Busy Hands, Full Hearts...

His grandmother needed a light bulb changed.

So she waited for him to visit.

She knows he loves to work with tools.

And she loves to watch him work.

Here's to all the super Grandmothers out there...
we love you too!

Gratitude Monday

What I am loving today...

~Indian Food Dinner with a friend that is always too far away...
(we haven't lived in the same state for 18 years)

~Not getting roses on Valentine's day...

~A little girl who loves to look at the Unicorns...
"They are these really interesting horses with party hats on,
but most of the pictures are just paintings.
I wonder why that is"

~A little boy who is quiet and loud, shy and outgoing, gentle and aggressive, over the top and understated, who is so little and So big.
(you never know what you are going to get with him.  
I am having the 
best time 
watching him grow up)

~A partner who is also an amazing gentle loving father.
(who could ask for more from their Valentine?)

~A baby who is starting to initiate games...
(when he starts a game of peek-a-boo, it is simply the cutest thing EVER)

Tucson Jem and Mineral show...
(best shopping of the year)

~A lovely night in a resort...
(thank you mom!)


Happy Valentine's Day to you all.  
Lets spread some love around!

L week wrap up.....

This week we worked with the letter L...

In Poetry...

Ava has memorized The Return, by  Barbara Juster Esbensen.  She is now trying to teach it to me.

We read The Song of the Lilly-of-the-Valley Fairy, and colored her in our coloring books.

Our theme for the week..
was Valentine's day!  We read Little Bear's Valentine, by Else Holmelund Minarik.  A story as sweet as all the original Little Bear stories are, and very well loved in our house.  The Valentine Bears, by Eve Bunting, and illustrated by Jan Bret.  This story is about a couple of married bears who love each other very much,  Ava loved how they took time to share their love.  Valentine Poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston is a charming little collection of poems, including our very first Rebus.  Ava loved that one so much, I am going to have to find some more for her soon.  Inspired by our heavy dose of poetry this week my children each wrote their very own Valentine poems.

Valentine's Day theme provided endless possibilities for crafting.  We made rose oil infused playdough with rose petals... 

We tried our brushes at wet on wet water color painting....

Later I took our painted pages and cut them into (EIGHTY!!) heart shapes, gluing them together with a ribbon loop to hang them for a future project. (more on that later)

 Here is a sneak peak at our Valentine boxes that we started ... (more on that later)

 In Math...
~We learned the term dozen using an egg carton, and making a chart on a white board. 
~We used tiles to reinforced counting large sums by grouping by fives.
~We associated coins with written numbers.
~We continued to associate dimes with tens and nickles with fives.
~We introduced the 'cent' sign.
~We used the term between in a mathematical setting.

In Art Study...
We examined The Horse Fair, by Rosa Bonheur.

Ava and I enjoyed this painting more than some of the others, but admittedly she is very distracted by our next weeks art study.  She is really looking forward to next week!  She feels like its time for something "more pretty".  She liked the stormy sky, in this painting, but she was concerned for the well being of the men who look like the horse is trying to "throw to the ground".  She doesn't understand why so many of the horses seem angry.  I am looking forward to looking at these paintings with her again when she is older to see how her perspective may change.

Later today we are going to make our Valentine cards for each other, and bake heart shaped lemon sugar cookies.  A good week indeed!

Love Poems...

I like to play outside the whole time 

By Cyrus

Age 3

 I like a white flower.

It is my favorite color white.

And I like pink flowers too.

And I like space shuttles, 

and airplanes, 

and hot air balloons.

and I like to ride my bike, 

and play with my friend Ethan,

and I like everyone.

And I like everyone and everyone to play.

 When Valentine's Comes around

By Ava

Age 6

When Valentine's day comes

heart flowers pop up.

And when heart flowers pop up

it means today is Valentine's day!  

Lets share this special day.

Going all the way...

Her ballet teacher requested a bun for each class. 

This is what Ava thinks that means... 

each and every class.

(could I love her more?)

Our Super Day...

What our party tasted like...

~Fried Shrimp (cocktail and tartar sauce bought 'specially across town)

~Potato Skins

~Spinach Artichoke Dip (with pita chips and carrots)

~Stuffed Mushrooms

~French Bread and Herb Oil Dip

~Watermelon

~various candies and chocolates

What our party sounded like...

 ~Madness.   

~Happy hopped up on sugar madness.

What our party looked like...

 ~My children dressed as Pink Princess fairies~ complete with wings and crowns, not pictured  (why?  because "Fairies eat stuffed mushrooms on Super Bowl Sunday."  obviously.)

~Building marble runs

~Throwing rocks in the street with our neighbors.  (they cleaned up the rocks later)

Its a rather silly affair for all of us.  We spend days preparing the menu as a family.  We make a huge deal out of a big game that No One Watches.  We paused it so many times that we were able to fast forward through all the football parts.  (in other years we watch the puppy bowl)  Matt and I enjoy watching the commercials which is very ironic, as I mute almost all commercials on everyday but this.  The kids were so high on the unusual amounts of sugar that they couldn't have sat through the game even if they cared to.  Its like a bizarre holiday for an event that no one in particular cares for.  But we do it every year.  And I love it.  We all love it.  It doesn't make much sense, but it is so us.

Gratitude Monday....

What I am loving today....


