January 1 Merry Christmas!

I am sitting at the kitchen table with a homemade chai latte and plate of cookies. I need to get all the cookies and Swedish Fish eaten by Monday, so I can get back to logging calories and nutrients.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and brothers family yesterday. We did the same last year (different reason,though)
I think I like having Christmas spaced out like that. It's less overwhelming.
I had made sock puppets for my 2 yr old nephew. Whenever I watch him, we always wear socks on our hands and make them talk, so I thought he'd like some sock puppets.

And for his mom... A box with easy lid for storage of the puppets on his toy shelf.
In addition to hot glueing the embellishments, I tacked them in place with needle and thread. It seemed for "Toddler Friendly" that way.
Here is a quite visual guide:

I spent News Years Day (morning) charting out my revolving garden. Those parts of the garden I plant to rotate crops for a more year round harvest. I have 5 garden areas for this,  my 3 boxes to the left of the back porch, a box on the right side of the back porch, and a section in the ground I will rotate winter carrots and summer bell peppers. I have sowing dates for all 10 crops, along with dates to prep the soil between plantings. I put all pf the dates into my smartphone calendar with a reminder set for a few days before. 

I felt Quite Accomplished. Too bad I can't devote this much effort to cleaning the kitchen.

HEALTH NOTE: on the first day of the year, I took my vitamins, drank my 2L of water, and met my Fitbit goal! 

my 21 yr old son found an app for my smart phone called HABITRPG. I earn gold by meeting daily goals and tasks (that I list) and can go on quests and buy new armor and swords with my earned coins!

KIA[6]

Me, Ki, and the Cat. It's a small family these days with 3 of our members away on a trip.

Ki and I are having Adventures. This little blog is about Day #6. Monday.

I like this little pace to our days we have going.
He made his breakfast, I made mine- whenver we wake up. He does his morning chores. I wash some dishes.

We read or play on the computer a bit, talk about lunch plans, go for a bike ride, do a little cleaning. I hung my laundry. WOWSERS, opur laundry and groceries are almost non-exsitent compared to when there are all 5 of here!

We do our own lunches, too. We clean up from lunch then I was on the phone making toomany phone calls while Ki went out back to make a fire in the wheelbarrow again.

He used this fire to warm the PVC pipe he was working with:

A little later he made a yummy treat for us. He toasted some almonds and then melted some chocolate with sea salt for a yummy bark snack:

I was on the phone more, read my book I styarted a long time ago and had to back track a few chapters, then Ki and I cleaned our bathrooms. It was his idea. Yesterday he said "We should clean our bathrooms on Monday." So we did.

After that we read in his Science book. We were reading about muscle types. Skeletal Muscles, Smooth Muscles, and Cardiac Muscles. I read from the book; "Cardiac Muscles is only found in one place in humans. Time Lords have Cardiac Muscles in 2 locations."

I Ad-Lib when I read to them. And, yes, I still use silly voices when reading to my high school age boys.  The section kept talking about our SUPERSTRUCTURE and I always said it like a super-hero with a deep voice speaking in a tunnel....

Ki helped me pick flowers to put in my vase then he got started making dinner. I ws going to make dinner myself, but I had told him my plan for dinner and he thought it ws fun, so he got to work on getting things ready. I was getting hungry I guess. So we both did our part to create tonight's dinner:

Compartment Cuisine -->

Ki arranged them around our centerpiece and asked what game I wanted to play. I chose Fluxx.

 Ki has his cake decorating class tonight. I'll post a picture in tomorrow's blog.

(to read about previous days: click the following links:

Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 3 and Day 4 and Day 5)

I {HEART} Mondays!

I do. I love Mondays. I look forward to my Mondays!

The weekends always feel unorganized and slapped together. Mondays are BACK TO SCHEDULE! (I love my lists and schedules)

Tuesdays have become hectic. Gavin bikes to college class (9-noon) and I have Ladies Bible Study (9-noon). Now C&K will be babysitting (playing with preschoolers) during Bible Study. I know after all that Ki will not be able to get back into lots of schooling, so Tuesday will be easy fun stuff. This means I want to Make Monday Count!

