Over the weekend I found a few minutes to decorate a T-shirt using freezer paper stenciling.  Like this.  And this.  And this.  And this.  And this.  You get the point.

I felt I needed something that would speak my mind for me when I went to a meeting of some of the Five In A Row moms to learn how to make pasta.  I think this works.  Don’t you?

It was so easy. 

•  Think of or find a design you like.
•  Trace it onto freezer paper.
• Cut it out with an exacto knife, saving any little pieces that go into the center of letters, etc.
• Iron your “stencil” onto your shirt.
• Paint with fabric paint.
• Let dry.
• Pull off stencil.
• Should wash up nicely turned inside out, but follow the instructions on your fabric paint.

Yesterday’s co-op (Grass Sandals) turned out to be one of my favorite co-ops so far!  Or is it that they just get better and better?

It started out with a reading of the story.  The perfect way to begin the co-op.

From there we moved into learning about how Chinese (and the derivative Japanese) characters are written, how they evolved, and how very different the Japanese language is from our own.  As I listened to Laura talk about this, I was struck at how much of it explained why my Joseph cannot spell worth a hoot in English, but takes to the Japanese language like a fish in water. 

After learning about many of the symbols and how they were simplified over many years, each child and parent was give a card with a symbol.  We had to put together what we’d learned and then guess what it meant.  Mine is a hand, which looks like it could be holding a utensil (underneath the hand, the rod-like utensil), and of course that looks like a bowl and a mouth, so I guessed “eat.”  Wrong.  It is a hand, but that is a drum stick and a drum underneath, and the mouth is a smile.  Music = joy.  Yes, that’s the symbol for joy.

If you’ve read Grass Sandals, then you know the hat and walking stick are prominent parts of the story.  When Miss Laura asked the children if they’d brought their hats and walking sticks, they looked puzzled.  She said, “Oh, it’s okay, we’ll come up with some!”

Our co-op teachers had gone to great lengths to make hats for each child and to come up with Japanese symbols (or a Japanese name) for each child.  The children then decorated their hats.

It was fun for the parents too, to go around the table and look at the various symbols and what each one meant.

Wouldn’t you like to have a cool hat like this to wear on your walks?  I know I would!

The children compared designs.  I heard one say, “Oh, I like yours!”  So sweet.

Next, the children took their places around a bamboo mat to learn about bamboo:  what can be made from it, how it grows, where it grows, how many species eat it as food.

Once the children were seated, Miss Laura began to pull out some fabulous pictures she’d put togehter of bamboo — two-sided pictures where one side had a clue and the other side had the answer.  She had come up with guessing games to help the children learn what animals eat bamboo.  And, yes, people eat bamboo!

Here the children go through 22 pictures, placing the pictures of the animals they think do NOT eat bamboo in one stack and the pictures of animals they think do eat bamboo in another stack.  I love how they worked as a team!  The kids did a great job!

One this part was over, each child was given a bamboo walking stick and told to explore the great land (the yard), for they’d find someone serving food.  The co-op ended with fried rice and bamboo shoots.   It was so much fun!

Well, today is a work day for me, so I must transition myself.  The sun is shining so brightly and I’m about to take a little ramble through my tiny garden to clear my mind. 

Enjoy this day.

I’ve been promising a workbox update, and here it is.  Though I don’t use Sue Patrick’s Workbox System in the purest sense, I highly recommend her book and her methods.  I simply do not have room for the cart, and Michaela LOVES the mystery of her assignments being hidden in the cereal boxes until she pulls them out one by one.  So, for now anyway, we are sticking with the cereal boxes and loving the organization this has brought into our homeschool.

Our system consists of 9 cereal boxes, which I first posted about nearly a year ago.  I fill them up with assignments each evening or each early morning, so they are all ready to go when Michaela starts school for the day.

Box 1.   I think this piece of paper speaks for itself.  And one thing I want to say right now about these boxes is that it takes me out of the loop in a way.  I know that sounds crazy because I’m the teacher and the one who puts the boxes together and the one Michaela comes to with questions, and yet once the ball starts rolling, it’s like Michaela is answering to the boxes getting done and not to me.  I love it!

Box 2.  The next day in her Daily Gram book.  Upon completion, Michaela immediately checks and grades her own paper and we talk about anything she did not understand.

Box 3.  Spelling Power.

Box 4.  Need I say more?  Well, maybe I’d better.  In years past, one of my biggest weaknesses was grading math sheets.  Then the next thing you know we’d be a week or two into ungraded papers when, lo and behold, I’d realize a child totally was not getting something and we had moved on and suddenly were behind!  With the boxes, I do not allow myself to put in the next lesson until I’ve graded what Michaela has done. 

