She might design a purse! Because of our Charlotte Mason style homeschool, I've encouraged handicrafts such as sewing, crocheting and knitting from the very beginning. I've enlisted the help of a 90+ year old neighbor, a grandmother and a 4-H sewing class - for, you see, I'm not good at any of these skills! Mahayla had a friend over not too long ago and they spent the entire afternoon designing adorable purses. What a pleasure to know the gentle encouragement handicrafting has provided not only skills, but pleasure as well. ... Read More
4-H Sewing Class and County Fair News
I LOVE 4-H! We have awesome extension agents and helpers who are very serious about helping kids learn! Mahayla was able to take a sewing class this semester where they made laundry bags, pillow cases, backpacks, garment hanging bags and a roll-up for accessories. We still have one more lesson where the girls will make pajama pants, too! Mahayla entered most of her sewing projects into the fair and won Grand Champion on two of them! Between Mahayla and Caleb, they entered 14 different projects in the categories of sewing, homemade soap, canned veggies, beaded jewelry and art and came home with FIVE Grand Champion ribbons, 12 Blue Ribbons and 2 Red Ribbons. The Grand Champion ... Read More
Batik Class
A local museum offers classes a few times a year that are always lots of fun! The theme this time was butterfly batiks. It was such a great springtime art project, I thought I'd share it with you. I'll take you through the steps below, but you'll be looking at three different butterflies since I was snapping shots of all three of my children during the class. 1. Cut out a symmetrical butterfly figure by folding a large piece of paper in half, cutting on the fold and opening again. After observing photos of real butterflies, use oil pastels to color the butterfly heavily. Leave some white space for the wax resist in the next step. 2. Place the colored butterfly in a tub of water ... Read More
Henri Matisse Resources
We spent much of our month with Matisse completing art with scissors since Matisse's later works were often collages or realistic and abstract art constructed from cuttings. The artwork below was actually harder than it looks. I asked the kids to use rulers to measure the desired sized blocks of color for the background. The abstract pieces placed on top were folded, cut and opened so that each piece would be symmetrical. (See, I hide math everywhere!) Henri Matisse Olga's Gallery Warning: There are many nudes! Paintings We Studied I chose these paintings by Matisse because we were studying erosion at the time during nature study. Each of the paintings includes ... Read More
Johannes Brahms Resources
Johannes Brahms Composer Study Resources ... Read More
March Wind with Preschoolers
This was a fun little activity Eli and I did as we talked about March winds. It's super simple, too. I colored water with food coloring then let him use an eye dropper to place colored dots on a piece of card stock. He used a straw to blow the colored water all over the paper. He called it his windy painting. ... Read More
Charles Russell Resources
We've been so immersed in our 1900's history studies, that Charles Russell took a bit of a back seat this month. We did find the time to practice a little horse drawing, though. Enjoy the resources below! Charles Russell About Charles Russell Paintings We're Studying Round-up on the Musselshell Lesson Ideas How to Draw a Horse Drawing Horses ... Read More
Robert Schumann Resources
Robert Schumann Composer Study Resources Learn and Listen Classics for Kids Wikipedia ... Read More
Georges Seurat Resources
Seurat is such a fun artist to study! His use of pointillism was the biggest topic during the month, which made for some fun art projects. The painting above was an attempt at recreating an "Alfalfa" style painting (see below) with a mixture of strokes and styles. After using many different tools to create pointillism, we greatly respect how long it must have taken Seurat to finish any of his works created strictly with dots! Georges Seurat Olga's Gallery Paintings We Studied Alfalfa Books We Read Lesson Ideas Pointillism Activity Ideas KinderArt Pointillism ... Read More
Franz Schubert Resources
Franz Schubert Composer Study Resources Learn and Listen Classics for Kids Kid's Britannica Book We Read CD We Listened To ... Read More