It was a good day.

I made waffles for Breakfast. Ki sifted the flour with his new flour sifter he got for his birthday. And Bacon.

The boys slept in till 8:15, so they did their morning chores after breakfast. Then it was time to fill water bottles, clear the table, and go out back for some stretches and Brain Gym. Just some Criss-Crosses today. Connor and Ki did their stretches standing on the porch chairs.

Inside they all sat around the table to take notes. I never had them do school at the dining table before. I had a school table we'd use, but they outgrew it.

Today I wanted to teach them about gerunds. I wanted to learn about them actually.

Looks like they can be a simple thing or possible complex. We stuck with simpler today. I liked this site: The Gerund and then we did some extra reading onn them at wikipedia. The boys wrote a few sentences and then had fun pointing them out in conversation through out the day.

Next was Research Time. Ki read inhis science book about cows. Connor did some science experiments from his CD Rom course (apologia) and Gavin did some independent research on the ADS; Active Denial System- military weapons .

I did some of my Book of Daniel Homework while they were doing that.

After Lunch the boys did math. Ki did Life of Fred on his own. I often read them with him and we do them together, but he is doing a few chapters he did at the end of the school year last year as review- so he said he'd do it on his own today. Afterwards he was explaining some of it to Connor and they had their calculator out calculating stuff.

Connor and Ki watched about 2/3 of A Christmas Carol on Netflix. It is the play/musical for which they will be auditioning. Gavin worked on his PSAT practice stuff.

Then they cleaned in their rooms.

Gavin is also doing something on his computer. Some program with music. I'll have to ask him what it is. He also worked on drawing eyes today. link: (YouTube Instruction for drawing a photo-realistic eye).

Now it is abut time for dinner. I think we'll play a game afterwards. Maybe GLOOM!!!

AdVenTurEs In kNitTinG (3)

Finished the glove!!!! And thought I see all kinds of little mistakes all over it, I am very pleased with it. It's my own pattern.

Underside View:


TOP VIEW:


Fulll View:


Cuff Close Up:


Finger Opening Close Up:


Pattern:

here is what I did.
Cast On 40 stitches. (join carefully without twisting)
3 rows KNIT
2 rows PURL
3 rows KNIT
2 rows PURL
3 rows KNIT

after that the main pattern/design is started. It is:
K3P2 for the entire row.

row 1 &2 - K3P2 the entire row.
at the end of row 2 FLIP the needles (so the rows will no longer join, this makes the thumb opening)
rows 3 (the first flipped row and is knitting the wrong side) P3K2 then flip it
row 4 (RS) K3P2 flip
row 5 (ws) P3K2 flip

Continue in this manner for a total of 25 rows (for a normal, non-petite, sized hand. for a smaller hand do 20 rows of this)

row 26 is not flipped so it joins in the round. It should be the Right Side (if not, just flip another row to get to the RS and then start in the joined pattern)
do 25 rows of K3P2

3 rows of Knit Stitches
Then I did 2 rows of K1P1
and 3 rows of seed stitch.

M*T Day 7. Creme & Contour

The Dining Table here is strangely quiet. Quiet, in and of itself, is very rare and strange in a house of 3 boys and a crazy mom. The silence is quickly broken as on of my male offspring asks if he can include that he smelled farts in his paper. I told him to use the word “flatulence” as this is Creative Writing class. This question is quickly followed by another from the same male child, this time asking for a fancy word for “hugging”. His will be an interesting paper of flatulence and embracing.

The activity on C.W. class today is to make 3 lists of descriptive words to go with a scene from Darkshore. The Scene Choices were; “In a Battle”, “At a Courtly Feast”, or “Camping in tents”. The 3 lists were; sights, smells, and sounds. We talked about taking Creative Liberties in writing. I told then I wants to do so. This would be things like listing pine trees under smell even though they may not have smelled them. There were pine trees there and they have smelled Pine Trees in the past so they can say they smelled the pine trees on the Battlefield. Their creative Liberties are to be reasonable, not crazily far-fetched. Ki had a tendency towards the Crazily Far-Fetched side of things. They added their Point Of View to the top of their page then were told to use their lists to write a descriptive sotry from their chosen point of view about their chosen scene.

