
  

Wednesday

• Looked at art from both van Gogh and Rembrandt and compared their styles.
  
• Picked one of the paintings by van Gogh to copy using watercolors (Sunflowers)
• Talked about the process of creating Delft porcelain (we have some at our house from our trip to Holland)
• Had some gouda cheese. We like it sliced thin on toasted bread (our Costco carries a great brand)
  
• Continued reading in Keeper of the Angels Den

Thursday

• Printed off the recipe for Olliebollen (it'll be our Sunday evening treat!)
• Visited the van Gogh gallery site and talked about the life of van Gogh
• Visited the RIJKS museum site
• Continued reading Keeper of the Angels Den
  

Resources we used:



Websites we visited/used:

• European Central Bank: Poster of various Euro coins and bills. I was going to make one, but why when they have so nicely done it for me? :) Shows images of the fronts of the countries coins also. You can download images of the coins and paper, information on the Euro security features and more.
• YouTube: link to a video that shows Rembrandt's self portraits. Pretty neat since they morph each one into the next.
• Royal Delft site - has a document you can print off on the production process of delft pieces
• Holland.com - lots of great links on this site. Main tourist site for Holland/Netherlands
• Corrie ten Boom museum - gives a look at the ten Boom house
  
• RIJKS museum site
• Vincent van Gogh gallery site
• Olliebollen recipe - appropriately Olliebollen means "oily ball" - that it is!
  

We'll be moving onto Germany over the next few weeks and continuing with our reading of Keeper of the Angel's Den. I'm hoping to get some fun pictures posted soon too of my trip to Holland several years ago. I also have some pics of Corrie ten Boom to post too - especially the ones of when I met her....ok, I was one, but still! :)

Visiting the Netherlands: Week 1

Both of the girls were looking forward to our time in the Netherlands because my mom is from Holland and Laurianna visited there when she was just a little baby. I will have quite a few video links in this post and next weeks post and also share some of the fun things we did ~ including learning a easy Dutch prayer that we are saying at dinner time. It was one that I said growing up, and it's been fun listening to our oldest three say it each night now.

Here are the words (and a little video clip) of the prayer we learned: "Dank u wel, Here Jezus, voor dit eten. Amen." {translation: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this food. Amen.}




The minit books that we are working on are not for a lapbook, but the girls enjoy doing them so we are putting them on a piece of cardstock and adding them to their geography binders. There are quite a few video clips at the end of this post - sorry if the page takes a bit to load for you.

Here's a peek at how our week worked out:

Monday

• Introduce new geography song
• Locate and map the Netherlands (both wall map and minit book)
  
• Use the globe to find the Netherlands
• Read Hanna in the Time of the Tulips

Tuesday

• Practiced our geography song
• Learned about the flag of the Netherlands (notebooking sheet below)
• Talked about some of the symbols of the Netherlands: windmills, wooden shoes, and tulips (minit book)
• Read a story from Around the World in 80 Tales
  

Wednesday

• Practiced our geography song
  
• Read Hanna in the Time of the Tulips again
• Talked about the life cycle of a tulip (cards for a minit book)
• Watched a video clip on windmills
• Started our windmill craft
• Learned our new prayer in Dutch (video clip above has pronunciation)
  

Thursday

• Practiced our geography song
  
• Finished up our windmill craft
  
• Watched several video clips about the Netherlands (courtesy of Matt Lauer's trip around the world)
• Kept practicing our Dutch prayer and Dutch phrase: "Ik hou van jou" ~ "I love you" (see video clip above for pronunciation)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Resources we used:




Websites we visited/used:

• Homeschool Share: Where are the Netherlands minit book and Symbols of the Netherlands minit book. There is an entire unit on Boxes for Katje available here (we are going to read the book next week)
  
• DLTK windmill craft: fairly simple craft using a toilet paper tube to make a windmill. Kids can either color their own or cut out a pre-colored sheet to make one.
  
• Bry-Back Manor - stages of a tulip cards
  
• Learner.org - parts of a tulip bulb. I printed this image 4 to a page so we could put it inside one of our minit books along with the life cycle of a tulip cards
  

Intro to Netherlands with Matt Lauer: some great info on how flowers get around the world and quick facts about the Netherlands

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Continuing around the Netherlands (this clip has a bar at the end and some people drinking)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Video clip on windmills (via NBC and "Where in the World is Matt Lauer")

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Clip on the Anne Frank House:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

My Notebooking Sheet for flag of the Netherlands: The handwriting on the top is a font of my mom's handwriting, which just reminds me of Holland. :)

Hana in the Time of the Tulips

I love children's books. One might say I have a fascination with them. And every now and then I come across one that I just absolutely adore.

Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes is one of those books.

I bought it to use during our study of the Netherlands and my mom and I have spent so much time admiring the pictures and story that the book tells {I do believe we've forgotten it was for the children}.

Hana lives during the time of the 'tulip fever' in Holland. Her father, someone she used to spend so much time with, has become caught up in the tulip phenomenon ~ and the market is now failing. Her family stands to lose everything. Tulips in those days were 'as precious as gold'.

Hana works as hard as she can, along with help from a family friend ~ Rembrandt, to help her father see what is really important.

The paintings and sketches in the book were done by Bagram Ibatoulline in the style of that period's Dutch master artists. The lighting and color in the pictures are beautiful ~ one that will stay in our collection for years.