Rainbows in the Day

The sun has been coming out and that is when I go out to play. After a little bit it starts to rain and the sun is still out. And then I start to look around in the sky. And if I don’t see any thing I go to the front of the house .And if I see something I run up to my house door and open the door and then I yell ”there is a rainbow.” And then all of the little kids come running out to see it. And if they don’t see it they say ”where is it.” And then I show them. so what do you do after you see a rainbow?

~written by our 9yod Toveli.  She wrote this as a blog post for a closed blog with other students, and she chose these colours to represent the rainbow.  I thought it was very creative, and wanted to share it with you.

Got the Girls Sewing

So, I got around to getting Danaka using the sewing machine.  She found a simple apron pattern online, free, and we followed the not-all-there instructions best we could and improvised on the rest.  But she was intimidated by the machine, and its a bit of a struggle to get her sitting back behind that noisey thing that scares her.  So the apron lays unfinished.  But at least Mom finally got around to introducing her to sewing.  Now its in her ballpark.  I'm encouraging her to get back at it, but she needs a bit more warming up to it.

But once I got in the swing of it and I've sketched out some time away from the computer ;) I was able to introduce Maret to the sewing machine, too.  (Interestingly, its been Mitchell, the fella, that has been using the sewing machine for months, not the girls)  Maret was intimidated too, but pushed thru.  She has enjoyed doing all the ironing, and although the sewing machine freaked her a bit, she not only sat down the next day to finish the apron,............

 

but this past weekend she also designed her own sun top (after a cute one she already owned) and sewed it along with embellishing it with buttons along the neckline.  (Design and sewing might be another attribute Maret has picked up from her big sister, Chelle.  Like 2 peas in a pod, those 2 girls are creative!)

A Bonus:  All the materials are recycled fabrics.  The 2 yellow aprons and this cute top used to be a tablecloth that I got via freecycle but was too small for our kitchen table, and the pockets for the aprons are from shirts that the little boys have outgrown.  The buttons are also from thrashed shirts of the boys.  

Photo Project (DPP) and a Writing Workshop

What a day of New Things for Me.

I've never been a part of a photo project but decided "What the Heck" so I'm doing it.

The whole month of December I am going to commit (as long as I can remember on a daily basis) to taking and posting a photo for the day.  Sounds simple, but here I am at 11 pm just remembering that I was suppose to get this up and posted.  And this is only Day One!!!

I know I'm plenty busy, but this appealed to my Creative Side.  The Side that is so often neglected because I'm a busy mom.  And because the Research side of me easily wins out when its helpful with my childrens' school work.  I can always justify the Research part.  But the Creative side seems.....well......somehow selfish.  I know intellectually that it isn't selfish. But a conflict inside makes me feel like its selfish.

But, I'm doing this.  I'm gonna take some pictures everyday, and even if I don't have time to say something or explain, I'm just gonna shoot and put it up here.  Starting Now!!

This is Sigmund Brouwer.  Yeah, looking a bit retarded here, but hey, he was talking about silent but deadly farts, or maybe it was about the spider crawling over his French teacher's head for 15 minutes while everybody stared (rather than listened), or discussing whether any of us would have told him if he had a booger hanging from his nose.
 
I've never ever been to a Writing Workshop, but today I had the privilege of taking Danaka, Maret and Toveli to one put on by Heritage Christian Online School where Sigmund Brouwer shared.
He is from Red Deer (& Tennessee) and spends his time writing, and speaking to homeschool and public school students to encourage them to change their approach and attitude towards reading and writing.

And it was a Wonderful workshop!

Sigmund was totally down to earth, entertaining, utterly honest with tact and huge amounts of encouragement.  We all left there feeling that we can certainly write a whole lot more, with fun, creativity, and purpose.  I know my girls had a great time.  It was an afternoon well spent.

We were all encouraged to Dream.  Get our imaginations going and get it written down.  The editing and spelling and grammar can all be tinkered with later.  But the important part was Story.  Get the Story.  Figure out who your audience is, then tell Story that will draw on the audience's feelings.

Whether its to make us sad, or worried, or get us to laugh, tell us a story that effects our emotions, or else we aren't going to be drawn into Story.



PS....if you want to join the photo project, check-out the green button on the left side there.

Lapbooks

I heard about making Lapbooks years ago from other homeschoolers, but we just never did them at all.   I guess I just didn't see what all the excitement was about, and the children and I were busy scrapbooking our life.

But I now have a new appreciation for Lapbooks, and I see a spark that has ignited an excitement in several of the children, particularly Maret who has been busy working on all things Horsey.

Inside this refolded folder she has several small reports on pedigrees, common horse names for the USA and the UK, the top 10 Race-horses, etc.

And the exciting thing is that she is self-motivated to do the research, do tidy printing, and work tirelessly on something that ends in a project she can hold and proudly share with others.




Gaelyn, needing more help from mom, has also accomplished a few Lapbooks.  Hers are actually more of a coming together of work she's already done.  I just put it into a Lapbook form so she can show it off in a more pleasing presentation.

Here's her book on Parts of a Flower, and includes some info on the need for sunshine and water and nutrients that she narrated to Mom. There's also a cross-word she did, and some flower pedals she drew for a little math practise, and several different types of flowers she coloured along with a diagram of a flower that she labeled the parts.
The rose below was partially covered over (on purpose) when I was printing it off so she had to try and draw in the other part of the rose as to what it would look like.

This was a flip-up book Gaelyn did to help her with the Days of the Week.  So sweet what she drew to help her remember the names of the days.  Hard to see for some of them, but let me explain.
Monday is a moon and stars.  Good connection between Monday and Moon-day.
Tuesday is a pointing finger.  As in "I am choosing some candies.  Choosing sounds like Tues....day!"
Wednesday has a picture of swirling wind.  Wed  ~~ wind.  Sounds close to me!!
Thursday gets a 3, because it starts with the same beginning sound, Th
Friday has challah, because we often celebrate the beginning of Sabbath with the traditional braided egg-bread, challah.
Saturday is a day of rest, right, and we sit on chairs.  Sat.....on a chair.
Sunday, no brainer.  You got it!  It's a Sun.

Gaelyn had (close to) tonnes of loose papers that she was doing copywork on from Draw Write NOW! books, and I lumped the farm and other animals all together in an accordion type thing.....



and now she can flip through her writing and see it like a book (that's actually taller than her when it's all pulled out).  She has some simple drawings she can look at, too.

I've unloaded of most of our scrapbooking paraphernalia, which was hard for me but I did it, and so now the Lapbooking is helping me feed the creative side of me.  And its giving a real boost to the children as they see their hard work being displayed, as if it is treasured.

These are humble beginnings, but I know the children will get more and more creative, and more skills to keep them tidy and well displayed.  Mitchell and I worked on the Months of the Year, and are now collecting information for one on Ancient Egypt.  Gaelyn will be doing one on the Provinces and Territories of Canada, and Toveli will hopefully do something about plants (the bug hasn't hit her yet).  Danaka is actually doing one on some Maths Formulas to help her remember them, and likely something on the Elizabethan period.

If you are interested in checking out Lapbooks, there's loads and loads of stuff online, some free and some not.

Go for it.  We are having a blast.

Take Some Time

I've read this article a couple of times now, and I soooo agree with it, but then.......I think I don't have the time to do those things of which I say I want to do. Argh!!

But I wanted to share it with you, my friends, anyways. Maybe it will be the time that causes an 'ah-huh!' moment for you, which helps change your life for the better.

I know that in my own life, I am a happier person when I have spent time virtually everyday being Creative.  And a happier me makes a happier mama.  Everybody wins when I make the time to be creative.