Charlotte Mason Nature Study - Garden

We had a wonderful day at a beautiful, large and boutique-y garden center for our Charlotte Mason Nature Study today.  I adore garden centers, even if it gives me more inspiration than would ever be in the budget...it's just such a happy place for me!  And all the kids in our group seemed to really enjoy it too. 

After we explored the many different areas of the nursery, we regrouped and took some time for our nature journals and we did a simple garden scene.  I try to keep the demonstrations simple because we aren't spending a TON of time on it during our meetings but the idea is to get the kids just doing it and inspired so they can do more nature journaling in their own.  

I made 2 examples for the kids.  The first example was a blend of the famous painter/scientist Carl Linneas from the 1700s who studied plants and made botanical illustrations and then would add  up close details of different parts of the plant along With the style of John Audobon and his bird paintings and adding notes and facts about the item being illustrated. The idea is to pull a plant up by the roots (if you have permission) and hold it in one hand or lay it beside your drawing page, study it and then just draw it, the same size and just have fun.  Then paint it with watercolor or use colored pencils.  After going hone you can look up the plant and find the name and some facts about it and write them down around your illustration.  I did a dandelion (although I did mine at night so I looked at a picture online lol) 

The other example was a simple watercolor landscape of a garden showing perspective.  We focused on perspective and just having fun capturing the general shapes of the plants as they get small as they get farther away, and using various shades of greens, yellows and browns.  It was very simplistic and quick but they did great.  The kids got the perspective down and had cute little garden scenes Peter Rabbit would be happy to visit.  We started making a horizon line on the top third of the page then drawing lines for our garden rows showing the perspective.  Then we drew our fence, just draw lines that go straight up along each row bigger in the front to smallest in the back.  Then I encouraged them to just have fun with the vegetation capturing a general shape rather than sorry about any details.  For the first row of what might be collards I just did swirly lumpy shapes that started smaller in the back and increased in size towards the front.  With the climbing plants maybe some pole beans? Who knows it doesn't matter...same thing...just sort of scribbled in some general plant shapes going upwards etc.  

on to the watercolor, first did a wash for the sky wet on wet, then did a brown wash on the lower section for the ground.  Let that dry quickly and then quickly just threw some color on our plant shapes, again nothing fancy just capturing the general shape and adding maybe a little variety of shades mixing in some yellow, various greens, and maybe a hint of blue...it is very simple and easy for young kids to create a simple watercolor garden scene for their nature notebooks.  

Here were a couple great books the kids were looking at during our Charlotte Mason nature time 

Homeschool, so far...

Hello!  Yes I haven't quit my blog although it may have appeared that way. Our hard drive crashed on our laptop and I have a hard time blogging on the ipad or iphone, but sometimes my hubby leaves his work laptop at home so here's an update of what we have been up to the past month.  We started homeschooling my 5 year old girl and it has been so much fun, we are really enjoying it and I don't know what I was so nervous/worried about when trying to make the final decision to do it.  Most of all, she is so happy and loves it too.  Anyways, I still have a lot to learn but right now I really like Charlotte Mason and Montessori style of learning...haven't bought a curriculum but am kind of making one as we go. I do read all the posts from Free Your Kids on Facebook but I just don't know if I could let go and trust the whole "unschooling" method although it is interesting to read what people say about it. One website that has been really useful is 1+1+1=1.  I picked up a laminator and we are doing the You Can Read printables to learn and practice site words and she has a lot of fun with it.  We also printed out the Angry Birds theme pack that helps introduce money, fractions, greater than/less than, and other math skills.  And I've also made a tot book and some other montesorri printabes for my 2 year old and put it in his mickey mouse binder so he gets all "I want MY school work!" and has fun with it too.  I also made her some easy reader books after I saw the BOB books but thought she would be more interested if it was personal to her.  I made one about the zoo and drew simple pictures and then I made 2 other books and had her draw the illustrations.  I also read to her a lot, we have read a few of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, we love them! and at the moment are halfway through the Secret Garden.  I usually have her sketch in her notebook while I read, it helps her sit still and she seems to retain more and usually ends up drawing scenes that I'm reading and trying to write names of characters.  Before I had her draw, she would be listening, but also constantly moving around, looking at herself in the mirror and interrupting...the drawing though made a huge difference.

