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! :)