Sunday, January 31, 2010

The New Addition

I could have blogged about the very exciting letter Ee
this week but we
had much more important things going on here.
Meet our new puppy Harley.
Harley was named after his Mom.

And has made himself at home.
Oh and we don't allow dogs on the furniture.

See?

I guess this is technically a lap and not furniture.

And he's a great kisser.

And is teething at his very cute 13 weeks of age.

And is stylin' in his preppy puppy gear.

And likes to eat.

But mostly snuggle and nap.

And give kisses.
I think I mentioned that.

And he has these paws that are like mitts.
Must take after his English Bulldog mom.
And dappled ears after his Dachshund Dad.
I think I am in love.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Pointillism Art Lesson

Today our homeschool group got together and we learned about George Seurat.
I saw a very cute art project for the kids using Q-tips.
George Seurat painted all of his pictures in tiny dots.
The idea was that the kids would recreate some artwork in tiny dots.
That was the idea. It was only an idea.
The kids had different ideas.

Like this artwork by Seurat. Aren't they beautiful?

Seurat used a technique called pointillism.
Pointillism=painting pictures with tiny dots.



Okay, well I tried to teach the kids about pointillism. Most of them did their own painting technique and we didn't have Q-tips so we used the eraser end of a number 2 pencil.
The kids were very confused by this and most of them used the eraser to paint their picture.
Some of them asked for paintbrushes.
The nerve! Painting with paintbrushes. Who ever heard of such a thing.
Yup-successful art lesson.
But they had fun and could really care less what technique we were using
as long as they could paint a picture.

To make life easier, I searched the internet and printed out coloring pages.
It would have been too much for the kids to sketch their picture in the short amount of time that we have together. And the little ones like the recognizable characters.

Blues Clues was a favorite.
Tae decided to use the eraser like a paint brush.

Morgan made some pretty dotted fall leaves.

Tempera paints.
Do you remember that smell of tempera paints from elementary school?
Paint and paste. That's the smell I remember.
And greenbeans from the cafeteria.
But I digress.
Pretty Tempera paints.

Clover painted a fairy and told me her name was Princess.

And there were butterflies too.

And fall leaves with caterpillars.

Blue got a makeover.
Rather becoming don't ya think?

Rainbow Blue.

And fairies of ........darkness?
Are those blood splatters around her?

And little girls in sparkly red dresses.
Is this sun angry? It makes me happy. It's intense.
Like a hot summer day.
And summer flowers blooming in my garden.
Is it summer yet?
But in the end they all looked gorgeous hanging on the wall.

Happy Creating!


Monday, January 11, 2010

The Letter Ww

Last week for Kindergarten we covered the letter Ww.

We started with the Zaner Bloser Kindergarten Phonics.


And found a cute Windmill craft here:
http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/letter-w.html

I knew we were saving all of those toilet paper rolls for a reason.

Tae wrote in his alphabet journal.
I let him write his own sentences and then correct it underneath.
He's doing so well.
I love the printable books from this site:
Awesome stuff there.
Tae can read this entire passage with the exception of two words.
We sound them out together.
He's doing great!
We also found this cool Wizard on the same dltk website.
More toilet paper rolls!

Our book selection this week was, This is the Way We Go to School, with discussion that followed later on how not everyone goes to public school or rides a bus. We also read, Hello Two Wheeler, Whatever the Weather, Wash Day and Wheels. Immersing Tae in reading has really helped him and my book system is working really well.
There is an older post here:
that explains the system I use.
We had tons of word wall words this week.
Who knew there were so many Ww words?
Most of these words were in his reading books so by the end of the week
he was able to read most of the words.
This is our letter of the week board. Some of the work we printed from Kidzone.
The letter Ww template and the What Begins with Ww? book came from DLTK.
Tae worked on his first grade math.
Math comes very easy to him.

This week we are learning about the letter Ss.
Stay warm in this winter weather!
Bev

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Winter Wonderland Fun

The weather here has been frigid. But why is it adults complain and the kids seem to have fun no matter what. We had a wonderful two weeks off for the holidays. The kids have been back to their homeschool schedule as usual. The Kindergartener is learning the letter Ff, the 8th grader is learning about human reproduction for science and is reading the Diaries of Anne Frank and the 5th grader is plugging along doing her thing.
The chickens are none too happy with this weather. Several of them had frostbite on their combs so we put a heat lamp in the coop on a timer. It is not warm in there by any means but does keep the chill off of them and we haven't seen anymore frostbite. The chicken farmers say you can put vaseline on their combs and wattles to prevent the frostbite but honestly, who wants to chase 12 chickens around a coop and slather them with grease? Not I.

This is Chipmunk or Chippy as we call her. She lays green eggs. Or she used to lay green eggs. She moulted and then laid only one more egg. Poor specimen of an Americana. I should cull her but she is the sweetest chicken. She's a dog-bird I think. She lays in your lap and talks to you everytime you enter the coop and follows you around looking for goodies. She is my favorite chicken even if she doesn't lay any more eggs.

The birds stayed inside for many days. We opened the coop hatch but they wanted nothing to do with going outside. Finally after about 3 days I enticed them out with some lettuce.
They ate and went right back inside. That's our Rooster Ruby by the fence.
Doesn't he have gorgeous feathers?
They all hovered by the hatch on the only piece of ground that was without snow.
The two Roos side by side keep watch over Licorice.
The boys are not very nice to the girls. They have plucked Licorices feathers out of the back of her head. She looks ridiculous and bald.
The kids had fun making snowforts.

They got these really cool snow block makers from Santa.
And when they got tired of making snow blocks they used some old milk crates.
The start of a snowman.
But the snow was too heavy and they couldn't stack them.

That's our Koi pond completely covered in snow. We put a tarp over a part of the chicken coop just to protect the chickens from the lousy weather.
It also makes for a less muddy, slippery coop .
Patrick did some sculpting. This guy is missing a toe.
Leather wearing, middle aged, mid-drift pinocchio?

Beer belly and missing toes.

And some lip injected botox problems.
Fonzie in his later years?
Buddy Cianci? (It's a Rhode Island joke)
Stay warm!
Bev