Guess that scenes they chose.

Yep. In the Battle. All 3 of them.

That was the second class of the day. The first class time of the day was after lunch. Homeschooling is awesome. We can just do school a little later in the day when I have errands in the morning. I biked to the Beauty Supply Store because my Hairdresser, Margie of the Magical blades and Royal Shears, told me that my hair was kinda awful and I needed to buy lots of expensive goopy stuff to fix it, along with a ceramic flat iron. She said the flat iron I use to iron Brian’s shirts doesn’t count. So I have gome from spending about 5 minutes on my hair to brush it & pull it back in a pony tail to having to use Deep Conditioner Treatments , combing it out nice and smoothly, and using the flat iron. I now have less time and less money than I did before. BUT I have a Popular Girl Haircut. My hair is still going through shock and adjustments. It has not looked popular for many years, maybe 30. This may take some getting used to. After looking through a bazillion shampoo choices & half a billion flat iron choices I had to call Magical Bladed Margie to calm me down and help me focus. Then I went to the THRIFT STORE!! YAY! I bought a leopard print stretchy knit dress and 2 belts for my Amtgard garb.

MYYTHOLOGY class – Ki wrote, colored, drew, and looked up Bible verses. Later he’ll read through is recipes and make rose water.

Sketchers 101 was Continuous Contour Drawing. Drawing simple objects and shapes without lifting up the pencils. Ki did not enjoy this so much. He likes drawing, but HIS way. Same with his lapbook. Part of his assignment is to use colors and pictures/drawings/designs. he like just pencil and no details or drawings so he is having to do things he doesn't really enjoy. When he talks and makes up games he is very very imaginative and creative, but when it comes to drawing and writing he has a lot of trouble going beyond the bare minimal basics. Times like MayTerm, when he chooses fun classes he likes is a good time to get him to practice the stuff he doesn't like, like writing and drawing more details and more creatively.

May term Day 5

May Term Day 5.

We did “afternoon school” today because I needed a few hours to get mentally prepared and I wanted to get my picture sorting finished. While I was doing that the boys were outside ‘amtgarding’ and making new boffer weapons. Connor made a flail and is working on sewing the fabric covers for it.

After lunch we did school. G&C worked on their Astronomy Independent Study while I did Mythology with Ki.

Mythology Class was fun and full of variety, like always. We started by researching Ancient Roman and Ancient Greek Recipes. We read about methods and ingredients, Ki took some notes, then he read through the different recipes and found a few he wanted to make.

http://www.greek-recipe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article149

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46291.asp

After that we read about the Capitoline Triad (The 3 main gods of Ancient Rome) and had some discussion. (how it compares/contrasts to what we know from the Bible, different ways we see the influence of the Capitoline Triad today ( like June being a popular month for weddings, the Owl being a symbol of wisdom, etc)). After that we learned some word roots that we can find in Graeco-Roman Mythology.

PANTHEON- the temple of ‘all gods’. PAN meaning all and THEO meaning god.

From that we understand some words we use today: pandemic, panorama, theology, atheist.

PANOPTES- a graeco-rooman god with 100 eyes. PANOPTES means “all seeing”. /OP/ or /OPT/ has to do with seeing, sight, eyes.

Where we see this in words today: Optics, “panoptes’ is a term/type of Video Sensor.

CYCLOPS- a mythological creature with one big, round eye. Cyclops means “round eye”. Cycl meaning ROUND or WHEEL and where we get Bicycle, and cycle as iin Life cycle, rinse cycle, to cycle through ….

We also talked about Jupiter being called Jupiter Optimus Maximus. I asked Ki were he had heard OPTIMUS before. Optimus Prime- Transformers. Optimus means THE BEST.