I also picked up all sorts of kindergarten-1 workbooks at an educational supply store we happened to stuble upon in St. Louis (our first week of homeschool was a road trip from Omaha to Alpharetta, GA.  We stopped in St. Louis both ways and spent a weekend in Nashville on the way down.)

Aside from working on reading, math and doing science experiments, Some of the things J has learned to do is make scrambled eggs and french toast, vaccuum and sweep and today she wanted to learn how to sew.  She has started asking lately if I thought Santa could bring her a kid sewing machine, but wasn't sure if there was such a thing. So today she gor her wish and first started out by helping me make some binkie clips as you can see here she is hammering the snaps in place

Ever have that dream you are at school and realize you forgot to wear pants? well, no biggie

Then she used some scraps and she made herself a little purse and then a bag for her brother.  She did awesome, I was sitting right next to her to instruct and would reach over and help her stay on the fabric if it started to get crooked but really, I didn't have to touch too much.  She was so excited and eager to learn, she really paid attention to what I told her and implemented it.  You can see in her face how excited she is

Ever have that dream you are at school with no pants on? No biggie

And here she is modelling her AWESOME purse

and the bag for her brother

Then she told me she wanted to sew a book.  I tried to think of something else but she insisted...like a soft kid book so I remembered I had some cream polar fleece scraps so I cut some rectangles and stacked them up and had her sew a seam down the middle.  Then she sewed a zigzag stitch border around each page (6 of them) and that is where we left off...

We spend plenty of time outside and learn about nature
Here is a nature journal she made from collecting leaves in the backyard.  She glued them into the book then drew around them turning each leaf into an animal or insect.

Here is a page from her notebook from when we were in Georgia surrounded by pine trees.  We went for a walk and she collected pine cones and pine needles and studied what the pine trees looked like and later drew this picture


Learning about making and reading graphs we used the ice cream spinner from the fancy nancy ice cream game


And for my favorite subject...ART I have been introducing her to artists and then doing an art project inspire by that artist.  The first one was Van Gogh...and she will never forget...she made a little chant about him...Van Gogh the Weirdo cut his own ear he painted impasto....and fyi she says she will NEVER marry Van Gogh...she didn't even like talking about him or looking at his art until the next day I pulled out some examples of his sunflower still lifes and then in an old egg carton mixed tempura paint with flour and had her paint a sunflour with a popscicle stick to recreate the style of Van Gogh.  It was amazing she went from hating him to appreciating him.


I decided to stick with impressionists for now so the next artist I introduced her to was Edgar Degas.  To help her remember we just say 'Degas painted Dancers".  She liked his art too but wasn't as excited about her Degas style painting technique as the Van Gogh...I think it was probably just bad timing, she wasn't really in a good mood and I probably should have saved it for another time so she would have appreciated it more but her dancer still turned out great.  We soaked canvas in milk and then she made the picture with chalk pastel, then we flipped it over and ironed the back to set the pastels in.

I have a rule that I picked up when I worked at at Monart school...never touch a child's artwork.  I will sit at the table with her and talk to her about what she is doing and have a scrap piece of paper so I can demonstrate how to draw something or any new technique, but I never put my hands on her art and she has become very proud of that and protective of that.  Kids want to look at their finished product at the end and know they did it themselves.  AND sometimes when they don't do it "right" it ends up being better and I would hate to miss out on seeing how hers turns out.


