When Real Learning Comes Together

This is the picture Carmen drew this afternoon after a muddy morning with the bluebells. Everyone was pleasantly tired and smelling fresh and soapy again. It was quiet in the kitchen. She and her brother pulled out the pencils and set to work on some art.

She worked slowly, carefully adding the details. She brought it to me and told me all about it.

It is a vase of flowers inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers, which she read about in Katie and the Sunflowers, one of the many Katie books I checked out from the library for K Week. (Carmen now wants to own them all. They are really wonderful and lead Carmen to explore other Post Impressionists.) The red flower on the left is a hollyhock, inspired by this book, Priscilla and the Hollyhocks, part of our Native American studies. And then of course the little bluebells. She longs to build herself a little house along the banks of Bull Run.

All these things, learned and experienced separately, brought together in one quiet afternoon. Real Learning.