Which brings me to a second point here.  When Michaela is done with something, she sticks it right back in the box.  I pull it out that evening and file it or put it in her end-of-year keepsake book or whatever. 

Anyway, only when math is graded do I put the next assignment in — either the next lesson or review on what she’s not getting. 

Box 5.  Oh, yeah, the chores.  They go in there too, and once again, she’s answering to the box, not to me.  I have been surprised at how little complaining there is when it just comes out of the box and not from my mouth.

Box 6.  Her read-aloud.  And no, she has not finished this book yet.  It has been a slow, wonderful read, along with our other Ambleside books that we are lazily working through.  The good thing?  She has enjoyed this book tremendously and tells me something about it each time she reads, and it’s sticking. 

Box 7.  A test I made to review some writer’s tools we’d talked about just the day before.  (Thank you, Five In A Row.)

Box 8.  Practice your harmonica.  Michaela had been wanting a harmonica.  She got one in her stocking at Christmas and is learning to play it.

Box 9.  Oh yay, the fun box!  This week our Five In A Row Co-op will be centered around Grass Sandals.  Michaela and I “rowed” this book last year, but it’s been very good to go back and revisit it.  It’s a beautiful book.

When we review like this, I like to revisit the art element of the book.  For this assignment I filled the basket with bright pieces of felt in primary colors. I put in black acrylic paint, a black pencil and a black marker.  I took a couple of sheets of blank sketch paper and folded them to make a “greeting card” shape.  Michaela’s asignment was to create a Haiku poem, type it into the card, and then decorate it with inspiration gained after looking through the book.  She was only allowed to use materials that I had chosen based on colors and art media used in the book.

This is how her card turned out!  I’ve used this specified-materials-only concept several times lately to review a FIAR book and to teach art, and it has turned out great each time!  Michaela also gets to use her typewriter, which she loves!

Making The Cereal Boxes:

Several of the cereal boxes are very large family-size boxes, because they hold large books and a lot of stuff.  Some are covered in fabric, some in scrapbook paper. They are embellished with little bits of this and that. I used some glue sticks, but mostly the hot glue gun. Be aware, it takes a few hours to cover 9 cereal boxes. I cut the tops out of the cereal boxes first. I chose either a base paper or fabric for each box and just wrapped the box using a hot glue gun. One sheet of paper was usually not enough. I did one side at a time, wrapping neatly around the bottom and sides. I did fold over and wrap down into the top about two inches for neatness and glued this down as well. It took quite a bit of glue and — AGAIN — time. I, however, LOVE doing things like this. Once a box was covered, I embellished it.  While working, I was thinking of how I would fill the boxes each day!

Tomorrow is a big day, so I better sign off and get some zzzzzzz’s.

A peaceful night to you,

Yesterday our Five In A  Row homeschool group had a Winter Art and Music Festival where the children could play an instrument, perform in some way, or display art they’d done through the year.  

I was so proud of Michaela for working on this hot air balloon, inspired by The Pumpkin Runner.  The idea was totally hers.  She took a balloon, blew it up, and then used a recipe for paper mache to make the paste and then put layer after layer of newspaper strips on the balloon.  Once it had enough layers to hold its form and was completely dry, she painted it.  Then we coated it with a satin glaze to seal it. 

We found that some science came into play as we looked for a way to suspend the balloon over its basket.  We used an empty coffee can (heavy paper, not metal) and bamboo skewers.   We cut the bottom of the can for the basket, then another “ring” from the can to slip inside the basket so that we could stand the skewers between the layers and have them supported, and then the top ring of the can was hot-glued onto the skewers to make a “stand” on which to sit the balloon.  It looks so delicate, but the 5 skewers are spaced to give equal support.

Michaela also took this very fun abstract piece that we all love!  You could look for hours and keep finding things hidden in this picture:  sea creatures, faces, birds…

One of Michaela’s favorite parts of our fieldtrips and co-ops and get-togethers is being with the other children.  She really loves seeing the little ones.  I am just so thankful for this amazing group of moms and their children.  It’s really a privilege.

Of course today is a work day for me, but I’m armed with my Guayaki Mate Chocolatte, a warm shawl, and soothing music — very low so as not to distract.  Then tonight is karate night.  Fridays are busy days ’round here!

Happy Friday!

Yesterday was another Five In A Row co-op day for us, and it was an excellent day!  We studied the book Snowflake Bentley as a group and there were many interesting activities during our morning together.