The ideas for these two painting projects came from this AWESOME I picked up when I was still in college

Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters 

We also take advantage of our zoo membership.  Last week we went to a homeschool workshop that was all about habitats and they also took us behind the scenes of the shark tank which was a little scary since with all those little people and nothing really to stop your from falling in...let me just say that it was cool but I also was annoying the crap out of Jordan making her hold my hand and constantly pulling her back...but there were all these little boys who were active and curious and oblivious and NOT anywhere near their moms and I could just see her getting bumped into the tank!  Apparently that is not normally part of the workshop but it was a rare occasion they decided to take us up there...and like I said, it was definitely cool, but also a little nerve wracking. 

well at least we didn't have to worry about falling down into the jelly fish tanks^

Oh and of course she still has playdates with friends, goes to AWANA and MOPPETS and pretty much makes friends wherever she goes.  In Georgia, she learned how to braid pipe cleaners in the hotel room. She made so many of them then took the to the park and gave them all away to either elderly people or other little girls and ended up making a bunch of friends that we'll be able to call after we move.

Chalkboard Pedestal Table Makeover

Chalkboard Pedestal Table Makeover

So about 2 weeks ago I was driving to the dollar store and as I drove past the thrift store in the same strip mall, they had this octagon pedestal table out on the sidewalk.  I decided we hadn't looked there in a while so we stopped and I walked up to the pedestal table and saw that it was marked down from $10 to FREE.  Suddenly I hear Jordan squealing because she found a princess scooter parked out front too and has been wanting one for a long time.  It was a whopping $2.98.  So we got the princess scooter and I heaved that pedestal table quickly into the trunk of the minivan (yes I love having a minivan now...never say never!!!)  I didn't look at it more than a few seconds, long enough to see it was free and so I just grabbed it, we were in a hurry.  Later, I realized the table was pretty gross looking, but kept it in the back of the van for the rest of the week (I couldn't get it out myself this thing is SOLID and HEAVY!)

When My husband finally saw it, he was like what in the world!?!? Why is my wife driving around with this nasty disgusting table in the back of her van all week?  We were all together in the van that weekend and I didn't know what to do with it and we are already busy trying to sell our house...so I said "fine lets just drop it back off at the curb on the way home...but when we got close...I couldn't do it and said "give me a week to figure out what to do with it and if I don't know we'll dump it back off".

When I FINALLY took the pedestal table out of the minivan, I knew even LESS what to do with it at first...I had originally thought it could go in the dining room with a vase of flowers since we have no table and it's pretty empty, I was thinking to paint it with the dark espresso paint we used on the cabinetry in the bathroom.  But once I stood next to this octagonal pedestal table, I realized it was not only disgusting and filthy, it was a really weird height...too tall for a coffee table...too short for any adult to sit at.  I also realized the top swivels around.  What in the world was this table EVER used for?  I thought okay, well I have to take it back, no wonder it was free....it's the weirdest table ever!  And went inside.

Let's spin it around to a new spot

Later, when I was in the garage with my daughter riding her scooter, I realized the table was a great height for kids and decided to keep it and make it into a fun activity table.  I've been wanting to try a chalkboard paint project for a long time so this was my chance.  A gave the table a good soapy wash down and lightly sanded the table top but not the base.  I let my daughter pick out the spray paint for the base of the pedestal table ( After I told her no pink or purple...)  I even let her help roll the chalkboard paint on the top!  It was a pretty simple project, did a quick coat of spray primer BIN 123 (i think it's called) all over.  Then spray painted the base turquoise which took no time at all.  And got a good enough covering in 1 coat with 1 can.  The next day I taped around the edges of the table top and we just rolled on our Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint and repeated 2-3 times throughout the day...but each coat only took 5 minutes to roll on with a foam roller.  So, I'd say the most effort put into this free pedestal table was getting the heavy ol' thing into the back of my car MYSELF!  I noticed people driving by slowly, watching me struggle probably either laughing or contemplating helping me before I broke my back but I managed.

