Not that you can tell from my posts lately. But it's so much easier to take a picture of an art project than a picture of a discussion on the Russian Revolution, or of listening to Russian folk music, or watching Anastasia. All things that we did this week, with nothing to really show for it.
I also did some (not mask!) sewing this week, but since the total project is only 1/4 finished, I'll show those when they're all done.
Happy to report our book flow is back to normal amounts again. See the book
Adventures in Asian Art? That book inspired the vase project shown in our title image above.
We had a birthday this week.
Origami fish that were harder than one would think.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the turtles before Someone used marker on the backside of hers.
Our Asian vases project. Notice Grumman the Curious.
I used
Crikey to cut out a couple vases from white cardstock, and had the girls draw Asian designs on them in blue marker. (Blue marker again. We go through a
lot of
blue.) Then they drew branches on their background paper, and finger painted cherry blossoms on the branches.
I'm kind of surprised that Grumman didn't end up pink in the process. Afterwards, they glued the vases on.
Grumman kind of likes to be right in the middle of whatever we're doing. He's giving the new pile of books a sniff to see what sort of smells they have at the library.
Our "St. Basil's Cathedral inspired" Russian buildings were from
a video lesson on YouTube. We really like the
Home Art Studio DVDs, but I hadn't seen this one before, so I was glad to stumble across it.
I ended up throwing away the sticky blue acrylic paint I used for my background and having the girls do tempera paint for theirs. Not really delighted with either option, honestly. Many of our art supplies have been around for a long time and have degraded over the years. The building part would have been fun to do in watercolor pencil, too.
We watched a video about the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest rail line in the world, so I had the girls jot down some facts about it with their train drawings.
Swimming Creatures turned into a discussion of reproduction when Katie asked what fertilized meant. The conversation leapt species from fish to humans, of course, and when Jack popped out of his room and realized there was elaborate Birds & Bees talk going on in the school room, he turned around and went right back in and shut the door.
Signs of spring happening all over the place right now. It's a welcome antidote to all the SNOW pictures I'm seeing on Facebook. I don't like to be cold, so the sight of daffodils (one of my favorite flowers) is a huge encouragement to me.
I think a homeschool filled with art adds so much delight to learning. Love all your projects and that gorgeous tree.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Thanks, Dawn! One of my biggest regrets with the older kids was that I looked at art as an "extra" and we spent so much time on the "real" subjects, that we never had time for art. I'm having a wonderful time doing all the art projects now, but I wish the first 4 kids had gotten in on some of the good stuff, too.
DeleteHee hee hee! I can picture Jack looking and running!!!!! Similar discussions happen at our house. I'm busy being matter-of-fact about reproduction with the young ones so that they won't think it's something cringe-worthy, but my older ones are present cringing in every way possible. It's pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought you only do art. :) But I agree--art is the easiest thing to document.
I looked it up, and you can buy a 12-pack of blue crayola markers for around $7. I know you were working on using nicer art supplies, but if you need a lot of blue, it might be the way to go?
Thank you for your prayers and inquiries. I'm working on an update now. :)
There's a part of me that thinks I really should have gone with the basic blue 12 pack instead of the blue/green variety pack. Now, however, I feel like we're close enough to the end of the school year, that they wouldn't use them all, lol. I suspect Paul's going to want them back in the classroom next year. That's a conversation we should have soon. Maybe if he says they can stay home, I'll get blue markers to celebrate. :)
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