As usual, the day started with reading the story out loud.  If you have not read Snowflake Bentley, it is a really good book!  I am amazed at how much the story touches me every time I read it, even though I’ve read it many times.

The next activity was block painting.  Leslie, one of our teachers for the day, had taken florist material and cut it into blocks.  The children then carved pictures into the blocks, painted over them, and then pressed them onto paper, making some lovely prints!

It took concentration to get their designs just right.

Some of the children came up with really impressive block designs.  We talked a little bit about negatives.  And we talked about how what you carve into the block comes out “backwards” when you turn it over and press it onto the paper, something some of the children were not expecting, especially those who had written words onto their blocks!

Michaela made a pretty design.

Later we went outside for more art lessons and for a special homemade guessing game, full of snowflake facts.  Each child was handed an answer piece, while Leslie held all of the pieces with questions.  She asked a question and whoever thought their piece had the right answer would say it.  If they were indeed correct, their answer would match Mrs. Leslie’s piece and another part of the bigger picture was done.  I am hoping Leslie will post more about this on her wonderful blog!

I loved watching the children interact with each other and with Mrs. Leslie in this game.  It was quite fun.  Some answers seemed right until the real fact was read and we would all be amazed over another snowflake fact.

If you are interested, here is a link to a site about Wilson A. Bentley, the snowflake man.

Today’s a work day for me, but I am thankful to be snuggled up in a comfy chair, drinking hot tea and doing something interesting.  Seems I learn something new every day.  I have actually thought of taking what I learn about prefixes, suffixes, word combos, and grammar and making up a grammar/writing class for homeschooling children to teach out of my home.  Hmmm.

I hope you have a lovely Friday.

Dear Readers, I apologize for my absence!  I’ve had three days of appointments, lab work, school fun, and then today we had another awesome co-op day with our Five In A Row group.   With Five In A Row, for those of you who don’t know about it, you study a specific and usually award-winning treasure of a picture book over a period of one week, or in the case of Volume 4, sometimes two weeks, and even though Charlotte Mason might not have been a huge fan of unit study per se, I think she would have loved Five In A Row.  Five In A Row is just rich in lessons about God’s hand in major events throughout time, history, nature study, art and music appreciation, and relationships. 

Our co-ops are taught in teams — two moms putting their heads together and coming up with learning activities to go along with the particular book.   This co-op it was my turn again!  The mom I was working with this week opened our morning with prayer and then I read Hanna’s Cold Winter to the group of children.

Hanna’s Cold Winter – Let me take a moment here to point you to Purple House Press, a publishing company whose mission it is to bring back into print, wonderful, “lost” children’s books. They have brought Hanna’s Cold Winter back to lots of children!

One of the things I love about this co-op is that we get to see each other’s homes.  Exciting!  The kids love getting together and playing afterwards, the moms love oooohing and aaaahing over other homes’ interiors, gardens, etc.  It’s a win-win situation.    We were in a gorgeous home today!  It was old (something I love), and full of interesting and bright art and some amazing furniture!

My co-teacher taught the children about animal groups and animal characteristics and played a fun guessing game where each child was a mystery animal and then others had to try and guess what animal they were, based on clues.  They learned about biomes as well.

Here are the children asking questions and giving clues.

Next the children moved to a board game I made called Budapest Zoo.   Uh, you know me and Mod Podge. 

The board game is made from a piece of plywood decoupaged with thumbnail pictures of Budapest Zoo, some of its animals, and landmarks around Budapest and Hungary.  You throw the dice, move, draw a card and read it; it’s either just a fact about Hungary that you’ll read, or something to do, i.e. A hippo ate your flip-flops, go back 3 spaces.

Next it was on to a painting project that my lovely co-teacher had set up based on how feelings and thoughts made their way into the arts based on what people went through during World War II.  We also learned about Hungarian composer, Bartok, and the children listened to classical music while they worked on abstract art techniques.

After the class was over, there were snacks to enjoy.  The snack menu was planned based on scenes in Hanna’s Cold Winter:  eggs (turned into deviled eggs and sprinkled with Hungarian paprika) and cheese from the market, snowflake crackers for the cold winter, tart apples to offset the sweet cheese, a bit of candy (with mom’s permission) – also a market item, and water.

One of my favorite parts of the co-op is seeing my friend Daniel.  We were both pretty impressed by the large nutcracker soldier on the hearth, so we stood guard with him for awhile, with our most serious faces.  Do we look protective and like good guards?

Can anyone say zip line?  This home had a zip line in the backyard and there were screams of joy when the children were turned loose to play once the co-op was done. 

