Here are the new times in our week days:
1: "Music Appreciation Time" -- the 15-30 minutes of time in which I make lunch. It keeps the kids from running around like crazy after our morning schoolwork and insures that they become familiar with great composers. (I plan to work through them in random order, but methodically, from the Baroque Period. I'll leave out most modern composers, whose works are too dissonant and express the chaos of modern life. Why internalize it further?) During music appreciation the kids are allowed to sit and listen, read, or color "educational" scenes. For example, right now we are learning about the Middle Ages, so they can color scenes from medieval life.
2. "Drawing Time" -- length of time and spot in day to be determined, probably before while I am making dinner. Children will draw a scene from any book they are reading or imitate a famous artwork. Today my four year old was my best example. He drew the scene from Winnie the Pooh in which Pooh is up in the air holding a balloon, covered in mud, and Christopher Robin brings him back down by shooting a cork gun at the balloon. He also imitated The Water-Lily Pond by Claude Monet. (I've recently started an art print subscription (10x13 format).)
3. I implemented a formal name for going outside -- "Outside Time". "Outside Time" is ideally twice a day - once when I work on school work with my oldest and once perhaps again after lunch or during dinner preparation. For example: "No, you may not come in from outside now. It's "Outside Time". You need exercise and fresh air for your brain."
Here are my four year old's sweet little drawings from today.