~Jars of flowers handpicked for me with love...
(one person's weeds is another mother's treasure)

~A baby who will spend his time adventuring about the house...
(he finds the worst little tiny things to stick in his fat mouth)

~A boy who loves to explain to me how space shuttles work...
(he would like me to get my own book so I will know as much as he does)

~A girl who wants to be a fairy so badly....
(I tell her I would miss her terribly if I couldn't see her anymore)

~A partner who tries...
(even when he doesn't want to)

~I love the way my family does Superbowl Sunday...
(Its so perfectly ours)

~Finger foods...
(and large amounts of water to flush the excess sodium from my system)

~Happy Movies...
(Sappy, funny, adventurous ones.  
WHY then, do I stay up till one in the morning watching The Time Traveler's Wife 
all by myself?  
Sobbing and Sobbing.  
I should know better damn it.)

~Getting new (used) books in the mail
(oh I REALLY love this)



Here's to a new week! 
I have so many beautiful Valentine crafting plans in store...
Let's see what gets done...

C week wrap up....

This week in our homeshcool we covered the letter C...

In  Poetry...
~We read the Song of the Columbine Fairy as our poem of the week.
~We started our new poem for February, The Return, by Barbara Juster Esbensen

 Our themes of the week...
 Groundhogs Day, and Winter turning into Spring.  We read A Garden for Groundhog, an adorable story of an older couple and their little farm.  They have too much zucchini, which they try to pawn off on their local groundhog.   Inspired by the plight of the farmers we made zucchini bread, and zucchini- carrot -apple muffins.  We explored Groundhogs day by reading Groundhog Day, Groundhogs, and What Makes a Shadow.

We experimented with shadows making shadow puppets,  and shadow profile art.

After we took turns tracing each others profile we each had our own take on how to finish.  Ava filled hers with beauty and color, I kept mine simple filling the shape in with shadow (I had two, one from Cyrus, and one from Ava) , and Cyrus drew a few lines before declaring himself  "done".

In Math....
 Our profile art worked seamlessly with one of our main topics in math this week, the introduction of the concept of half.  We discovered new geometric shapes semicircle, pentagon, octagon, and trapezoid (along with some more familiar shapes).  After we found ways to cut these shapes in half Ava decided to make some "Half Art".




















We continued to work with pennies, nickles and dimes.  Associating dimes with 10s and nickels with 5s using the abacus.  Sol thought this work was AWESOME.  It was his first time exploring the math manipulatives.

We turned our work with half into an estimating game.

 




















In Art Study...

 

~We explored The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks.  Ava had an interesting perspective on the animals, she thought the wolf was very intimidating, and didn't get the feeling of peaceful union that the artist was aiming for.  I really couldn't disagree with her, personally the lion and the cheetah creeped me out a bit.

This was another great week in our first year of homeschool.  I have immersed my self into the world of curriculum set up for next year, First Grade!  There are so many possibilities, and so many choices to make.  I think I've got everything settled, all that's left is to fine tune the social studies areas.  I discovered online used book websites, and fell in absolute love.  I saved so much money, and have so many packages to look forward to in the next few weeks, I can hardly contain myself!!!  Good fun.

Winter turning into Spring...

While today may be near freezing, it's still well known to those of us living in Phoenix that our Winter is leaving, and our Spring is on her way.  Last week my children and I had our own little day to celebrate this change.  We made ice wreaths!  It seems that everyone, and her mother spent the winter creating these, so I was very happy to finally get to ours!  Like everything in life, my family did things just a little bit different but our results were just as gorgeous. (if not a bit gauche, in the most charming way)


~Start with gathering little bits of your yard.  Any little piece of nature will do.  Straw, leaves, rocks, flowers, berries...

~Stick them into your most elegant bundt pan... or in our case muffin tins...

~I let them set up in the freezer for about 20 minutes then I added some ribbon hangers

 ~Once frozen we popped them out and set to hanging...

 ~next time will add the ribbon with the loose ends sticking out so I can 'tie' the ice muffins onto branches

 ~Our entire front yard glittered with spinning ice muffins.  So lovely.

~Watch and listen as you enjoy the drip drip drip...

~Just like winter, they soon will be gone.

 

waking up....

Good Morning, Sweetie Pie

When the birds begin their singing
and the sun begins its sunning
and the morning glories
open up all blue...
there's a mama or a papa
or a gramma somewhere saying:
"Good morning, Sweetie Pie,
how are you?"

And a child is slowly waking
slowly taking his sweet time,
he's been flying in his dreams
the whole night through.
But his little ears here someone
and he knows it's someone dear
who is saying: "'Morning Honey,
I love you."

There's a kiss upon a finger
and another on a nose
and a tickle on some tiny baby feet.
There's a wiggle under covers and a giggle in the dark
and an "Oh, Cutie Dumpling, you're so sweet!"

And a child is peeking out now
on this warm and yellow day,
he is peeking at the dear on by his bed.
It is Mama or it's Papa,
maybe Gramma come to visit
saying, "where's that little Apple Sleeyhead?"

And the sleepyhead is up now,
he is rubbing sleepy eyes,
he is yawning big and stretching out his toes.
And his mama or his papa or his gramma-come-to-visit,
tells him, "Let's get us some crunchy Oaty-O's!"

So the child comes into morning
where the birds are gently singing
and the glories are still
blooming in the sun.
And he sits up at the table
with his dear one right beside him
who is saying:
"'Morning, Angel, you're my One."

And then Sweetie eats his breakfast
while the dear one calls him "Sugar"
and a puppy licks
his little baby toes.
It is morning in the kitchen
and there's nothing could be better than a dear one
and some crunchy Oaty-O's!

by
Cynthia Rylant

l


~poem from
Good Morning, Sweetie Pie and Other Poems for Little Children
Written by Cynthia Rylant
and Illustrated by Jane Dyer