It was a very lovely day and I am so thankful for the friendship and opportunity this group of wonderful ladies offers.

We had another awesome fieldtrip yesterday with our Five In A Row homeschool group.  Love that group!  We went to Falls Lake.

Even though the skies were gray and there were raindrops blowing down from the trees and an occasional fine sprinkle of raindrops from the sky, quite a few moms were able to make it out and bring their children for a day of learning about compasses and how to use one.

One of the park rangers at Falls Lake did a class for the children.  I thought I knew about compasses, and maybe I did a little, but having to actually use one in guided activities showed me how much I did not know.

Michaela and her friend were a pair for the day’s activities.  Can Michaela make a normal face for a picture?  I don’t know.

The ranger told us about topographical maps and how to look for changes in elevations. 

Each one of us measured the size of our pace by pacing a marked-off distance and then dividing that distance by the number of paces it took us to walk it.   

One of the moms shows Michaela how to mark the degrees given during an assignment and then how to sight something in that direction for a landmark to walk towards.

At the end of the class we had an added bonus because of the rain.  Once again, thank you rain.  It brought to some minds this question:  What if you were lost, had no compass, AND there was no sun visible in the sky to help you?  We talked about the partly true/partly folklore (depending on where you live) idea of mosses growing one only one side of the trees and we talked about how we still have a faint shadow, even on overcast days, and we talked about hopefully being able to locate the north star after nightfall. 

Falls Lake is a lovely place for learning about compasses.

Happy Friday to YOU.
Lynn

We had another fun and informative class yesterday with our Five In A Row co-op.  The book we are studying is The Gullywasher by Joyce Rossi.  In it, Grandfather tells his granddaughter, Leticia, about the biggest gullywasher ever, which changed him from a strong young vaquero into the old grandfather that he is now.

After listening to the story, the children gathered around a long table to learn about various fats and how they mix, or don’t mix, with water.  Some fats are lighter than others, fats melt at different temperatures, and different fats separate from water at different speeds.

Jars containing colored water and different kinds of fats were passed around, shaken and then observed.

Michaela shakes a jar while the student next to her gets his watch ready.  The children timed how long it took for two different fats to separate from the water they were shaken into.

Next, the children were shown a variety of watercolor-painting techniques.  One lesson was how they could draw something with a light-colored crayon and then paint over it and the crayon marks would not absorb the paint but, rather, separate.  (More lessons about fat!).  See the yellow lightning strikes? 

Each child was given three heavy cards with their envelopes to make watercolor paintings, turning this into an opportunity to make cards for grandparents or other friends or relatives.  The children practiced what they were just taught by Mrs. Laura.

The next part of the class was a pepper-eating contest!  Oh my!  Mrs. Laura passed around jars of dried peppers and let the children smell them.  She then explained about Scoville units and how they measure the hotness, or the amount of capsaicin, in different types of peppers.

Mrs. Laura read the names of the peppers on her chart and the children raised their hands when they had heard of a particular type of pepper before.  You’d have to know the pretty and lively Mrs. Laura to know how connected she kept the kids through all of this!

As an aside, in the next picture, the beautiful dark-haired lady in the back was our other teacher for the day, Mrs. Lea.  She read The Gullywasher and another related story to the children.  The set-up for this was awesome.  The room was darkened so I don’t have a picture of her reading, but just wanted to include her.

Each child had a chance to taste some peppers mixed in with a cheese base, starting at a level of 1 and moving to a level 10.  We have some young students, so this was a mild level 10!  Still, it was hot enough to bring tears to a couple of eyes. 

Now the “fat” lesson comes in.  Is water what you need to drink after eating hot peppers to take away the burn?  No!  Water will not wash that capsaicin away because it is not water soluble.  What you need is dairy fat, so the children had yogurt after the pepper tasting. 

Tasting!

No we did not put the children into cages at the end of the co-op.  The children ran outside to play for a few minutes after the class was done.  This just happened to be a fun structure for the children to climb under and pretend they were in a cage!

It was such a nice day.  As for me, getting a chance to get out of the house and chat with some other moms and children is worth as much as having Michaela learn from these intelligent moms. 

Have a wonderful Friday!  The rain has let up here and I’m about to put on some water for tea.  Maybe some birds will visit my window feeder to keep me company while I type today.

“We cannot escape history,” is what Abraham Lincoln said, and as we listened to Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait this morning, Michaela and I worked on our project of re-creating Lincoln’s birthplace for our homemade doll house collection.

