Fine Arts Class 2009

School has officially started. My kids have been studying ancient history for a month now three days a week with my dear friend Heather who is an INCREDIBLE history teacher, and now we have started fine arts class with me on Friday afternoons. I guess the year never officially ended... but I have to say that I believe we have officially started this next year. I am starting to write down what we do and fully counting it towards the 3rd and 8th grade years.

The class that I started teaching today for our homeschool group was SO much fun that I may just want to go on forever. It is loosely based on the Meet The Masters program. Which, when I started thinking about teaching this class, was transitioning from a book program to a online program and wasn't available (it is now). The program is really neat though if you want to check it out... tons of ideas!

Meet The Masters

Stemming off of that, I started looking into the masters of art myself and seeing what fun projects I could come up with to have a full class of little artists.

Today was our introduction. We made our art portfolios and then we started class with a book called I Am An Artist by Pat Lawery Collins which describes how to look through your eyes at anything and see art in a very child friendly gentle way. I asked the kids to put their art eyes on, and look at a few painters with me. Then we looked at pictures of Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Piet Mondrian, MC Escher, Pueblo Picasso, and Claude Monet. I talked about the works and lives of each person very quickly, and then moved on to their differences in the way they saw the world. I read a page of Sunflowers and Swirly Stars by Joan Holub that talks about the differences between Theo Van Gogh (Vincents brother), Paul Gauguin, and Vincent... and the way they saw the world. Then I went on to ask about different paintings of Van Gogh's and what the kids thought of them.

"Was it hot or cold?"

"What about this one?"

We went a little bit in to technique just enough to start talking about texture. Some of Van Gogh's paintings took up to two weeks to dry. This means that there was a LOT of paint on Van Gogh's paintings. It also means that they were not flat... they had lots of bumps in the paint, lots of texture. This lead quite easily into talking about the way he used texture to convey movement and warmth (or lack of) and we did a few exercises.

Then we finished with a book called The Artist's Palette by Elizabeth Koda-Callen. That story came with a treat from me. A little artists palette necklace for each one of the kiddos that Cyan and I made.

I am tired, but it was such a fun class... I can't wait for next week! More about Van Gogh! (And hopefully more pictures.)

Out to Vikings Training Camp!

And we are up early and out the door for the 1st day of Vikings training camp! The boyz have all there Sharpe markers and merchandise to be signed along with a couple of chairs to take with for the autograph lines. With the rumors of Farve coming to the Vikes the Mankato area is exploding with people. The street vendors have a big sale on the #4 jersey's! And then we still have all those nut jobs who show up wearing packer clothes and putting up cheese heads all over town. Stay tuned I'm sure we'll have a story or 2 to share.

And the End of the Season

This past weekend Dalton's dream team season came to an end. The boyz finished with a 2nd place trophy for the year. We were tied 1-1 until the bottom of the 8Th when Maple River pulled ahead. It was a hard loss to take but the boyz sure fought a good fight. We have officially moved on to FOOTBALL! The football cleats have been ordered and the Vikes will be in town in just a couple of days but.......no Farve! We should all say a prayer to the dog pound in the sky that we don't get VICK. The last thing we need on Mankato streets is P.E.T.A! Watch for next weeks posts from Vikings Training Camp as the ELLIOTT BOYZ will be reporting from each day of camp.

Montessori for Cyan

Self correcting "Days of the Week" accordion folders.

I am calling this my strawberry series. Strictly because I have a bunch of squares of this fabric and other strawberries and I thought that she would love to have an ed series with all strawberry fabrics that I made JUST for her!

See that little fabric tag that says "1" on it? The days of the week are the first of this series. #2 will have the months of the year, then we will move up to alphabetical order. It was crazy easy to make, and Cyan was finished with it in under a minute. But I knew that this would be review. The others in the series may not be. So we will see how fast she does those.

These are self corrective... which Cyan LOVED. It gave her a real confidence to be able to correct them herself. :) I am hoping that the rest of the series will be as successful. (But hopefully the rest will actually teach her something.)

No Toil Nor Labor Fear

This was the theme of St. David's Annual Pioneer day celebration. We headed down for the festivities this last weekend. This included having a float in the parade, chasing greased pigs, the water balloon toss, water balloon capture the flag, the donut eating contest, community bar-b-que, etc.


In line before the parade started. Andersen is getting an old fashioned bath while wearing his not-so-old-fashioned diaper.

Kinsey led this little goat in the parade. She is a hard working farmer (if you couldn't tell)

The boy cousins LOVING hangin out together. We enjoyed a beautiful monsoon rain that made things nice.

MTM ~ PIRATE DAY!!!

Ahoy matey!!

So last week, I got a wild hair and decided that I was going to do a pirate themed Muffin Tin Monday this week. I pulled out my pirate tin liners, pirate flag picks, and sword picks and started to think about what pirates ate. First thing I thought of was cheese and bread or biscuits (crackers). Then I started to think about what pirates needed to eat... and the idea of them living on ships and getting scurvy kept getting to me... so I added some very not in season, and not at all local, oranges to our lunch. Then it kept evolving... soon I had orange boats with pirate flags, star fish crackers, and left over chicken meat...

