Art Under the Sea

We are doing art now with our park day group. We have had so much fun doing with the other and looking at everyone work. I think the kids enjoy the play time afterwards just as much as the art. Anyway, we finally got to put a full piece of artwork together. We used lots of color, which is NOT Vincent's think, but Raquel LOVES color and we got to use layers too. So another words some fish are raised off the background while others are glued directly to the background.

The kids really enjoyed drawing, painting and cutting these out. As a matter of fact they gave them as gifts to Grandma Nanny and Grape Grandma!

Ancient Greece

We have been learning about Ancient Greece. One of the thing we have learned about is the Olympics. Fascinating things happened back then. So we had our very own Olympics. To tell the truth it was not as much fun as I (mom) was hoping, but the kids were smiling. Anyway, as some of you know the Olympics were done naked that long ago and then afterwards they would put on these clothes like togas and put a crown of leaves that have been gilded on the winners head as well as a statue would be erected in the winners hometown. Anyway, we made out crowns out of construction paper and toga type clothes out of cheese clothe. The kids looked very cute!

Hannah and Eli

You know after 4 years of homeschooling my children I have learned that the best way for a child to remember a bible story or any fact is to act it out or make a craft that will help us to remember. We use Veritas Press Bible History and Bible History and I love the fact that in every story we end up with some sort of craft project that helps to reinforce the stuff we have learned. As you saw a few posts ago we had the Gideon story and they have not forgotten it because of a piece of paper, some cotton balls and a blue and brown marker. So simple, but effective.

Well this week was no different. We learned about Hannah and Eli and how Samuel came to be. This craft was not only fun for each of us, but we got to act out the whole Bible story. I acted it out first with the dolls then Vincent and Raquel did it for me. They have asked me several times if they can use the dolls to act out other stories. My answer of course was YES! I know these cute dolls will get a great work out in the coming years! The first pic is them making the dolls, the second is of the kids actually acting out the story and of course you have to see the whole family and Eli!

All Work & No Play Make For Really Cute Rooms

So this summer has been very busy for me so far. Besides doing summer school 2-3 days a week, going on several field trips so far, play dates at the park a couple times a week, I decided to start my yearly clean up of the kids room. That means go through EVERY SINGLE toy they own and either throw away the broken ones, give away the ones that are no longer wanted or played with and then re-organize the rest of the toys.

Well, my son’s room was first, because I thought it would be the hardest due to the fact he has so many toys. With my son’s help of dumping then going through then re-organizing, it took all day and into early evening on Friday the 9th. Whew! But he got rid of 2 huge black trash bags filled to the brim of toys. All his choosing and only a handful of my choosing as well as 1 huge trash bag of broken toys and some trash.

It is amazing how lazy children can be when putting their toys away. He had lost a sandal a few months ago and some socks went MIA. Well, there they were in his toy bins. Hmmm, one has to think how an 8-year-old boy thinks that is OK to clean up that way. It boggles the mind! Especially for an overly organized person such as myself!!!!

Anyway, after we were all said and done, he was so happy and pleased with the results. In his own words, he said to me, thank you Mommy. I am so happy we did this. I was feeling so overwhelmed with it. I promise that I will keep this up this time. Well, we shall see. Then I decided, and I am not sure what came over me, to paint his bedroom.

You see my son has a love for trains. He wants a Lionel train set. I have agreed to buy this $300.00 train set for him if he will keep his room clean for 4 months straight. But up to this point he, unfortunately, has failed terribly at keeping up his end of the bargain. Anyway, back to my point here. I went out and purchased 3 cans of green, white, brown and black paint. He now has clouds on his already blue walls and rolling green hills. But that is not the fun part. His bed is a trundle bed and I painted the walls on the two sides of his bed black with windows to make it feel like a train. I also printed out some beautiful pictures of trains and signs and framed them all in black, hung a pull rope for the pretend horn, made some dials and knobs from cardstock and turned his chalkboard into a train tunnel.

Can I just say, OMGOSH I am pooped. It took me Friday, Saturday and Sunday to do all this. Well half of Sunday, but it was well worth it. He has said to me everyday since I did this, “Tank you Mommy. I am so glad we did this. I LOVE my room”. I love it too. I always wanted a theme room when I was a kid, so I guess I am living through my children. Below is the video of his room, but don’t stop reading because this past weekend, I… did… my… daughters room.

Ok, remember when I said it would be harder to do my son’s room and that is why I started with his room…Uuhh NO!!!! You see my son already had organizational properties in his room. My daughter’s room…. was in pretty little baskets. Let me just tell you…MISTAKE. You need open bins to organize so that things have a place and they can see where things belong!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E54_OJ_Got8

Anyway, my daughter’s room also took me all day Friday the 16th, but without her help at first. You see I went through EVERY SINGLE toy and threw out the broken ones, organized everything into the brand new bins (well 4 bins were taken from my sons rooms from given away so many toys…YEA) and then brought my daughter in to actually go through every SINGLE toy once again and get rid of ones that are not played with. Way mor ework then my son’s room. WAY MORE!!!! However, I am so proud of my daughter. She actually beat my son. She had 3 huge trash bags full of toys and stuffed animals plus another ½ of bag. Now mind you she still had a lot of baby toys, but still that was great. And yes almost another huge bag of trash.