It is simply a cardboard box that we are coloring the logs and mud plaster onto.  We cut out the one door and one window and hung a bearskin (felt) over the door.  The single window in the small cabin was covered with oiled paper (we used wax paper).  The floor was hard dirt so we painted on a thick layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled sand into it and let it dry.  After allowing it to dry and shaking off the excess, we had a nice dirt floor.

We have several items to add yet, including a bed of saplings, a homemade coverlet and a fireplace.  We will continue to add items as we read on through Abraham Lincoln’s World by Genevieve Foster.  It’s one of Michaela’s books for Ambleside Online Year 5.   I have gotten questions before regarding what to do for handicrafts and boys, and I think a project like this is so much fun!  It’s does not have to be classified as a doll house!

Lately our school days have been full of history, made even richer by our participation in our Five In A Row co-op activities.  I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoy being a part of a co-op and learning alongside other moms (super nice friends) and their children. 

A few weeks ago we had a two-hour co-op class here.  All activities were centered around the book Cowboy Charlie, which is the story of Charles M. Russell, American painter of the American Wild West.   It ties in nicely with our other current reads as the times of Charles Russell pick up where Abraham Lincoln’s world left off. 

We read the book, Cowboy Charlie, as a group and then set off to travel around the yard by pretend train to different areas set up to represent different phases of Charles Russell’s life.

Michaela and I had made a tepee ahead of time, and you can barely see it because it blended right into the background on this cold, gray day, but the children enjoyed it and some of them came dressed up and ready to re-enact!

One of the parts of the co-op that I worked on was “passports” to the west.  There was a mystery character for each child, sealed in an envelope until everyone had received theirs.  The children then opened their envelopes.  We had many famous people there:  Buffalo Bill, Crazy Horse, Annie Oakley, Laura Ingalls Wilder and others.  It was really fun to see the children open their envelopes and find out who they were!

The original passports were made from luggage tags and then laminated.  I made a quick black and white photocopy of each one to keep a laminated set on hand for personal reference.   (Not to mention I wanted a tangible reminder of the day.)

My co-teacher (love her) talks about an area concerning one of the historical figures we had chosen to tell the children about.

After being outside and getting almost too chilly but not quite, we all came in and learned about the 12 constellations that tell the story of Jesus’ birth, death, and return.   Cowboy Charles M. Russell worked under the stars, remember.

We then crowded into the toasty kitchen and had warm apple cider, coffee, venison sausage, rice cakes, peanut butter and carrot sticks.  Everyone was so kind and I enjoyed so much having everyone over.  It was a day that made some precious memories for Michaela and me.  (Leslie, thank you for the pictures!)

We cannot escape history.

Lynn

Since I’m recovering from the effects of a non-working thyroid, which has probably been building over a year’s time, I don’t want to add any more stress to my life than necessary. 

For writing, Michaela will keep a journal about her new puppy, Annie.

For reading, I am definitely following the Ambleside Year 5 lessons and just calmly going with our own flow with those books.  There is one book that Michaela absolutely “does not get” right now.  (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.)  Stress?  No.  That one’s going on the back burner right now and I’m hoping to read that one with her aloud later.  In the meantime she is loving the other books and placing figures on our timeline as we learn about new people.  Pictures are easily printed from a Google search for this!

Last night we snuggled up with Annie and read more from Farmer Boy, our current read in the Little House series. 

I think I have to work?  Well, no, Almanzo’s father had to get up at midnight, at 40 below zero, and take a whip outside to rouse the cows that were not in barns.  He had so much livestock that they could not all fit into his many barns and shelters.  If the cows that were exposed to the air were left to sleep too long they would freeze in their sleep.  So little Almanzo awoke to the sound of the door closing at midnight — father going out to keep the cows alive.  He’d drive them around until they were good and warm and then let them rest again.

Now that was hard work.

There’s a wild aster in my garden that’s beginning to bloom.  I love the tiny little blooms.  It’ll look like a snowstorm before it’s done.

We’ll do some light and easy nature sketching.

I’m involved in a Five In A Row Volume 4 co-op this year.  I’m very excited about that.  As far as creative lessons and things done away from home, that’s where my energy will go right now.  It’s easy to choose lessons from the Five In A Row manual, but we’ll be getting the children together to work on lessons and learn together.  So much fun!

The Ambleside takes care of itself if we just do the reading.  It gives us copywork material, timeline material, discussion material and more.

Of course we are doing math (Saxon 7/6) and many handicrafts.  Even now, Michaela is working on a new bed for the doll house.  It is being recycled from something I no longer needed.  I’ll be sure and post pictures!

Have a lovely Monday!

Lynn