Author: Jennifer
•9:30 PM
Our school room looks quite messy right now... just when I got it all neat and organized. Yes, we've started another project. That drawer of material is just a sample of the other four lying on the floor! We were greatly blessed by a box full of material from another
homeschool mom whose family is moving.
We recently joined our church quilting bee ministry. There is a beginners corner with a wonderful teacher! We will be attending this group once a month. In the meantime, Taylor and I have homework! After cutting lots of 4-1/2 x 4-1/2 squares of material, we were sent home with a pile of them. I was told to create twelve 9-patch blocks out of them. Well, to my dismay, the colors didn't match at all. I couldn't handle that. SO, out came the mess of material!
Here's what we came up with. The floral on this first block (the first we've ever made!) and the yellow were from the church. We found a nice green to coordinate.
Here's the second block (that we've ever made) uses the green and yellow materials from the church and a floral from my boxes.
I like the first, Taylor likes the second. What do you think? I need some help choosing a solid that will go in between all of the blocks. Quilters... please post! :-)
Author: Jennifer
•11:01 AM
We're coming along with our art skills. This is a sample of our duplication warm-up.
This is the first abstract warm-up that Taylor did. We started with level 2. The point to this exercise is to use the basic drawing elements described in Drawing for Children and follow directions for drawing the elements. It's very fun and interesting to see how the drawing turns out in the end. So, this gives practice with the elements and it also teaches that using the same ideas and rearranging the elements they can draw a recognizable piece of art.
Since we had so much fun with the first one, we followed directions for a level 3 abstract drawing a few days later. This was a little more complex. In the future, we'll have to make up our own directions for the abstract drawings. I'll share those here.
This is the first formal drawing: A bird on a branch.
Voila! It's complete. Taylor really enjoyed this. We'll be drawing Leo the Lion today from Lesson 2. See below for today's plan to start lesson 2.
- Relaxation Methods (which I've discovered is certainly needed with Daniel running around here!)
- Random Image Warm-Up (from lesson 1)
- Overlapping Exercise (Lesson 2, page 85)
- Leo the Lion
I've already summarized the introduction to Taylor. I plan to use the concepts that I read about in this lesson during her warm-ups and drawing. I don't believe that reading the text straight through to your child is beneficial particularly if they are not attentive to it. It'll tend to take the fun out of the drawing process. Instead, I treat it like I do the Handbook of Nature Study. The reading is for mom to read and think upon then to share with the child when applicable.
Author: Jennifer
•8:36 AM
Yay! We finally got a great nature walk in yesterday. We arrived at
Crownridge at 5pm. We figured we'd just take a short walk and ended up taking the whole
outer trail. By the time we realized this, we were on the back side of the trail furthest from the entrance and the sun was just below the horizon. I suppose my friend Marcy and I were talking too much. We got a little nervous and felt that we needed to rush back before dark. We did have some great discoveries though.
The girls spotted a bird rustling in the leaves just off the trail. At first sight, Taylor believed this bird to be a Robin. I knew that the likelihood of a Robin this far south was slim. So, I took a look. The girls were so excited.
We figured that her mission in the leaves there was to find insects. We paid special attention to the gray head, beak and back with the white speckles and rust sides and white tummy. After identifying these field marks, we discovered that our bird is a Spotted Towhee! Yes! That would be the first of his kind for us. I understand they are pretty common here during the winter, but we're still newbies.
You can learn more about the Spotted Towhee on this website:
On the rush back to the entrance, Taylor stopped and told us to listen. Marcy had heard it too before I did. It was a Great Horned Owl that we heard. We didn't see this beautiful creature, but we knew it's call. Click on this picture to head his sound.
We also found plenty of droppings on the trail. We believe most of it was domestic dog and raccoon. I'll spare you the images especially since domestic dog is pretty gross. :-)
Just a couple of other small finds... This curly grass was interesting. I attempted to find information on it to no avail. There are just too many different types of grasses.
I love moss. I'm not an expert on identifying mosses either, but I do know that the old saying that moss grows on the north side of a tree is
actually true and it especially applies here. The reason for this is that the north side of the tree gets the least amount of sunlight and therefore stays damp which is what moss needs to reproduce. Check out the trees next time you're on a walk. If you're in a dense forest or well shaded area, it might not be as obvious.
Have fun in nature! We can't wait for our next walk.
We recently joined our church quilting bee ministry. There is a beginners corner with a wonderful teacher! We will be attending this group once a month. In the meantime, Taylor and I have homework! After cutting lots of 4-1/2 x 4-1/2 squares of material, we were sent home with a pile of them. I was told to create twelve 9-patch blocks out of them. Well, to my dismay, the colors didn't match at all. I couldn't handle that. SO, out came the mess of material!
Here's the second block (that we've ever made) uses the green and yellow materials from the church and a floral from my boxes. 
