The Soup Kitchen

Posted by Cindy on April 17, 2009

We were honored to help out at a nearby soup kitchen this week.  It’s an activity I hope we can do more often!

Fall Treescapes, Degas and Tchaikovsky, and 4-H

Posted by Cindy on October 15, 2008

Yesterday was Tuesday and that means another busy, but very rich day of learning in our house.  After a bit of Bible and math, we went outside for nature study from a distance.  Instead of observing God’s creation up-close and personal, we took time to view the beautiful autumn trees as they grow in groupings.  All the greens, yellows, organges and reds together are just breath-taking!

To record nature study today, we created sponge painted treescapes (a very easy and fun activity.)  Take a cheap sponge (I found a bag full of 15-20 sponges at the Dollar Tree the other day) and let your child cut it into various odd shaped pieces.  You’ll need a little piece per paint color.  Squirt several fall colored tempera or acrylic paints onto a “pallet”.

We started by using a few different blues and a white paint to make the sky.  Then we moved on to the ground by using a couple of greens and a gold.  Using a thin paintbrush and a couple different colors of brown, we just went along the ground/sky line painting in several tree trunks.  Then using reds, yellow, orange and the green paints, we dabbed the edges of the sponges into the colors and gently dabbed onto the paper to create leaves.  My explanation probably makes this sound harder than it was!  At any rate, the finished product was lovely.

This week started new artist and composer studies.  Keeping with the theme of Impressionistic artists, we began studying Edgar Degas.

Since Degas painted so many ballerinas, it just seemed fitting to teach Tchaikovsky at the same time.  I found a wonderful site for composers called Classics For Kids.  Where have I been, right???  We were able to listen to a couple of biographical stories about Tchaikovsky and hear some of his famous Nutcracker.

And finally, after our tea time and a history activity we headed to the first 4-H meeting of the year.  Our homeschool 4-H club is designed mostly as a service-oriented club.  The kids packed snack bags for needy children in the area, then worked on fall-themed thank you magnets for our local hospital workers.

Like I said – busy, but wonderful!

Kid’s Cookbook

Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2008

After VBS at church, our Sunday evening Kidz Group (1st-5th grades) started working on a Kid’s Cookbook to use as a tool to minister to the new children who visited our church during VBS.

We used a Bible concordance to search for verses about food and drink relating to God and Jesus.  After deciding on four verses, they were typed up (by me) and illustrated by the children.

Next, the children each shared one to three recipes they are able to make by themselves.  Again, I typed them up and the children illustrated the recipes.

All the kids signed the final page of the book to personalize it.  And we were sure to include an invite to the various children’s programs we have at church in hopes that some of the new children (and parents) will make our church a home for themselves.  In trying to share Jesus with people in a practical and fun way, our prayer is that the children will come to know the Lord loves them and we do, too.

4-H Lap Robes

Posted by Cindy on January 12, 2008

Have you ever heard of Warm Fuzzies for Cancer Patients?  I hadn’t either, but our 4-H extension agent did some research and found this wonderful program for us to take part.  Groups (or individuals) make fleece lap blankets and donate them to cancer centers.   So, that’s what our 4-H group did this week.  Our blankets were headed to Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, KY.  That’s our pile of rolled blankets and all the loving and capable hands that made them.

Making the blankets is a cinch.  You take one yard of fleece and cut 4″ squares out of the corners.  Then, cut slits up 4″ about an inch apart on all sides.  Loosely tie two “slits” together in knots until you go all the way around the perimeter.  There you have it – beautiful lap robes that kids can easily do on their own.

Here’s a site I found that gives directions for making your own fleece blankets.  Have fun!

An Amazing 4-H Club

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2007

Just recently, our local 4-H agent, Lois, started a Homeschool 4-H Club.  Can I just tell you how awesome it is???

We decided early on that we wanted it to be hands-on, meaningful and service oriented.  Forget the meeting minutes and officers and such!  Well, we met for our first meeting this week and it exceeded every expectation I had!

The children were asked to bring ingredients to make their favorite Christmas cookie.  They each got to be “Emeril” as they demonstrated their recipe to the rest of the group.  After a cookie tasting party, they loaded up the leftovers and we delivered them to our local fire stations as a Christmas gift.  What fun!!

Next month – making lap quilts.