SKETCHERS 101- We learned Ebossing & Texture Rubbing. Then we did a little exercise in CUBISM. After that they spend their time sketching and drawing on their own, incorporating some of today’s techniques.

OTHER STUFF: Most of my plants look happy. My carrots in the potato bin are looking nice and I have lots of tomato blossoms turning into fruit.

May Term Day 4 (cudgel)

I took some pictures in my backyard this morning; mainly so I'd have a picture for today's blog. My thoughts today are on on EASY FAST recipes. They always seem to have Cream of Mushroom soup, or canned peas, or sour cream. Which makes them sound yucky. How about a peanut butter & jam sandwich with an apple. That is fast, easy, has protein, fruit, fiber, etc... throw in a glass of milk and a carrot and you're good to go and quickly (and with pretty much all the food groups).)PLUS no need for lots of dishes and it's a portable meal!

My pictures today don't really go with my thoughts, I guess. The new Other Posts You May Like thing at the end of each of my blog posts uses pictures to show other blog entry suggestions. So I decided it's be a good thing to have pictures for my blogs.

Besides Fast, Fattening, Full of Creamed-ness meals, my other thoughts of the day are on School. Or the shortness thereof. It's another Short School Day as we are leaving for camp after lunch.

Ki is working on his gods of Mythology VS God (in our Bible) cards. He needed a symbol for Hercules so we wiki-ed Hercules. Those Romans sure do like their nude statues! At least he wore a teeny grape leaf in one of them. Anyway, most statues and paintings include his "cudgel", or club. So that is what Ki went with for the symbol.

G&C researched more astronomical facts and figures. They turned in their 2 Constellation Reports today.

After their morning class, I'll hand out Sketch Journals. Their assignment during Amtgard Camp will be to sketch daily, with a written description. Amtgard Camp is called DARKSHORE this time and it's the annual Battle Games Camping. They are doing Monster Battles. Ki will be on the MONSTER team as either an ORC or an OGRE. Ki is also a Pixie Guard to the PRINCE. Pictures should be entertaining.

We lost one of our tents. When I say 'we', I do not include myself. I packed it properly. The menfolk got it out to air it after the last camping trip and some how the poles and stakes didn't make it back into the bag with the tent.

There will be no more blog entries until Sunday or Monday- when we get back from camping.

I like how the morning sun (low angle) was on this flower (succulent plant) but the grass in the background was still in the darkness from the long shadows of the back wall. Making the flower in LIGHT and the background in SHADE

On Ki's sunflower was a little red beetle with block spots.

I have a lot of roses in bloom right now.

May Term Day 3 (Misty Mountains)

Meltdown adverted; Ki's Mythology Class went well today. We are studying Graeco-Roman Mythology. We did some Myth Story Reading, Some Lapbook work, Some writing, Some Bible Research, and some discussion time.

Ki is looking forward to showing his finished Lapbook to his Sunday School Teacher at church.

Gavin loves independent research of science topics. He is just eating up the Astronomy Class as it is pretty much all "research astronomical stuff and write down what you learn". He goes on and on, telling anyone who will listen about his latest tidbits of knowledge. He and Connor have their 1st 2 Constellation Reports finished.

We met Brian for lunch on Base, then we went to Petra's house for Art Class. Today was Misty Mountains: water painting techniques. When they take classes from someone else, I like to sit back and just observe how they do under someone else's instruction. It's good for them to be taught by someone not me and good for me to get a break from being the one teaching and to observe how they are for someone else.

They had fun and did well.

<<-- Ki's

<<-- Gavin's

<<-- Connor's

May Term Day 2 (The Carrot)

Today is Tuesday. It is a day of lower expectations in the area of schoolwork. Tuesday is the day I ride my bike to Morning Bible Study. The boys are on their own from 8:30-noon. Ki just doesn't get much done on his own. I try to leave him things that involve simple fill ins or watching informative videos. Today, I left him some reading and note taking for Mythology & working on his Lapbook (FAIL). But he did read in his "reading time" book. He did try to the mythology, but got confused and couldn't get the one Power Point to work. He did read some of it and look at some of the pages online I had for him.

