Every year, we try to pick one big thing for our homeschool. In the past, we've set our sights on nature study, chalk pastel lessons, gameschooling, artist study, and Bible time, to name a few. Choosing one thing to focus on each year has allowed us to explore different interests to see if they're right for us. It's also given us time and energy to really incorporate those subjects into our homeschool without being overwhelmed by too many things all at once. AND it's reminded us to embrace the joys of homeschooling instead of becoming too utilitarian.
To ensure that we keep "spreading the feast," we choose one extra to focus on each year. And this year we've decided to focus on studying a variety of ballets. I know what you're thinking... "Ballet???? Really? Of all the things you could study, WHY BALLET?" There are alot of reasons why we decided to incorporate ballet into our homeschol this year. Keep reading to find out why and some of the resources that we'll be utilizing.
We sort of stumbled on our "One Thing" this year. Really by accident. I was searching for ideas on how to better incorporate music study in our homeschool when I found on a ballet unit study. Now my daughter has been a dancer for years and this is really her world. But there's a lot that even she doesn't know about many of these ballets. And we were already hoping to see a performance later this year so the idea really appealed to me.
I started to think about how I could break down a ballet study. What areas did we want to learn about? How much time did I want to dedicate to it each week? How long would it take us? I realized that with just touching on it once a week in our morning time, we could cover a lot of ground. And it would allow us to learn more about ballet, the theater, composers and music, and so many other facets of performing arts.
As I started to search our ballet resources, I quickly realized that Youtube was my best friend. I've been putting together a rough outline for studying Swan Lake and there are a number of videos for learning about costuming, music, set design, and so much more. As I prescreen videos, I'm creating playlists for the various ballets we'll study this year. I've also found a variety of books that we'll be pulling from in creating our study. Some of them include:
A Child's Introduction to Ballet
Usborne Illustrated Ballet Stories
The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories
Famous Ballets Coloring Book
The more time I've had to think about this study, the more excited I've becoming. It will be a challenge to create a study that's geared toward my middle school and high schooler, but I think we can all learn from this one. And I'm excited to get started!
So what is your "One Thing" for the homeschool year? Share some of your favorite ideas and resources in the comments below!
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