Stuff for Sale

I just wanted to share that I added a whole bunch of good stuff over at The Gnomes' Home, my "yard sale" blog.

Our Field Trip to the North Museum in Lancaster, PA

We haven't had a field trip in a while, so when Daddy had to go to Lancaster for a pastor conference, we decided to tag along and spend the morning at the North Museum. I remembered the museum from grade school field trips, even though I hadn't been there in probably twenty years!

The kids loved the Discovery Room. Well, the younger three did. It was a little too young for Michael.
Katie Grace enjoyed the microscope.

The mural was fun, too, although Nicholas sort of missed the point and didn't put the animals in their habitats. He was going for the silliest placement possible!

Here is Katie Grace and Nicholas enjoyed a seashell discovery box. We also worked through a Native American box together. It was hard to believe we were handling objects that were hundreds of years old!

Nicholas's favorite part-- the dinosaur!

One of the reasons I wanted to go is they have a display about Pennsylvania Native Americans. Unfortunately, it's hard to find good, accurate information. The children enjoyed searching for petroglyphs.

Nicholas and Katie Grace enjoyed trying to grind corn.

Daniel mostly enjoyed climbing on things.

There was an "Arctic Adventure" exhibit when we were there.

Nicholas really liked the "moon rocks". I don't think they were actually moon rocks, but couldn't convince him otherwise.

Michael liked the star finder. We were really disappointed the planetarium wasn't running that day.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Blech! This was definitely the grossest thing in the live animal room.

Nicholas was fascinated by the turtle in his tank.

My latest obsession: AudibleKids

I've fallen in love with AudibleKids.com!

First of all, they have free books. This week's selection includes Clementine, an absolutely hilarious book by Sarah Pennypacker and Yes We Can!, an unabridged biography of Barack Obama.

They have an excellent selection of 99 cent books as well.

There are also listening guides for parents, kids, and educators.

You can sign your kids up, set up their profiles, and give them an audiobook "allowance".

Now that we're hooked on AudibleKids, I'd love to hear your recommendations!

Learning to Love

Art lesson: Pointillism and Seurat

"La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat

This is one of my favorite paintings, so I really enjoyed sharing it with the kids. It was also the inspiration for one of my favorite musicals by Sondheim, Sunday in the Park with George, and I enjoyed sharing that with the kids as well.

There's some good information about the painting here and here, and some wonderful close-ups here.

We talked about pointillism and reviewed primary and secondary colors. The closeups of the painting really allowed up to see how Seurat used primary colors to create secondary colors. (Cue Sondheim's Color and Light.)

When it was time to paint, each child chose a different tool.

Michael used the eraser end of an unused pencil.
Nicholas used a q-tip.

And Katie Grace used her own fingers.

Nicholas's was very abstract. Katie Grace did a stage picture, inspired by the scenes from Sunday in the Park with George we watched and listened to as we painted. Michael's picture showed creativity and thoughtfulness-- it was "a futuristic space hotel".

"This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off! In this painting, Seurat has "stopped the world," and it reveals itself as beautiful, sunlit, and silent - it is Seurat's world, from which we would never want to get off."
Sister Wendy

Rainforest Adventure

Katie Grace and I are having so much fun with our rainforest main lesson block!
Last week, she made a vine. The big leaves are the hundreds, 100 through 1,000.
Then we added flowers for the tens. We were going to add bugs for the fives, but that seemed very labor intensive.

Now we're drawing/coloring pictures on rainforest animals, and she's practicing writing her number words. She's also writing a page about each animal and drawing a picture.

It's math! It's science! It's social studies! It's spelling! It's creative writing! It's research! It's handwriting! It's reading!It's art! It's homeschooling at its finest!

Wordless Wednesday... Soon!

How does a nice Catholic girl teach the Reformation?

I really dislike Martin Luther.

It's the whole package-- I don't like his looks. I don't like that he married a nun. I don't like that he broke the church.

Imagine my discomfort when I realized we had reached the Reformation in Story of the World.

I like this book for the most part. I've had a few uncomfortable moments when I felt like it was leaning towards the "Oh, these silly natives! *wink wink, nudge nudge*" style of writing, but for the most part, I've found it fairly well written.

But I must say, I didn't care for how this chapter was written. And I realized that, at the end of the day, every text has it's bias (or, as my husband reminded me, "All history is told with an agenda"), and SotW is no exception.

I'll admit, I skipped the poorly constructed analogy of the Catholic Church as the Evil Aunt who says she loves you but won't let you sit on her couch, and Luther and Protestantism as the Kindly and Loveable Aunt who gives you cookies and slips a ten in your pocket on the way out. And I went into a much more detailed explanation of indulgences that made my little Lutherans' eyes glaze over. And when Pastor Hubby came home, I made him teach it all over again, just to be sure I hadn't let my own biases get in the way.

We'll continue to explore this over the next few weeks, and I'll continue feeling uncomfortable. For the love of my children and husband, I'll also continue to look past my discomfort and try to teach this topic in a way that both honors the Church I love and respects a man who loved the faith enough to walk away from a Church he felt was obscuring the truth. Like much in our inner-faith marriage, it will be a balancing act, but God-willing, we'll make it through.

Circle Time: Winter, Goodbye!

This week, we broke out the Spring Seasons of Joy!

Spring Candle Lighting Verse
Like the sun that warms the seeds
Sends light to us below,
So we light this candle,
That we may enjoy its glow.

Nicholas's favorite part is banishing King Winter:
Goodbye, King Winter!
Your rule is no more.
Your ice and snow melted
All over earth’s floor.
Hello, Mother Earth!
Wake your root children all.
The seeds must all grow now
To flowers so tall.