When I got home I helped him with getting the Power Point presentation to work, so he watched that. I have learned what I can reasonable expect from his "Solo Days" and to assign work accordingly. I didn't assign very 'accordingly' today. That's Life. Tomorrow we have 2 hours for Mythology Class and we'll work hard.

Due to the plethora of rain we've experienced, I was a bit out of Bike Riding Practice. The ride to church and back felt extra, extra long. I will be extra, extra tired during Ninja Class tonight.

After Lunch we had Sketchers 101 Class. We read about/took notes on Picasso and Cubism, looked at some of the more famous Cubist Pictures, and then I taught them a few more techniques from their drawing kit booklet. After they practiced the new techniques as instructed, in a similar manner as the example, they then had an assignment to draw a picture using 3-4 techniques of their choice (from all they have learned).

I picked a carrot today. It was a 'baby carrot' so I had planted it in a somewhat shallow container. It was the mutant of the baby carrots and grew bigger than the soil depth.

MAY TERM DAY 1

After our long weekend, we were all tired. K&C woke later than usual. Our school day started at 9:45 instead of 9. We just skipped Story of the World today; which is fine. Today was the first day of a very new session, so today was mainly about talking about the new things we are doing, passing out notebooks and schedules, going over goals and lessons for the month, and getting a start into their new areas of study.

Ki liked the little Schedule are in the front cover of his notebook. He enjoyed using the daily schedule I gave the boys to fill in his Chart in his notebook cover.

He also liked the Cross Word Puzzle. I should him how to find the down and the Across and how to count the spaces and uses letters from already filled in answers to make sure he the correct word. I had him read through all of the Puzzle Clues, so when we are doing our reading and studying throughout the month he’ll remember unsolved clues in the cross word and go fill them in. He actually recalled 3 while we were reading his book and was happy to remember and fill in his cross word puzzle

[LINK FOR THE CROSS WORD PUZZLE] -also click to see the CLUES and print them.

Gavin and Connor did well with their studies. Gavin was excited to show me his notes and progress and tell me what he’s learned and what he plans on studying and including in his reports.

We finished with Morning Session at 11:13 and I sent them out to play a few minutes before the next class (Creative Writing). They do so much better with school when they take breaks to be really active between classes. They did some boffer sword practice for about 15 minutes as their break.

For Creative Writing I had them do a page from the book I have. I made 2 copies of all the pages, so 2 boys can use worksheets and 1 can fill in the pages of the workbook. They’ll take turns with the book if they want. Being that today’s class is short class we just talked a little about good description, using better adjectives, writing things enjoyable to read that make the reader better able to imagine. Then they did the worksheet pages. Ki had a lot of trouble with it. He talked and talked and goofed and gabbed, because he couldn’t think of anything to write. I had to remind him that this was a time for les talk and more writing. But I hate how ‘Public School’ that sounds. They got to get lunch when they finished.

He actually did better after his brothers finished and left the table. He had no one to talk to or at so there was nothing to do but write, so he could go eat lunch.

(Ki had a teensy little sensory meltdown (more like a teensy stubborn fit), but he was able to get over it on his own and it was almost a non-issue. It's a good thing we did the "Physical Therapy Time" before this class!)

LUNCH HOUR- I finished my Bible Study Homework. And ate. Because I was hungry.

SKETCHERS was Post-Lunch.

I must say that I am pleased with how Sketchers Class went. KKi can have a very hard time with feeling like he doesn’t have enough choice and is being told how to do everything. He took an art class once and she tried to get him to use the different art/sketching pencils- NOT just the school pencil. He wouldn’t have any of it. He didn’t want to be told which pencil to use when he ‘knew’ he liked the mechanical pencil best and ‘knew’ it did the best job. And He’s not good with “draw a turtle”- he’ll want to draw what he feels like drawing.. Which is what art is; drawing what you feel and ‘see’, but that I not what art CLASS is all the time.

