Wrapping Up Brazil

Our curriculum had us spending 3 weeks in Brazil, instead of the usual 2 weeks for most countries.  

We did our South America geography game, and I gave the girls cola bottle candy made in Brazil as a treat afterwards.  Katie was placing one bottle on each country.  

Since we were in Brazil so long, we decided to take a couple of "day trips" into other South American countries.  The first was Argentina, home of the tango.  We appreciated the beauty of Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina via YouTube.   

We colored the flag of Argentina, while listening to Argentine music, and we took a quick look at Argentina's provinces.  We watched an interesting video explaining why so many German officers fled to Argentina after WW2.  

The girls have been reading about Nate Saint, one of the 5 missionaries killed in Ecuador by the Waodani tribe.  They built small yellow planes like his.  

Katie and I were drawing bees, and Grumman was right in the middle of the action, of course.  

Here's Katie's bee.  

Back in Brazil, we learned about artist Romero Britto, and drew pop art cats imitating his style.  

The cat instructions came from Art Projects For Kids, and I've got an idea from there for our next country, too.  My problem at this point isn't coming up with enough to do; my problem is remembering it all for countries that we're not at yet.  

 

We made Brazilian brigadeiro.  It looked simple, because there's only 3 ingredients, but the instructions we had were vague, and I'm not sure we cooked it long enough.  We stirred long enough for our arms to get tired, though.  

It's hard to see in this picture, but they're little rolled balls (those are mini baking cups, not muffin tins) coated in sprinkles.  We had them for dessert, and they were a hit with everyone--although, they're quite sweet, and I couldn't eat more than one.  

So, we named one of the foster kittens Cleo, after Cleopatra.  I got a library book so the kids could learn more about her.  Only, funny thing... the kitten they told us was a GIRL turned out to be a BOY.  So I got an email telling me, "Your foster kitten, Cleo the Boy, has been adopted."  

Anyway, this book has projects in it, so I had the girls each choose one to do.  

Hannah picked a guided drawing.

Katie picked dissolving an egg shell in vinegar.

 

Bertie misses Cleo (or whatever his name is now that he has a new family) so he spends a lot of time glommed onto me like a toddler.  He's really going to be a gorgeous cat when he gets a bit bigger.  

Next, we're off to Norway!  

Our Paint-y Week

Books, books, books.  I'm glad the girls are strong readers interested in many things.  

If you notice the "new" stickers on a couple of these, it's because I requested a few books I saw in Paul's World magazine.  Always looking for things to add to our library list.  And it's fun when the girls tell me little tidbits that they picked up in a book.  "Mom!  Did you know that hummingbirds....?"

I mentioned the color wheel, and got two blank looks, so we went back to the second grade Home Art Studio DVD and did the color wheel segment.  

We reviewed Home Art Studio 5 years ago, and I liked it enough to purchase a couple more of their DVDs.  

Grumman seems to be attracted to wet paint.  

This is the printable Color wheel we used.  The video instructs you how to make your own circle, but this was easier for me.  I printed on cardstock, for durability.  The color mixing didn't go as well as I hoped.  

Miss Katie had a birthday!

She's 10 now!  A little bittersweet for me, my last baby being double digits.  

Katie has been playing Nintendogs lately, so Buddy & Grampagino sent her the Sims Pets game.

In honor of the changing seasons, I fired up Crikey, my Cricut machine, and made a few things.  

I had green glitter vinyl from a St. Patrick's Day shirt I made for Hannah, so I only needed some orange.  

Shirt for Hannah

Shirts for both girls, from the Hello Kitty design I bought to make a mask a while back (I don't think I showed that).  I changed the colors and used more glitter green for these.  

Although, when they were in progress, I decided I like the look of monochrome Hello Kitty, so I'll probably do a project like this at some point.  

Cleo has always been the bigger of the two kittens, so it was no surprise when she hit the 2# milestone needed for surgery first.  I contacted the shelter to get her scheduled for altering.  

We did the next project from the Home Art Studio DVD, watercolor watermelons.  

The girls fashioned rain forest animals (and a tree) from clay, and baked them.

Grumman had to check out the new smell, of course.  

Hannah had a little piece of clay left while we were working on math.  So she made a noose.  Because math.  

Our Eat 2 Explore box for Brazil has 3 recipes.  We tried the moqueca with chicken instead of shrimp.  My family was not impressed, but they're not familiar with coconut milk, so I'm sure that was part of it.  Also, I'm not the greatest cook, so that may have been a contributing factor.  If I were to make it again, I'd cut the chicken and the onions into much smaller pieces and add garlic.  

Action shot of Katie, concentrating on painting the clay animals.  

In flying science, we learned about nests, and had a notebook project to make little flip up descriptions of various kinds of nests.  

These projects are a great way to practice following directions.  

In fact, I'm only showing one completed project because following directions can be a challenge, and gluing the wrong things together and then trying to tear them apart doesn't work out very well.  But we'll keep practicing.  

This is the book from which the clay rainforest animal idea came.  The girls are starting to cringe a little when they see the word "projects" on the cover of a book.  Getting them to use problem solving skills and build independence is something we're working on this year.  

Books, books, books again.  A couple times now, I've gotten a book from the library, only to have Hannah tell me, "We have this book."  Oops.  But I'm glad she's read it, either way.  

After we finish Brazil this week, we head to Norway.  I'm a little disappointed that the reading list for Norway is so short!  In fact, they put several books set in other European countries on the list.  If you know of any good books set in Norway, let me know.  

Miss Cleo is the sweetest.  She was always the first to come running when I opened the door and squeaked, "Hello babies!"  Here, she cuddled up, put her nose on my foot, and went to sleep.  

She was also fond of napping with Bertie.  They most often slept in a heap, but this was too cute not to share.  

It was fun watching them tussle and play and explore together.  Two kittens together are the best!

But all good things must come to an end.  And Miss Cleo went back to the shelter yesterday for surgery today.  

My furry ferocious friend will be at the weekend kitten adoption pop ups soon, and hopefully will find her new family quickly.  

She's a spunky girls with a great purrsonality.  I miss her.  (I missed her even more when Bertie was crying for her last night!)  

The finished rainforest scene.  We used a paper bag from library pickups to make the background trees.  And we added a couple of Animal Toob figures.  

Poor Bertie!  He misses his sissy.  He's gaining well, though, and he'll most likely be leaving us next week.  I'd secretly hoped to keep him, because he's going to be such a beautiful cat when he's bigger, but Grumman is adamantly opposed to the idea.  Oh Grumman.