Art journaling....

Art journaling has played a big part of our Summer this year. My oldest Daugher took part in a music journaling workshop with me where we created art journals based on music and lyrics and how music effects our emotions. WE were taught how to turn coposition books into art journals using mod podge and gesso amongst other mixed media.....

Abigail and Sam soon wanted to join in the fun!!

Of course their art journaling takes other forms - but the creative method is similar and they have great fun!!! This week they continued to work on their art journals - both on the covers and on the art inside!!!

Language Arts....

One of our Language Arts projects for this year is to compare and contrast books and movies. I noticed that there are many good movies coming out this year based on wonderful books! We have already started, with reading the book 'Coraline' and I picked up the dvd of the movie which we will read as soon as we finish the book (any day). It is easy to prepare simple unit studies around books.

Next we will read 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' This is a book we have had on the shelf for a long while and read many times - Susannah read it at school years ago and loved it and so I bought a copy for home!! The movie comes out next week so we can go and see that straight away - and I have a unit study prepared for it.

After that I want to do 'Where the Wild Things Are' - another favourite of ours!!! I found a wonderful unit study at the education store and it has some wonderful ideas with games and puzzles, story prompts, poem prompts and other unit study ideas in it!!

After that we will work on Alice in Wonderland ready for the wonderful Johnny Depp movie. That one will probably take longer as it's a bigger book and Christmas will be a busier time anyway!!

So that will keep us going over the next few months!!

Clay pots...

Abigail and Sam were busy making clay pots this morning......nice squishy, messy fun!!! :)

Magic writing....

The children were practicing their writing on the island today.....Sam was practicing his letters and Abigail was practicing spelling!! They used wet kitchen towel and then drew on the counter top!! :) It worked like 'magic' :) It was like a HUGE blackboard :)

It's great practice for Sam and his 'S's as he has a habit of writing them backwards so it was great for him to get lots of practice in getting them the right way round :)

Back at it!!

I haven't been posting much on this blog lately as all through the Summer I was posting all our activities as a family over on my main family blog 'Escaping The City' (let me know if you want access) - we certainly had a VERY busy Summer though - have to say it was a wonderful one!! We were very lucky here and had amazing weather. It was a little TOO dry really - in fact we didn't really get ANY rain sadly and our pond is all but dried up :( We don't really have any frogs to speak of this year - yet the grasshoppers have certainly made up for them and we have had those in their THOUSANDS!!! Sam has had a blast catching them and bringing them in to the house (unfortunately)!!

Anyway....Summer is coming to an end, and my older three children are back at school. This week we too started back with our studies. Last week the weather was just TOO good to be indoors doing any 'schoolwork' and so we went out and about - to the lake, the splashpark, and to our favourite outdoor pool. Making the most of the gorgeous weather while it lasted!!

This week has been a little cooler and we started getting into a routine of schoolwork again. Our facilitator made her first visit to us on Tuesday afternoon. She visits once in September, then she phones us in january to check all is well, and then visits in June to see how the year went. that is all that is required in Alberta!! For that we get approximately $715. of funding.

the meeting went well - we basically told her what our plans were for the year for Abigails education. What our hopes were for her for each subject and how we expected to get there (ie did we plan to use a curriculum (No), did we plan to use any resources or classes etc (yes we are signed up for art classes and gymnastics and will take part in SHINE activities and the local homeschool activities at the library etc etc).

The rest of the time we were chatting about horses (still Abigails favourite topic).

Sam starts Pre-K on Tuesday. He will go for a full day every Tuesday which will give me a full day each week to do something special with Abigail.

Abigail will go to art classes and gymnastics classes every Thursday. That will give me Thursdays with Sam!! Abigail and Susannah will also do dance probably. Susannah and Laurence are also doing Youth curling we think......Laurie is also doing volleyball at school. Chris is audtioning today for one of the school plays...no clue if he's hoping for something behind the scenes or on stage.....

Time capsules

Here are our First week of school 'time capsules'......Sam and Abigail have one each and inside are a few slips of paper and a piece of string!! The piece of string measures the exact length of their body so they know how tall they are today! We drew around one of their hands and stamped the date. We wrote out their favourites, weighed them, wrote about todays weather...talked about an exciting event coming up in the next week....

we then sealed all their bits and pieces up in a cardboard tube and rolled them up in pretty paper tied with ribbon!

We have put them away and will not open them until the last day of school next June!!! Then we will open them and see how much they have grown and changed in one school year :)

their own special 'time capsule'!!!

:)

Too funny!!

Great website

belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/

The crafty Crow....sooooo many great craft and activity ideas to keep your children busy day in and day out!!! :) rainy day ideas and arty ideas!!!

Caterpillar update!!

