Italy

We are going to be studying different countries and cultures at our house this year. For the month of September we chose Italy. We aren't quite finished, so it's going to spill into October a bit, too.

We have used the book Another Trip Around the World to learn facts about the country, Italian expressions, and culture.

We are doing a lot of Geography as we explore the different areas of the country.

Riley and Cole have done the Five In a Row books Papa Piccolo, and The Clown of God, both which take place in Italy. These books are so great for learning about the Renaissance time period and seeing clothes and scenes in Italy.

We even checked out some Italy travel books so we could look through and see all of the amazing tourist spots and different culture.

Garrett and Tyler have read biographies on Michelangelo and DaVinci and written papers.

We have really enjoyed the "Get to know the worlds greatest artists" series as we have studied Italian artists.

We learned about DaVinci's childhood and how he spent most of it roaming the land, sketching everything he could. One of the reasons his angels are so realistic is because of his extensive study and sketching of birds' wings. We spent some time outside observing and sketching.

Garrett read a biography on Michelangelo and presented it to us after writing a paper. It was so interesting learning all of the details and getting a glimpse into his life through a biography as opposed to reading facts about him in a textbook.

One thing Garrett learned is that Michelangelo possibly stood during a lot of his time as he painted the Sistine Chapel. He even wrote some poems and drew some sketches about how painful it was. We had always heard he was on his back on the scaffolding, so we did some research and found out that there are conflicting theories on this. Who knew!

We got this HUGE amazing book with close-ups of his work on the Sistine Chapel, then we tried to experience what it may have been like for him to paint upside down.

Another book we got from the library was an authentic Italian cookbook. We planned out and cooked a REAL LIVE Italian feast. We had Spaghetti Carbonara, homemade mozzerella breadsticks, and Italian Cassata. It was sooooo good!

This was the first time I had used pancetta. It's Italian bacon. Amazing.

Spaghetti Carbonara!

The Italian Cassata was fun to make too.

We set the table with all things fancy and even listened to Italian Opera while we cooked and ate. So not us, but a cool experience!

Cole and Riley singing along with the opera. Nice Italian chocolate mustache, no? (That's moo-stahsh)

Riley and Cole were so inspired by the feast and music they asked David to read The Clown of God to them at the table.

We have more Italy planned for the coming week, so stay tuned!