Ok, so now you are asking whether or not I painted her room. Yup! But this time I hammered down and did it all in one day, Saturday. I first had to keep her tied up and out of her room because she wanted to help me so badly. But with the kind of painting I was doing, her help would not have been helpful at all! But once I convinced her that it would be a big surprise for her with what I was going to paint, I then stripped the wallpaper off her yellow walls, and got out those 3 green paints and brown paint and some artist paintbrushes and went to town.

Now, she loves anything princess or Barbie. What is funny about that is we do not watch lots of princess movies. Yes we have seen all the princess movies 1 or 2 times each, but they are not played over and over again in our home. But she sure does love them.

So what did I do in her room? I painted huge Alice in Wonderland leaves and flowers on her walls. And yes they are all just hand done. No stencil. Look closely at the video below and you will be able to tell that for sure. Then my mom for her birthday last year had given her a Princess comforter and sheet set. No offense Mom, but the comforter was for a toddler bed so it never fit right. We used it, but it was always a bit small, so I hung it on the wall. I then took a couple of gift bags that she had gotten for her birthday and cut out the princess and castle and mounted them onto foam board and hung them up. Boy did these wall hangings save me a ton of money. Do you know what they want for princess pictures and wall hangings? Too much!

Oops I hit the stop button before I was done recording on the first video, so there is a part 2 video. Make sure you open them in a new window watch them both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s_d2VP9qyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkrCXcH8yds

She loves her room. She keeps asking me when she can have friends over to show it to them. I have told both my daughter and my son, that I expect perfection in their rooms. No more cleaning up and doing it half way or putting things anywhere just to get it cleaned up. I am literally standing on top of them for a while till they really get it that I mean business.

That past two weekends have been tiring, exhausting and lonely. I have been in their rooms all weekend by myself cleaning, dusting, painting, cleaning again and organizing. I have felt snowed under, inundated, besieged and overwhelmed, but in the long run it has been so worth it. As you look at these videos of their room, you will understand why I am writing about this. Not only do I have a since of pride of the work I did, but I have a sense of accomplishment. I did something for my children that they will always remember. It may only last 5 or 8 years, but they will NEVER forget their train room and their princess room. They will tell their friends about it and their children as they get older and hopefully one day when they have kids they will give them the same gift I have given them.

At any rate, enjoy the videos.

Independence Day

Independence Day is a wonderful day to learn a little bit more about our government, our flag and how our country was founded etc. Well, I got this wonderful little book actually from the $.99 store that teaches all about the flag, Uncle Sam, Paul Revere etc. and then has projects in the back to go along with what you are learning. Well, I chose 3 really cute projects. The first one is an Uncle Sam door hanger. If you do not know who and what Uncle Sam is all about and how it came about, take a moment now and Google him. It is a very interesting story.

The second project was a pennant made of our colors, red, white and blue with stars on it. We also decided to make the Eagle out of a toilet paper roll and glue them together. When we displayed them we stuck small flags in the hole which looked real good behind the eagles head! And the last was graham cracker flag which were coated in white chocolate and then using food color we painted on the stripes.

These projects were very fun. We read the book everyday the week before July 4th and did some sort of project almost everyday. Great learning experience this year!

Timbrel Time

You know learning about the Bible has been a lot of fun. We have learned all about many characters in the Bible. The thing I like the most about the curriculum that we use is the fact that there are projects that help you to remember things. Today we made a Timbrel. they came out very cute!

Greek Architecture

We have now started learning about Ancient Greece. One of the things we need to learn is the government and architecture. So to remember both at the same time we made Greek columns. The one with a little pink on it is Raquel's of course.

So how we made them is with oatmeal canisters, Popsicle sticks, card stock and spray paint. Real easy and we had a lot of fun. As I sure you can tell, Mom helped a lot with the paint job, but that is because she wanted to keep these as mini plant stands thorough out the house. They look great and Raquel and Vincent learned allot about how much work went into making something like this!

Gideon

I am sure most Christians know about Gideon and how he asked God several time to show him a sign. Well, that is what we learned about this week. The project we did was very simple. We just had a piece of paper with Gideon's name on it. We split the paper in half. One side for dry fleece and the other side for dry land. We use cotton balls for the fleece and markers. The children will never forget this story from the Bible!

Solar System

We have started learning about the Solar System. Our very first project is to build a solar system and here it is. This will be used many times throughout our study of space. We are looking so forward to learning all about our universe!

The Science of Social Insects

We have been learning about flying insects and today we learned about the social insect...the bee. I think it really hit home the information she learned once we did the craft. It is nice to incorporate crafts and art with science.

Chores and Savings

Aren't these cute. The bags were 100% done by Raquel, but the houses, well they were done by MOM! This is our new way of saving money. We got the plans from Doorposts. Each house represents a certain saving, like spending money is the store, the house is dowry. Each chore they do gets a certain dollar amount and at the end of the week I pay them a percentage for each house. So 20% for tithe etc. they love this and it has made doing chore worth while for them.