The kids L-O-V-E their new pedestal chalkboard table!  We put it in the den in our basement so the lighting isn't great in the pictures but it's a good spot for it.  The kids love drawing in one spot, then spinning the top around to get to a fresh spot and then wiping it down with rags when they want to start fresh.  I put some sidewalk chalk in these cute little metal buckets I had picked up at the $1 section at Target for them to use.

J was drawing Caillou and his family for B...he kept asking someone to draw Caillou...Rosie, Cat...Caillou mommy and Caillou Daddy and J was more than happy to meet his request.

The Dress - Painting with Plaster

The Dress

Painted with Plaster

The first time I made a painting where the image was made with plaster and then painted over for a 3D effect was in college when I was doing some works for a production at the Yakima museum.  I made six 6x6 ft paintings...each one themed after the music compositions that were being performed.  My sister choreographed a dance to go with each song too so the production was a combination of live jazz, dance and visual art.  It was cool.  The plaster was used on a painting called Punctuation.  I made a huge punctuation mark on the canvas with plaster, then painted the whole canvas a solid color and then splattered it all jackson pollock style...I thought it went with the theme of punctuation with the punctuated marks they left.  ANYWAYS, I really enjoyed using plaster and have wanted to do it again ever since.  I have ALSO been wanting to make a dress painting for a long time too...like .....Then, a few months ago when I was researching faux finishing when I was getting ready to do the bathroom makeover  I discovered Segreto Finishes by Leslie Sinclair and fell in LOVE.  Then I was looking through the Segreto Art Gallery and saw the paintings by Rachel Schwind and saw the paintings she made with plaster and was inspired.  Her dress paintings with plaster are like the perfect combination of the 2 types of paintings I've been wanting to do for the last few years!  So I made this for the master bedroom.  

work in progress...

work in progress....

I wanted to make it more greyish and muted the way Rachel Schwind does, but wanted to have some blue undertones so I painted a mix of grey and teal on the background and then just teal over the dress.  I started adding a white-ish wash to the background..toning it down...but then I couldn't bring myself to do it over the dress...it wasn't what I intended...but I loved the pop of color...it still has the simplicity I wanted anyways.  I used plaster and painted it on with a palette knife.  waited for it to dry and then added paint.  Only mistake...I should have not done this on a canvas...the plaster is cracking like crazy so I am going to get a bunch of midge podge and paint that over top of the whole thing to try to keep it from cracking further and hopefully keep any plaster from cracking too much and falling off!  I would be so sad.  The cracks aren't too noticeable unless you get up and look real close but they make me nervous!  The punctuation painting was on canvas too and there was no cracking...even after trasport in a u-haul but maybe it was because that canvas was so thick and sturdy...these canvases I've been buying are really inexpensive and are light and flimsy...I'm not even sure if it's real canvas..it's almost papery because if I get it too wet...the edges start to fray...so maybe that is the problem.  But large canvases are EXPENSIVE!  This one was $16! and it's a good size!  you get what you pay for I guess.

And after I made this dress painting, my 5 year old, who is dress obsessed, wanted to make a dress painting too and design her own dress so I did a google image search for dress paintings and let her pick out a reference picture and she made this, all by herself and she is so proud of it she keeps saying we need to send it to a factory so they can make it into a real dress.


When she seriously wants to draw something, I sit down and give her a little instruction by drawing the same picture along side her on my own paper and explaining what I'm doing as I go and then she draws hers at the same time.  It's from the Monart method when I was teaching art classes and it's nice because I never touch her picture and she can look at it after and be proud that she did the entire thing by herself.  As you can see I turned mine into a silly clown picture as we painted along side each other.  She wanted it to have polk-a-dots so I had her make the dots with crayons and then paint watercolor overtop, a 5 year old couldn't paint a polk-a-dot dress it would be a mess...so this worked well and kids always love seeing the crayon resist the watercolor.  When is was dry she added glitter.