Menu Plan Monday

No real plan this week--I need to clean out my freezer so I can defrost it, so I'm just trying to use stuff up. Tonight it was a yummy spring lamb shank stew with potatoes and peas. Tomorrow-- who knows! I do have a ton of bulgar wheat to use, so I'll happily take any suggestions for that!

Rejoice! What was lost is now found!

Now I know how the woman with the missing coin felt. Chip found the missing camera! I updated the art pictures here, and I thought I'd add a picture Katie Grace drew of Jack Frost
That's an icicle hanging off his nose!

And one last picture of Daniel before he got his little baby mullet trimmed.

Sigh.

My camera is missing.

Again.

This happens every year or so, and it really really upsets me.

It also makes it hard to blog.

Poop.

Art Lesson: When Do You Marry? by Paul Gauguin

This week, we studied this painting featuring Tahitian women and a vibrant Tahitian landscape ny the French Impressionist Paul Gauguin. It have us the opportunity to address two concepts: first, the idea of landscape and foreground and background in a painting, and second, primary and secondary colors.

It was an exercise in observation to notice the details in the foreground and background. Sky, mountains, hills, rocks, grassy meadow, and pond or river, this painting had a variety of landscape details to notice.

After observing the landscape, I gave the children only primary colors on their paper plate palettes.

After drawing their landscape outlines with a pencil, they got to work, creating bright colors from the red, yellow, and blue they were given.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the final works of art, because my camera is missing. :(

"In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters." "Where do we come from ? What are we ? Where are we going ?" Paul Gauguin 1898

ETA: Found the camera! Here are our finished works of art:
Nicholas just sort of went to town. He had fun mixing colors though.

Katie Grace made on ocean scene, with waves, fish, sunshine, an island, and a volcano!


And finally, Michael made two volcanos with large palm trees. I think.

Something for Nothing!

It's Tuesday, which means it's time to check out all the great giveaways.

Enter to win a tie-dye frog Webkinz over at "A Happy Hippy Mom".

World Water Day

Last week, I wrote about Dream Village's World Water Day to be celebrated on March 22. The theme this year is "Transboundary Water: Sharing water, sharing opportunities".

You can join an event here. Some ideas might include:
Watch a World Water Day online video, found here
Send a World Water Day e-card
Download campaign materials, including shirt transfers, posters, banners and buttons
Find a World Water Day event near you
Download kid-friendly materials from Dream Village and visit their World Water Day website

Whether we live upstream or downstream, we're all in the same boat!

Story of the World: Aztec Hot Chocolate

Mmmmm... we're looking forward to trying this!

In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, and a pinch each of ginger, cloves, and red pepper.

Heat to boiling over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for three minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a wisk, beat in 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa and a teaspoon of vanilla extract until frothy.

Serve in mugs and top with whipped cream.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Kids eat free at TGIFridays!
Tuesday: Corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Broiled herb butter chicken
Thursday: Stuffed shells
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Black bean burritos
Sunday: At church with the youth group

Just a little bit of Daniel love!

Weekend Round-Up!

Yee haw! Here are some things that caught my eye in the Blogosphere this past week.

First, some fun lessons for this beautiful spring week:
A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling has a lovely St. Patrick's Day/rainbow lesson outlined here.
Or you can hop on over to Our Little Nature Nest for a Rabbit and the Sky main lesson.
Art Projects for Kids had two fun ideas this week: A Starry Night group mural and a Landscape Collage.
I'm so intrigued by the Peace Box over at Montessori Mama.
And finally, No Time for Flash Cards has some great ideas to use with a homemade balance beam.

There was some yumminess floating around the internet as well:
Weelicious has chicken on a stick. Because you know, everything tastes better on a stick.
I'm really wanting to try this broiled herb butter chicken from Carrie's Cooking.
And of course, tomorrow we'll be making Weight Watchers Corned Beef and Cabbage from Laaloosh.

And finally, some things that just look fun to try:
An herb spiral from tipnut
and
Spring cleaning my sewing machine, compliments of Whip Up.

Have a wonderful week!

Charged up about recycling

Well, I feel foolish.

I had no idea you were supposed to recycle batteries. I don't know how I missed this important fact, but I did.

According to the EHSO Website:

Batteries may produce the following potential problems or hazards:

	Pollute the lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned.
	Contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills.
	Expose the environment and water to lead and acid.
	Contain strong corrosive acids.
	May cause burns or danger to eyes and skin.

In landfills, heavy metals have the potential to leach slowly into soil, groundwater or surface water. Dry cell batteries contribute about 88 percent of the total mercury and 50 percent of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. In the past, batteries accounted for nearly half of the mercury used in the United States and over half of the mercury and cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. When burned, some heavy metals such as mercury may vaporize and escape into the air, and cadmium and lead may end up in the ash.

Scary stuff.

So what can we do? We decided to take a three-pronged approach.

Step One. Reduce
Obviously, the best choice is to not buy electronic doodads that use batteries. But when that's not possible or practical, we can choose to purchase better batteries. Reduced-mercury and mercury-free batteries are better choices, both for the environment and for the safety of those in your household.

Step Two. Reuse
Rechargeable batteries, like those found at greenbatteries.com are another green choice you can make. Metaefficient has reviews of the best rechargeable batteries here.

Step Three. Recycle
This morning, Nicholas and Katie Grace searched our pile of boxes to reuse and found a smallish one, the perfect size for holding batteries to be recycled. Nicholas decorated it, and we put it in the basement on the workbench to collect our used-up batteries. Then we'll recycle them. To find a battery recycling drop-off point near you, visit this web site. I found eight drop-off points within 10 miles of my home!