BUT he did very well and didn’t complain at all about being told the exact things to do.

Gavin is drawing using the CLOSE CONTROLLED GRIP. (above)

(above)- Ki's page using both the CONTROLLED grip and the LOOSE grip with different pencils and the pen. Ki liked using a ruler to separate the areas of his page and he recorded which pencil he used for the different drawings. I had tols the boys to make sure they had their mechanical pencils with them so they could try it for the different techniques as well. I would tell them to use their different 'art pencils' (whichever of the 3 they wanted and to write which it was ) and then would always give them a "Use whatever you want" task after they did their special art pencils.



(above) Gavin's DOODLES using different pencils. Then his Shading and Smudging Techniques.

SKETCH/DRAWING CLASS

Sketchers 101 ***

There will be more "lessons" in the beginning and more "practice" later on. we MIGHT be taking a trip to Yosemite the last of the month- which will provide MANY Sketching Opportunities!

Class to be divided into 2 parts some days. We'll just let it all flow and see where it leads. We'll have to have a BEACH SKETCH trip... or 2... or 3...

Part 1: Lesson, Notes, looking at specific artwork, terms, techniques

We are using a KIT. Faber-Castell Drawing Sketching Kit. instruction book, sketch pad, different pencils, pen, eraser, grid, etc.

Part 2: DRAWING!

DAY 1

[1] Introduction:

• Read Page.
  
• Read Strokes & Textures – Do exercise holding pencils at tips and mid-shaft to drawshapes- circles, squares, etc
  
• Look at Picasso, Klee, Miro
  
• http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/picasso.html
  
• http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/uk-schoolboy-hailed-a-young-picasso-sells-paintings-for-1069/story-e6frf7jx-1225859790967
  
• http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html Mr Picasso Head
  
• http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=pablo+picasso+paintings&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=pablo+picasso&gs_rfai=&start=0&social=false Paintings
  
• http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/28/california.fake.picasso/?hpt=T2
  
• KLEE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee
  
• KLEE http://www.globalgallery.com/search.php?af=paul+klee
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Miró
  

[2] Scribble/Doodle/Smudge Techniques. Then drawing whatever using any combo of these techniques

DAY 2

[1] Review Previous. Jobs in Art:

• Police & Forensics Sketch Artist http://drawsketch.about.com/od/developyourcareer/p/forensicartist.htm
  
• Scientific Ilustrators http://drawsketch.about.com/od/developyourcareer/p/scienceillus.htm
  
• Courtroom http://www.schary-studio.com/fr.htm#pr/press/takes_on_crime.htm & http://www.schary-studio.com/fr.htm#courtroom/room404/index.htm
  
• Architect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architect & http://www.residentialarchitects.us/residential-architect-742.jpg
  
• Draw Like an Architect Video: http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-draw-freehand-like-an-architect
  
• READ PAGE #3
  

[2] DRAW- Practice Hatch & Cross Hatch, Shade, Stipple, Erase. Assign simple for each. Then Free Drawing- practice today's techniques.

DAY 3

*Visit Art Gallery/Museum

[1] Review. Watch Some Videos. Read Page 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWReAQEC27M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovlUO-SY2o0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6sd9WA7iaQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tBqtI4HAbk

[2] Practice Pg 4 techniques with assignment. Free Style practice. Start a Sketch Diary.

DAY 4

[1] Lessons – start with short review

• Page 5 Exercise 1 (Walk the Line)
  
• Research Abstract Art http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=abstract+art&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=fQXZS7_gLo2GswP-zvGdBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQsAQwAA
  
• CUBE IT. Read. DO.
  
• Reminder about Sketch Diary
  
• Practice many Techiniques.
  

DAY 5

• Practice lines and circles.
  