While doing the google image search for "dress paintings" we found the artist Roxanne Rossi and I am LOVING her dress paintings.  So simplistic and beautiful I had to share!  Almost made me wish I painted something like this instead of the plaster dress....(almost! still love the plaster dress painting)

Summer Snapshots

Summer in Snapshot

Hey there!  This summer we have been keeping busy and blogging has taken a backseat to being outside and doing other fun activities with the kids so I think I'll be doing a few of these types of posts, sharing some snapshots from the past week!  As for activities, I've found so many fun ideas on Pinterest and the Play at Home Mom Blog.  All the bug/insect related craft activities were from LizzieJanes 20 Bug Craft Ideas and the rest can be found on my family activities board in pinterest including more we haven't done yet!  Things not pictured are many trips to various pools and splash pads, sprinkler fun, keeping J practicing her handwriting, riding bikes, laying around being lazy and watching cartoons, and eating lots of popscicles (in my mind I can hear my husband interject "you mean ICE POPS!" lol) - love the Breyers Real Fruit Popsicles in particular.  Watching fireworks, Nebraskans love fireworks!  We can hear a show going on almost every weekend and this week....every night there are tons going off.  Fireworks stands are not illegal here so every parking lot has a big tent and giant gorilla, dragon, t-rex, eagle, etc inflated next to it!  I can't even count how many are within 5 miles of our house.

 Bead Caterpillars

 Hatched Bird Egg we found in the yard

 Butterfly Fans 

 Hand Print Caterpillar Art

 Colored Ice Blocks from Play at Home Mom. This is a favorite and I have more in the freezer to do this again!

 Stitching Board idea from play at home mom but used stiff felt and a real needle, gave her an assortment of buttons, beads, etc and it's an ongoing project she like to do a little more each day.

 Summer Soccer....it's hot, kids don't know what's going on but she loves it

 Introduced the kids to painting with stencils

Play till you drop, worn out from the spray park all morning

St. Patty's Day Fun

Getting Ready for St. Patty's Day!

We already made an awesome Leprechaun craft named Inifinite P which you can see HERE.  This week at our friends' house she had the girls make an adorable tissue paper rainbow craft and painted their toes sparkly green.  

If you haven't seen this common tissue paper rainbow craft before, you simple make a rainbow template or print one. Then cut tissue paper into small squares.  The girls centered the tissue paper on the end of a pencil, wrapping the excess down, dipped in glue and stick on the rainbow.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Are you doing anything fun for St. Patrick's Day?

How to Make a Hearth Guard

DIY Hearth Guard

keep baby safe 

and kids safe

When we moved into our new house earlier this year, one of the first things we had to do to keep the kids safe was to put some kind of padding or bumper around the brick fireplace.  We have a double sided fireplace that the kids are always running and playing around.  I searched online for how to babyproof the fireplace and found the hearth gaurd and other various hearth kushion products but with having two brick fireplace edges to protect, it was going to cost me close to $100 for everything I needed.  So I headed down to Home Depot (or Lowes) can't remember which one it was...and bought a roll of garage door weather stripping for around $20 and some sticky velcro at the dollar store and was able to babyproof and make my own hearth guard, protecting 2 fireplaces for under $25.

 Get your hook and loop fasteners

 and your rubber garage weather stripping

 open up the velcro fastener and lay out flat

 Then fasten the two velcro strips together

 Cut the long velcro strip into smaller 3-4 inch strips

 Remove paper to reveal sticky adhesive and apply velcro to bottom of weather stripping

Peel off the remaining paper to reveal the sticky adhesive and then carefully line up your weather stripping along your fireplace edge and firmly press down to secure the hearth protector.  It's not the most beautiful thing to look at but I figure it we are going to have to put some ugly rubber on the fireplace to keep the kids safe, we didn't want to spend $100 on it when it's equally safe yet equally unattractive to do it for less that $25.  After doing to fronts and sides of both fireplaces, we still had some left over that's come in handy for other projects around the house.