We now have two chrysalis's in our jar.....just waiting for them to turn into butterflies/ moths now.....hopefully!!! Sam also studied this at PreK and they read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' which is one of his favourite books at home and he knows it off by heart. He was able to recite it as they read it to the class :) They made big posters of the butterfly life cycle for him to bring home, which goes with our project really well :)

For Sams show and tell he took a beekeepers veil, a box of comb from the hive, a picture of himself sticking his finger in a frame of honey surrounded by bees, and he took clover honey sticks for all his classmates and teachers so they could take one home to try. They started selling them at the local store the day before!!!! OMG what luck!!! :) His teachers said they were sooooo impressed with his show and tell and that all the children asked questions and he answered them all and he really knew his stuff and that I had obviously involved the children with the bees and taught them all about them! After class the teachers were asking me all about bees and honey etc etc. I think they are so used to the typic al show and tell items that they were pleased to have something a little 'different' and the children were excited to have a treat each to take home!! :) Sam was just happy to get his candy as each child that does show and tell is given a sucker! He has missed his last two show and tells because of being in England and being sick, so we really had to make up for it this time!! :) I think we did :)

So that's our bugs and mini beasts update lol! There has been lots of tadpole catching, frog catching, butterfly catching, beetle identifying, bird spotting, and beasty watching going on here since the snow went and the weather warmed up :) I love Summer :)

Curly wurlies......

On Wednesday we went for a picnic and on the way back we picked lots of dandelions which we then preceded to slice up and curl - we curled them in to ringlets by slicing the stems thinly lengthways and then dropping them into a bowl of ice-cold water - the stems then curl up really fast into tight rings - it is really fun to watch and they make really pretty patterns and cute little jewellery type designs! Abigail and Sam loved this activity! So much fun for a Spring day!

Another reason to learn to love those Dandelions :) They just so happen to be Sams favourite flowers right now :)

Painting postcards...

Painting watercolour postcards. These are blank postcards on watercolour cardstock that can actually be mailed. Abigail painted them and has now mailed them off to her special chosen ones!!! ;)

Art frenzy.....

Abigail continues to LOVE art.....and so I continue to let her continue! I provide paints, pencils, canvases, brushes and inspiration! We paint inside and outside - I suggest books, tv shows, places, classes, people, subjects......and even silence and nothingness! Then I let her get on with it! She is loving my watercolour pencils and my watercolour postcards - blank postcards that are watercolour paper. She can then send them to friends and family! She is also enjoying the good weather and being able to pack a blanket and go somewhere to paint outside! this was a favourite last year too! We are running out of canvases fast so we need to go and stock up - thank goodness for dollarama and their multi packs of canvases :)

colouring swirly waxed stones!!!!

amiedanny.blogspot.com/2009/06/summer-boredom-buster-swirly-stones.html


An idea for the school holidays!!!! Yep I'm stocking up with ideas for the holidays now...although I COULD do it now I think I will save some of these ideas for when ALL the children are home.....

Exhausted!!

Abby fallen asleep in the car on her way home form a sleepover last week - she had had her hair done by her friends big Sister and had also had her make-up done too!! She slept over at her friend Jenna's house.

Colouring with friends

Colouring with a group of friends at MP after swimming yesterday....

Art classes continue....

Abigails art classes continue....she has taken a print making workshop and a water colour workshop. Above are the watercolour paintings she created. She is really enjoying the classes and will be sad when they end. Her last class is 'fibre arts'.

This week we also have the SHINE park day and will sign up to join SHINE for the next year. Abigail is also signed up to go to camp for a week this Summer - a weeks worth of day camp which includes horse riding (all she wants to do lately)!!

Busy in the kitchen.....

Baking cakes, icing them and chopping rhubarb!!! Abigail is enjoying our new kitchen and turning into a great little chef....

Scenes from the last week....

Homeschooling is officially done for the year BUT we've been busy with having friends over to play, swimming, walks together, catching frogs, worms, caterpillars.....skipping, watching thunder storms, painting bat caves, climbing on old trains, making Mothers Day gifts, planting sunflowers, playing at the playground, reading, shopping for herself and budgeting for gifts, ordering for herself in restaurants.....

Bendy!!

Instead of ordering butterfly eggs this year, we decided to just hunt for caterpillars and raise them from caterpillars. Next year we will order the eggs again. Abigail and Sam have found one caterpillar so far and we aren't sure what kind this one is, so after a lot of researching in books and online we've given up trying to find out, and hope to find out if and when it turns into a butterfly or moth!!!

We found this GREAT website though:

insects.about.com/od/keepingliveinsects/ss/rearingcats_2.htm

which includes information on how to look after a caterpillar if you aren't sure what kind it is!!! they have named this one 'Bendy' and he is living in a huge old pickle jar. We have several books on butterflies, bugs, caterpillars etc etc - as well as some story books about them, so we've been enjoying those too - as well as some activity sheets and things that we found online, so Bendy has turned into an all-round project for us!

We'll take more pictures if he survives long term and grows and develops! He's been surviving for about 4 days now so all is good :) PHEW!!!!

Head dresses...

We decided to make Native Indian Head dresses after seeing Stabbed-By-Mistake's Head Dress at the Royal Alberta Museum.

More acrylics painting...

Abigail worked on some more acrylics painting - this time at home!!! She remembered exactly what she was taught at the class and she ONLY bought acrylics in the primary colours as well as in black and white - she then set about mixing all the other colours herself and got the shades and tones she wanted by mixing with black and white. She refused to use any of the paints I had but ONLY the paints she bought and by mixing them :)

She spent most of the time mixing paint colours and I think this is the part she liked the most :)

Art class work

Acrylics colour wheel and canvas, and charcoals self portrait and horse.....

(work from the first two art classes Abigail has been to. She has really enjoyed these classes.