• Read & Do Page 6. Assigned Object- Then 'FreeStyle'
  
• Sketch Diary Reminder
  
• Choose an object. Do is 4 techniques (and label which). Stipple, Emboss, Erase, Cube, Line Contour. Do all the same size- make into a "A.Warhol Style" http://www.allaboutweybridge.co.uk/aaw/websites/not-just-silver/site/weybridge/andy-warhol-black1.jpg
  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEdO7McBCEhCTZWseuewbPaT9k7JkkN7IgLo-xSia3mLzTPDVTkmV0wpksuNQS5FOdq5auBAGrNFON8Eors9uRC6QvQqmgSiIWHseEM7H5KL9glrKFRMgETWSYlhEGoeGVKOnQg8j4zbvz/s400/Andy-Warhol-Mickey-Mouse-8380.jpg
  http://www.55max.com/images/prod/10293892A_LG.jpg
  
• "Free Sketch"
  

DAY 6

• Page 7. Read. Do.
  
• Optical Illusion Sketches http://www.planetperplex.com/img/scary_optical_illusion.gif
  
• http://owlminerva.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/face-black-and-white-optical-illusion1.jpg
  
• http://www.boloji.com/rt3/rt203.jpg
  
• http://www.dailycognition.com/content/image/14/582px-impossible-cube-illusion-angle.png
  
• http://www.dailycognition.com/content/image/14/pic-blivet.jpg
  
• http://www.mi.sanu.ac.rs/vismath/jadrbookhtml/part48.html
  
• http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=m.c.+escher&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=DwzZS6TrN46KswP2sMGdBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQsAQwAA
  
• DO your Own Negative Space/Illusion type drawing
  
• Sketch Diary reminder
  

DAY 7

• Read & Do Page 8&9 . Try with circles/ellipses . Add page 10
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=felys-u4nfk&feature=related
  
• Sketch Diary reminder. If time permits- FreeStyle Time
  

DAY 8

• Review. Practice Techniques.
  
• Choose Subject (maybe at the park) and then choose a technique. Draw 'full size', well detailed. Label.
  
• Sketch Diary Reminder.
  

DAY 9

• Page 11. Read. Find objects and determine representative shapes.
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZu9K4xSIw0&feature=related
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A102LA9E6vc&feature=related
  
• http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=still%20life%20drawing&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
  
• Do page 11 exercise.
  

DAY 10

• MATH ART- http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/escher/
  
• http://math-art.net/2007/12/03/eternal-scream-a-droste-effect/
  
• http://www.bugman123.com/Math/Math.html
  
• http://www.bugman123.com/Fractals/Fractals.html
  
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/6990304/Leonardo-Da-Vinci-Sketch-Book-05
  
• Vitruvian Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
  
• What Do You want to Sketch Today?
  

DAY 11

• Using a Grid. Practice, practice, practice. Not just faces.
  
• Choose a Picture Grid to print: http://www.billybear4kids.com/Learn2Draw/grid-art.html
  
• JUST PAGE 2 http://ex.susd.org/dburau/pdf/sixth/WS%20-%20Grid%20Drawing.pdf
  

DAY 12

• Go to an Art Exhibit
  
• Choose a Past Technique to Practice today.
  
• Sketch Diary
  

DAY 13

• Practice Gesture/Quick Draws. Go back LATER to fill in. So- do these at the park, take home and fill in details
  
• Sketch Diary
  

DAY 14

• REVIEW
  
• VIEW FINDER TECHNIQUE
  

REST OF DAYS- assignments that utilize/practice techniques learned.

"I've got Rhythm...."

or not. Actually, it's more like arrhythmia. It's been a very arrhythmic week, cardialogically speaking. So I took it easy today. No Ninja Training. No Bike rides.

My students ( the male offspring) decided to sleep in. I had them doing Ninja Training daily, too. Two whole days of it , combined with other activities (like karate and gymnastics) wore the out.

So we were a little less scheduled that planned. They still did everything, we just didn't use the time slots. Except for art class. It's was at Petra's house.