My friend called the other day and asked if she could bring her slip and slide over. PERFECT for pirate day! They all came dressed to jump over board and Cyan followed suit. (Pun completely intended.) Dressed in bandannas and swimsuits along with a token pirate hat from her son we were all ready to get wet and have a pirate day!

Top row: almond butter cookie... (I swear, it looked like a pirate hat in the store), chipped roasted chicken, orange boats with pirate flag picks.

Bottom row: Starfish goldfish cookies, cheese cubes, and crackers.

I guess the theme could have been orange too. lol! Becuase that is the only color there was (and not a vegetable in sight... just like true pirates!):

They all loved their lunches! Everything was eaten except one little one didn't like his oranges. They were playing with their pirate orange boats for quite a while... singing pirate songs and shooting each other with pretend pirate cannons.

After lunch came two more hours of slip and slide fun, followed up by an awesome craft idea (turned Pirate and Ocean themed) from my friend Valerie over at the Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Soon after, our pirate friends went home, but the theme went on. We watched Oceanography with Bill Nye the Science Guy (always a hit and he has TONS of DVDs at our local library)...

Even our nature table got into theme. We have tons more stuff still in the car from our beach trip to go on there so I left it open for the kids to cover in beach rocks, shells, and sand as they please.

All in all it was a great Pirate Day!

Fun with Cork Stamps

Blueberry season is almost here! Only another week or so and we will have fresh local blueberries. It is a huge deal in this household. We eat pounds upon pounds of blueberries and we freeze about 30lbs each season for winter. We put them in oatmeal, feed them to teething toddlers, drop them into pancakes, and most of all, eat when we need a cool down.

A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing and I don't even remember what I was looking for.... but I stumbled across By Sun and Candlelight on accident and I was fully enthralled for quite a while. This mama is incredible!

So by this post I came by this craft.

It was so amazingly simple! You just take a cork (or a few different sizes) and stick a Phillips head screw driver in the bottom of it. Tap a few times on a blue ink pad and voila, you have a blueberry! The leaves I just cut half of the cork off to make a half circle. It was simple. I even used scissors! The kids were stamping away within minutes and were having a blast. :)

Logan, Cyan, and I had a great time doing making stationary for the upcoming blueberry season and then, like all things, the project evolved:

Grapes and cherries.

And here are all of Cyan's cork stamp creations.

My personal favorite... she called it "bush of currents". So cute!

Smack ~n~Duck Golf Fundraiser

Today we had our fundraiser for Raider Wrestling. Amazing weather for a day at the golf course! Tabor and Darin won some drawings and Darin won a closest to the hole pin. All the boys worked for tips and helped load and unload clubs. So summer officially starts tomorrow after Dalton's baseball game. That means 2 weeks off before school starts. The boyz still have football practice 4 times a week but it will give us some time at the lake & training camp which starts on Thursday. Will we have Farve or Not?

Mixes of educational philosophies

I have spent some time researching both Montessori and Waldorf philosophies, and I have found SO many benefits from both. I think the main difference in actual pedagogy is actually the colors. LOL! Well actually, that is what it looks like from the outside. The Waldorf school all pastel paint and silk with beautiful nature objects everywhere... and Montessori is set up with tables and chairs at the child's height and nicely set out primary color wheels with inviting neutrals and bright patterns that serve a purpose. But when I looked closer, on the inside, these are a few differences (and similarities) that I have found:

~ Waldorf focuses on the artfulness in everything. Many Waldorf teachers spend lots of time making the classroom or lesson beautiful, and the kids are more interested in the lessons because of this, making them have an emotional or in the case of art, body connection to the lesson. In my experience, ANY connection to the lesson that isn't strictly 'recite and regurgitate' has a greater impact on learning.

~ Montessori focuses on order. Which also brings children in. I know that my kids in particular, can't function if there is no order in a space. The act of getting a lesson out, being able to complete it in a single sitting, and putting it back when finished also creates that 'third connection' that will make learning easier and more fun.

~ That is not to say that there is no beauty in Montessori, or order in Waldorf... but the focus is a bit different. Like the difference between a deep royal blue, and a periwinkle blue... they are in the same family... but the main portion of the focus is a bit different.

~ Waldorf makes art and doing art a top priority. It brings painting, coloring, pencil drawing and other art into subjects like math... which for me, was very hard to picture before three years ago.

~ Montessori puts a lot of beautifully organized projects in front of the child and the child is naturally drawn to the subjects that you present. Many things in Montessori education are self corrected, so even the children afraid to fail will be able to successfully complete a project and have it done correctly, before they show it to anyone. This creates a wonderful ability to complete something all on their own.... which fosters a great amount of self esteem and independence.

~ Both philosophies have a strong belief that the environment is everything. A properly set up environment can bring a whole new level of understanding to a child's education.

~ Waldorf does not focus on speed of learning. Instead, it focuses on the entire child understanding the concept... body, mind, and soul. This requires more time... so children usually are a 'grade behind' whatever the public school system would put them in for their age.

~ Neither Waldorf, nor Montessori would send a child forward into another grade or lesson level unprepared. Both philosophies are child led. Which is the way I try to teach as much as possible.

