Atelier Homeschool Art DVD's

As part of going to a public school on Fridays, we get to borrow curriculum from the district. The main things we use, All About Reading, Abeka math, and Handwriting without Tears, are not items that they stock. But I did check out a DVD art curriculum. I had looked at it online in the summer but decided not to spend $300 on something I wasn't sure about it. But now it was free to check out!

We brought home Level 1 of Atelier Homeschool Art DVD's. It is for 4-6 year olds. I told Mia she needed to finish the lesson, but Anna could do as much as she felt able to do. Anna finished the practice page and then went off to play.

The lesson was about lines. After analyzing the lines in a Matisse portrait, they practiced making lines on their practice paper. The DVD shows the teacher doing projects but also students working too. I like this because students often want to quit when they can't make it "as good" as the teacher.

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After practicing all type of lines, the lesson taught Mia how to make a caterpillar and fill it in with different types of lines.

Mia added legs to hers. The finished product was pretty impressive.

The only bad thing about this program is that we will have to turn it in for the summer and wait until fall to check it out again!

Surprise Breakfasts

I think I posted on this before, but since this is our family photo album it warrants another post for memories.

The girls like to sometimes make "surprise breakfasts". Basically, when they want to eat something we don't usually eat for breakfast they come downstairs before me and make a surprise breakfast.

They smelled the chocolate muffins I had made the night before, hence their gracious willingness to make breakfast for me! The muffins were for Friday night dessert and movie. I don't keep anything in the house anymore that is not fairly healthy so it wasn't a big deal. They also got chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer too. Both of these are made with almond flour and honey and have no dairy in them so they really are better than what a lot of people eat for breakfast every day.

They added some popsicles from the freezer (banana and raspberries blended together) and they called me down when it was ready.

Then I asked what these other plates were for.

Decorations of course, Mom!

Puppet Theater Coop

On Tuesday we went to a Make Your Own Puppet Theater coop with our homeschool group. The girls brought cereal boxes which we turned inside out and cut a big hole in.

Then we embellished them.

You can tell that one of the girls prefers to do all her own work these days.

We used popsicle sticks to make the puppets. The girls have been working some more on them at home during Quiet Time. It was fun!

Service Projects

So...my plan is to do a service project every month. For the last three years we have done Operation Christmas Child in November and Operation Santa Claus in December. This year we added Christmas in July through our church. We are 1/4 of the way there!

As the girls get older and understand more, especially Mia, they are participating more and more. For Operation Christmas Child they wanted really big boxes. We settled for these. They are quite a bit bigger than shoeboxes so I hope they will be accepted when I drop them off.

I was so proud of the girls that they not once asked for something for themselves when we went shopping for the boxes. This is a big change for Mia from last year!

It was so fun for them to spend the time to pick out just the right things for each box.

Love the hearts of these little girls!

Science Museum...Again

I took the girls back to the science museum while Dan was in California last weekend. When we went a few weeks before we didn't make it to the new children's section. I heard it was fabulous so we decided to make a day of exploring it. Since we received an annual pass through Dan's work we will be going a lot when it's cold outside!

We got there just as story time was beginning - digital story time!

The new water works play area was a lot of fun for them but you can tell they are getting older. Two years ago they would have spent hours there, but now 15 minutes and they wanted to do something else.

We dug for dinosaur bones and climbed dinosaurs.

There were some other exhibits we partook of but it was getting pretty nasty outside, and with Dan out of town, I didn't want to do any treacherous driving. So we left early. With our pass we can go back on a safer day!

Snow!

We got about four inches of snow Saturday night. So we went sledding! We have a small hill in our backyard that is perfect for little ones to sled - and it's even fun for us grown-up types too. Because our backyard never sees sun all winter, the snow stays on the ground for a long time.

Anna really didn't like the snow the first two winters she was home. But she loves it now!

It was bitter cold here last week but better this week. We are not as cold as some areas of the nation, but we will be happy to go to Palm Desert next week!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Thursday was a day full of activities for us. We first went to the Denver Puppet Theater to see a show about Baba Yaga. This is our third time going here and the kids have loved it every time. I left my phone in the car and wasn't about to go out and get it when it was 4 degrees so I have no pictures!

After that we went to the playground at the mall downtown and had lunch.

In the middle of the mall was the ice house from Frozen. It was set up as the place to visit Santa, but we already have that on the schedule so we just spent a little time investigating the place.

There was fake snow falling from the dome! How exciting! Snow! Sometimes you just have to be a little sarcastic.

After the mall we headed to speech therapy and after that to Bark for Books at the library. This time Anna read to the dog for a little bit too. Mia's reading is coming along nicely and she has just about finished the first level of the program we are using, All About Reading. I love this program. But since this is my first time teaching a child to read I don't know anything else!

The girls were EXHAUSTED when we got home and that went into yesterday too.

This morning Dan flew to California for a funeral. The funeral is for a friend's 24 year old daughter. This is our third friend to loose a child around that age. We have not lost any friends, but THREE of our friend's children have passed away. It's awful and out of the usual order of things.

Dan will be home tonight. I planned on taking the kids to the science museum again since we missed the new children's area last time but the weather already looks a little scary outside. It may be movie day!

Number Five

It never gets old! Today we are pleased to announce that we will be grandparents again! Grandbaby #5 is due in May. The lucky parents are...Becky and Arek!

It is so fun getting to have one of these grandkids close by. Maks spends every Wednesday with us. So we have decided that Wednesday would be our craft day! Today we made scarecrow faces.

Last week we made birdcages and the week before Halloween bats. Obviously I have been very lazy with pictures though!

Tomorrow we have a big day, a puppet show downtown, mall playground and lunch, haircuts, speech therapy and Bark for Books. At least it will be over 0 degrees tomorrow as we are out and about. We did not get over 0 today! It was a record of course. This is not our usual November!

Seasonal

The girls are starting to play games together, by themselves! They just go in the closet, pick one out, set it up, play for about five minutes and then get up and do something else. But it's a start! My older kids rarely even did this as their ages were further apart and they weren't interested in the same types of games at the same time.

Today we winterized the backyard, pulled all the cushions, covered the sandbox, etc. We have had a fantastically warm fall, but this coming week is going to be winter-like brutal. So for a final good-bye to our Indian summer, we roasted hot dogs for lunch at the fire pit! The girls' neighbor friend joined us.

By the look on Anna's face, I guess we should have removed the cushions AFTER lunch.

I'm doing a style challenge for women over 40. Beth has done several other challenges and she has learned how to dress really well. I could use a little of that! I've purchased the items and am just waiting for my 21 outfits to magically appear in emails, one each day. It was so easy to shop without thinking, just buy the items on the list. I'm really bad with any kind of design and when I actually do think it just ruins everything.

Today I finished shopping and reorganized my closet. I set-up one section as my "Fall Wardrobe". I know, I know, who am I? You see here clothes and shoes I purchased for the challenge, those I already had for the challenge and anything else fall-like that could be used.

My assistant, below, pointed out the good, the bad, and the ugly. Things such as buying any old blue button down shirt does not suddenly make it chambray. And the pictures all show a cardigan with buttons so why did I buy one without? She did like my khaki purchase though.:)

Of course a high fashion person like myself needs more than just one assistant.

I'm looking forward to this challenge!

One Pic

We have been very busy around here! Just doing every day life. I sat down to blog and realized I had only one picture to share! From a week ago! We all had a great time on Halloween night, having Becky and friends over and trick or treating.

Hope to have more to share later!