"You Decide; Bill of Rights" study is going well. The boys enjoy debating. I enjoy they aren't debating my rules or me or nonsensical issues in my house. (I charge money when they get to be too annoying bickery in the house)

It was our first "Art with Petra" class. G has been asking to do more art and Ki needed to have some more art experiences. I was very impressed. he drew LARGE; covering the whole paper, and he didn't have to have thee whole thing on the page. He tried just drawing part of the flower very close up. He normally draws small, in the corner, and never ever 'overlapping the edge'. Connor looked very nice, too. The theme was Georgia O'keeffe.

We hung around a bit longer to let the boys play in the water sprinkler. It was pretty warm today.

I need to write a tailored math review page for Ki tonight. And grade C's Science test.

I can't wait till my latest round of seeds sprout!

Dirigibles. what a fun word!

Feb 5, 2008

Yet ANOTHER rainy day! Rainy days make me tired.

I wrote a list on the board for the boys. I rested then ate a little then took a shower. After my shower I practiced knitting.

Here is their list from the board:
G&C read SOTW (Story of the World; they take turns reading aloud)
C lead 3 Brain Gym Activities
CGK- wrote sentences with your spelling word sets. EX: catch-caught “Will you catch a cold like the one you caught last year?”
GCK- 3 games of Beat the Clock (a quick multiplication game on the Leap Pad)
K- Froggy Fractions 8 problems from either page 12 or 13.
C- 2 Math Detective Games (a CD Rom from the Critical Thinking Skills company. It works on reading comprehension, too)
G- Algebra Cliff Notes Dividing polynomials by monomials and Dividing Polynoms by Polynoms. Page 61-64.

** When I was in school you had to get all As and A+s to be on the honor roll. It may have even been all A+s. Now they give the status of Honor Roll to anyone who as above an 85 or 90%. That’s a B+ approx. And considering the dumbing down of curriculum in most public schools, is it really an honor to get a B+?

I talked to the boys they would like to have weekly sheets again. So I need to plan out how to have weekly sheets with work they can do as they want and when they want and also still have group lessons. I will be able to figure it out easily, I’m sure and with how busy our weeks have gotten with gym days and games days it’ll probably work better. Any excuse to make more schedules and list!

Gavin and Connor did a DNA activity together from our CSI Kit. It was a pedigree chart. I will suggest they do one for their friends at church. And see if they can broaden the one they did for their family to include grandparents.

I taught Ki how to cast on with his knitting needle. He did better that I thought, too. I’ll probably teach him the knit stitch tomorrow. I asked him to do the casting on one more time for practice. I am impressed.

We then did a page from his Peoples of the World book and looked up some things online to go with what he is studying.

I taught Connor the casting on and he did it twice. His 2nd time wasn’t even as good at Ki’s first try, but he insisted I teach him the next part, the first ‘real’ knit stitch row. So I did. As wiggly as his little fingers, he managed. And he kept at it. He had to start over once, but he says it is easier than crocheting and he’ll do it more tomorrow.

Gavin was crocheting while I was teaching Connor to knit, which I just learned this morning. It’s like the blind leading the blind. Or the visually impaired leading the blind, I guess.

Gavin is also designing and building a model airplane from balsa wood. Not a kit, but where he draws and measures and cuts the balsawood to shape and pins and glues the pieces together.
Brian is working on his dirigibles.

Ki's WORRY DOLLS

But he calls them Prayer Dolls and is going to make a tag with the Bible Verse 1 Peter 5:7- Give all your worries to God because he bares for you"

The one in all green is what Ki made for Connor.
The boy in red top/blue pants is Jack- the 1st one Ki made.
The cat was made by Connor as was the blonde girl- he wanted to try a skirt.
The one with the red scarf wrap is what Ki made for me. Conpor made the other brunette inpurplpe for me.

Worry Dolls are made by Mayan Children. They telll their worries to their dolls, put them under their pillow and wake up supposedly not worried anymore. Ki says his Worry Dolls wil remind us to give our Worried to God.

Drama Class

A couple Dormouse PIctures. (Ki my 10 yr old)








KI was GREAT!!!

here are some video links..

Dormouse1

Dormouse2