Personally, I think both Rudolph Steiner and Maria Montessori were brilliant! I have loved learning about them, and even enjoyed some of the books that have stemmed from their work. They give tons of ideas and tools for education that I had seen, but didn't really know how to pull them off. I think that by combining these two I have brought a boost to our homeschooling that I have really enjoyed! I mean, really... who doesn't like more beautiful art and more fun organized activities?

Summer Harvest

The garden maybe short on Mother Natures rain but it is really starting to produce this week. We are getting a lot of broccoli & cabbage, peas, tomatoes and summer squash. We are still waiting for the sweet corn to ripen. It might be a bad sign that the mini pumpkins are already turning orange. Naturally all teenage boyz decide to joke around with the vegetables they just don't believe there mother will post the photo. Today we picked 8 head of broccoli & 4 heads of cabbage. Which we will use Grandma King's coleslaw recipe on! Friends of ours have a sweetcorn stand and they have invited the boyz to join them this year and sell veggies from our garden. The boyz will have plenty to sell with 60lbs of seed potatoes planted and 60 each of tomatoes,cabbage & pepper plants.

Sometimes, people... it just clicks.

Cyan has been saying that she "can't read" for months. She has been so convinced that she can't read, that she won't read even to me or Don lately. She has her brother read to her all the time because 'she can't read'... and of course, being the teen-aged brother that he is, he obliges her, enjoying the tiny bit of superiority he feels having a 'can't read' little sister (well, sometimes he is actually being helpful, as well).

This morning she was sitting next to a couple of her friends in her history class, and they were asking all the same spelling questions that she was asking. My friend said that she kept looking back and forth between her two kids (whom are both pretty fluent readers) and her work and seeing that not only did theirs look similar to hers, but they were asking all the same questions she, "the not reader", was asking. "What does this word start with? Oh wait. I know that one. Nevermind. What about this one? Oh yeah, an "M". Got it. Thanks." My friend said it was so funny to her, because it was obvious that Cyan wasn't far behind, but that she had just convinced herself that she couldn't do it.

So this afternoon, Cyan came in with a book and said "MAMA! I can READ this!" and proceeded to read the entire story of The Gingerbread Boy.

From 2009_7_21

This video is her 'not reading' the last page of the 12 page long story, and I should have kept recording, because after she was finished, she looked at me with the cutest 'see, I told you I could do it' expression as if she has been reading to us like this for years... it was priceless. Can't read... my aunt fanny!

YaHOO!

Yahoo! Its back to normal at the ball park. Who knew how relaxing it would feel to be back at the ball diamond 4 nights a week. And this is the last week with playoffs and the tournament starting this weekend. Dalton had a hard time finding a ball to hit last night and they walk him. The boyz did a great job seeing some new pitches. We got rained out for tonight in Mankato but not a drop here at our house. I'm making everyone go outside and line up for a rain dance! The plants should not turn orange from the rust in the water from the sprinkler use!

All together now...

Shay and Kinsey finished their summer synchronized swimming season this last week. They both did GREAT! They had a good coach that has competed in some national competitions. I created a youtube page with videos of their performances for those of you that are interested. http://www.youtube.com/user/thesawright6
Shay's synchro team.

Shay's trio (the one in the white shirt is one of her coaches)

Kinsey's synchro team

Kinsey's duet

Pencil roll for budding artists

Alex turned 13 yesterday. My baby is officially a teen. From Don and I this year, he got a good pocket knife, and some cash... but as I was going to bed, I realised that I really wanted to give him something homemade too. So I pulled out some of his favorite art supplies (and a new note book from a friend for his birthday) and made him a pencil roll with a sketch book holder.

It was super easy, so I thought I would share how, just in case someone has a budding artist in their family.

First, you gather the materials. You will need:

1 piece wool felt 10 X 12 inch wool felt

1 piece of 14 X 16 inch wool felt

1 8.5 X 4.5 small sketch book (bound on the long side)

at least 15 good colored pencils

and one big button and a piece of small elastic OR one old shoe lace

Then fold over the small piece of felt so that it fits almost the whole width of the books back cover and pin in place. Sew the flap down, coming in just slightly to make it snug on the book cover.


Measure the larger piece of felt and fold up the bottom 6 inches. This will make the pencil pocket and leave the piece about 10 inches high (just like the book holder piece).


Sew down the sides of this flap pocket as well. Then mark off and pin each 1 1/4 inch across the entire pocket.


Sew this pocket down on the 1 1/4 inch marks across the entire pocket. When you are sewing down pockets like this, you always start the needle ON the pocket, back stitch over the pockets edge on the fabric and then stitch down again. This way, the stress point is never on the edge of the pocket and it makes your whole project last longer.


Then you take the two pocket pieces (one opening on the left side (for the book) and the other (for the pencils) opening to the top) and pin them together. In that seam add the small piece of elastic to go around the button or, like I did, a recycled shoe lace. Sew up the seam with a small strait stitch and remember to back stitch a few times over the ties as this will be another point of stress.

Add all your art supplies and fold up to tuck into a bag or carry on bag.