Abby told us about this new app over the weekend and Kit used some of his Christmas iTunes giftcard to pick it up for the kids. LOVE IT, it ties it beautifully with the Teaching the Classics basic (which sounds funny, I know) but it has the kids pick setting, conflict, resolution, characters, etc. FANTASTIC, they are madly in love and C raced through his math lesson hoping to get some Toontastic time. Seriously go check it out, $2.99 for the iPad.
When looking for another book I ran across this one on our shelf – I’m guessing I got it from Mom or Becky? 🙂 I don’t remember, but it looks fun and above my head, which is good because it means I’m learning. It explains the concept to the parent, then tells you how to teach it to your child and provides exercises along with photos and explanations for various drawings. I plan to read through this and try it for myself then do it with the kids.
Teach Your Child to Draw: Bringing out your child’s talents and appreciation for art by Mia Johnson.
It covers:
– lines
– patterns
– texture
– light & dark
– shading
– shapes
– proportion
– point of view
– movement
– distance
C & M attended the Greater Denton Arts Council sponsored Super Arts! program today. They also hosted the Instrument Petting Zoo last fall but unfortunately we missed the dance session in the winter.
They got to see the exhibit currently on display, make their own sculptures, make pinwheels for peace, watch glass blowing (no audience participation in that one!) and help throw some clay pots.
Very fun! I hope to sign them up for next year, too. This is for kids in grades 2 through 5 and it’s free.
Designed by the kids with Kit’s help. (We’re working on our school branding, logo and ID cards, coat of arms & motto, etc. Fun design activity!)
I LOVE The Crafty Crow and I’m going to see which of these fun ideas we can try for St. Patrick’s Day.
Rainbow. to make with the kids. I would put a pot of gold out for the kids to find at the end of a scavenger hunt – how adorable are those???
And Family Fun has three types of leprechaun catchers to make!
It would also be fun to do the Mini Wishing Well – not that it has much to do with St. Patrick’s Day but wishes. It seems to fit! 🙂
Also, we just made these mini chocolate cupcakes though I’ve not frosted them yet. They look delicious and I think we’ll make another batch for St. Patrick’s day and flavor them with peppermint and do green glaze on top instead of white. It made 23 mini cupcakes and we put them in our green print muffin liners because I’m way too lazy to spray and then scrub these mini muffin tins.
Also, those are pantry muffins – no refrigerator items needed (except butter in the glaze.)
We also just pulled the muffin surprises out of the oven (they have jam in the center) and they are the first muffins I’ve tried with no eggs! Another pantry recipe.
C asked if he could make a treasure chest (leaving clues on cut out shamrocks) and lead the kids to a treasure chest with gold coins (some plastic ones we have) and shamrock cookies. Fun!
We also decorated with a shamrock banner across the fireplace and some shamrocks taped to the sunroom door and a little “Lucky me!” cut out I made. I have some Rolos I plan to tape to a shamrock and write, “Luck you! Love, Dad & Mom” on those. We did something similar literally four years ago and the kids remembered and loved it.
We’re also checking out some books on Ireland from the library, and the Rick Steve’s Europe DVD for Ireland. The kids have loved those videos (me, too, though they always make me homesick even though I’ve not lived in or visited Europe in years.)
And I want to make potato candies that look like potatoes (but don’t contain them!)
Update: made the candies!
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 c butter (I did 3 T)
pinch salt
1 t vanilla
Cream all, then stir in:
4 c powdered sugar
2 1/2 c coconut OR
1 c diced pecans & 1 1/2 c coconut
We did the coconut & pecans after toasting both.
Mix all together and chill if needed, or if it’s stiff enough dough then scoop (I used mini ice cream scoop) and shape into potato-ish lump. Then I rolled them in powdered sugar and cinnamon and then sprinkled more cinnamon over the top to make them more brown.
They are so cute!!! And painfully delicious.
I did 16 potatoes, shaped another 6 into an egg form (that I will dip in chocolate for the kids’ baskets) and the others I split into half to make them bite size and rolled in powdered sugar.
SO, SO GOOD! Totally fun treat for St. Patrick’s day or any study of Ireland.
Update: C made a treasure hunt for the kids, with the potato candies at the end. He wrote up clues on paper shamrocks and hid them and they made me smile. (I’m copying them exactly, punctuation and all.)
1. “Bubble dubble toil and trouble Find it at the bath!”
2. “Run! Run! You can run out here, and when you find it you will see this place is really green.”
3. “This room is close to pink.” (The girls’ purple painted room.)
4. “Hay! We eat food in here!” (He said the “hay” was on purpose, horses eat hay.)
5. “Toys are piled high in here and theres a big bed to.”
6. “Hey! You found it good for you! a happy St. Pattricks Day to you!”
Such a sweet big brother. 🙂
To explore – here.
Dallas Arboretum is not cheap but a field trip makes it less than half price! Finding out group size needed to coordinate that.
Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas is free first Saturday of the month, and kids under 12 are always free.
And don’t forget most art museums in Fort Worth are free on Tuesdays and the Dallas Museum of Art is free the first Tuesday each month.
Thanks to Jessica I discovered a lot of these places have free field trips, most if you give at least 3 weeks notice. Hooray!
Here’s the info for the Free Nasher Field Trips that require 3 weeks notice but it does say that there is only one free chaperone admission per five kids of school age.
Dallas Museum of Art FREE preschool art class, 90 minutes long and held Tuesday through Friday at 10am, one chaperone per 10 kids and minimum group size of ten kids. (I’m guessing adults pay besides the one chaperone but easy to just split the price of the adult ticket, I’ll check on that.) Includes class and museum admission. Link here. It is for kids 3 to 5 years.
Since I never get enough time to actually hang out and browse a store I never discovered fun stuff like this – which might be good, come to think of it, because homeschool stuff is my budget weak spot and I don’t have much self control when it comes to great educational stuff. But in this case we get a delightful surprise package from Grandma Beverly that included these goodies and more. The kids LOVE them, as in spent two straight hours playing with them and took them to bed with them. 🙂 That’s a hit. Bennett’s in love with the stencil and shape builders, Emy’s adoring the Snip It (since you know, it involves scissors!) and I’m really excited about the Color Bound – it’s dark, raised line drawings. It’s exactly what his vision therapist advised us to find (and I had not yet found) to give him tactile feedback as he colors. Woo-hoo!
I just wrote about needing things to keep the middle two occupied while doing lessons with the older two and this is exactly what we needed – how delightful that it was already in the mail as I wrote that. I am finding that Grandmothers are quite inspired.
Friendship Bracelets using yarn (easier on little hands.)
Turn fingerpaint works into cards or silhouette art.
Spray paint.
Jar art which I would try with baby food after Miss O starts solids (presuming we buy some canned baby food!) The smaller size of the baby food jars might be easier for little kids, too. And I would skip the black puffy paint part and just let the kids use tissue paper and Modge Podge to make mosaic jars that we could put votive candles in… maybe different colors for different holidays?
Nesting shoebox dollhouse – I’m going to start gathering boxes for that one!
(Fun links from Jennifer’s school blog!)
Something I love is getting fantastic finds from others cleaning out their shelves & homes! These were from my sister, I snagged them from her donation pile. Since several of my sisters did AP art history, with one minoring in it in college, I feel my art knowledge is sorely lacking in comparison and I’m happy to glean from the resources they provide! These are fantastic for the kids (and for me!) to flip through and read a bit.
