Weekly Wrap UP 10/26/18 -- Monet, Scarecrow festival hay ride and learning to drive

For art this week we have been learning about Claude Monet!  We watched the video "The world's greatest artist" to introduce Monet and then I did a very simple painting project to explain Impasto and Touche which are styles used during the Impressionist movement.  We talked abut how the Impressionist got their name and why they painted they way they did-- it had to do with paints now in tubes and the new style of paint brushes:)

I reviewed with the boys that the impressionist did a lot of the mixing of their colors right on their canvas.  Also most impressionist did not use black or even brown much in their work if at all.

This project was very simple just trying to understand the technique.  

Next we discussed Monet in further and examined more of his artwork.

Just a few of the books we used as guides to examine pictures 

Comparing the old style of painting to the new style of impressionism 

At one time Monet paid a farmer to leave out his field of haystacks for a full year and then he painted them at various times during various light.  Sometimes he worked on 3-4 canvasses at the same time and switch out the canvass when the light changed.

Boys comparing Monets paintings when the artist began to lose his eyesight.

The second project I wanted to do was a bit ambitious but I wanted the boys to really try.  I found a great video on how to paint a simple Monet style Water Lilly pond!

This is my attempt of the waterlilies after watching the video.  I was pretty pleased with it:)

Then the boys got to work on their renditions:)

we even had one boy announced he liked this style of painting!!! Yay something positive!!!

Final work.  I thought the boys did really well with this project!

Firedrake passed her driving test!!!!  Watch out world here she comes!!!!

Firedrake had a late start day on Monday so her Dad drove her to the testing site and had her take the exam!

By the weekend my Husband had her behind the wheel.   They started in the parking lot of the high school and after an hour he let her drive home (we lived close by) Not sure I would have done it that quickly but they made it safely home so all is good, I guess.  I am letting my husband do the teaching here!!!!

For the month of October our little town has a scarecrow festival!  I always like walking downtown and taking pictures of them.  Here are just a few we saw.  This year I think there are over 120 scarecrows scattered around the town. 

Outside a Mexican resrestuaranttaurant 

Beetlejuice!

Autumn fairy

Outside the Irish pub

outside the Italian restaurant

Cute litte poodle 

I found this outside the new coffee shop that will be opening in the next week or two!  

A lot of business put up a scarecrow and the public can vote on their favorite which is posted at the end of the month.  But with everything these days (as everyone has an opinion and feel they must ruin it for everyone else) there are people complaining about the scarecrows being too scary and wanting the city to stop hosting the event.  Sigh...

Our local coop had their annual bonfire and hay ride.

Families bring picnic dinners

play flashlight tag and hid-n-seek

and make and eat way too many s'mores and drink hot cocoa 

Fun time was had by all:).

Weekly wrap up 10/19/18 -- Renn Faire and Volunteering

Our family is continuing to volunteer weekly at an animal sanctuary.   We enjoy visiting the cats.  The kids and I are going to be making some new cat toys for the shelter as the ones they have are quite old and more often than not broken.  IF you have any suggestions for homemade cat toys, let us know.  We are gathering ideas now!

This cat name is Elvis and has taken to my husband.  The minute he walks in the cat jumps on his lap.  The workers of the facility say it is very rare as Elvis is a bit standoffish to most people.  They are encouraging my husband to adopt him:) he is not quite ready to do that but he is wearing down a little on that front I think.

The other cat who seems to love my husband is Susie.  Once Elvis is finished with his cuddles then Susie jumps up for her turn.    

MarioFan surrounded by Cats on day.

This old gal is named Abuela (grandmother in Spanish) and she has  had such a horrible time.  Her owner died when she come into the facility but she was quickly adopted out.  Unfortunately the people who adopted her somehow let her out of the house and she got lost.  When she returned to the facility she was skin and bones weighing just 2.5 lbs.  It was heartbreaking to see how bad a shape she was in.   However the good news is she is recovering and at her last weigh in was closer to 4 pounds.  She should make a full recovery and she will not be returning to the family that lost her!  The facility won't be putting her up for adoption for a long while they said!

Firedrake spend a lot of time with this kittens who are polydactyl (six toes).  This cuties likes to crawl on her head and bit her hair!!!

We attended the Renn Faire this last weekend.  I haven't been to one since the children were small.  Since my Husband is proudly a Viking re enactor and takes history very seriously he struggles to attend this type of thing!  I on the other hand think they are fun and shouldn't be taken so seriously.  We attended with friends and the weekend dubbed the Celtic days! Once there my husband enjoyed himself and we were able to talk the teenager out of her room to join us.  She even said she enjoyed it:). 

Pirates!  Since MarioFan and is friend are reading Treasure Island we made sure to get pictures of them surrounded by pirates!!!

 Petting a barn owl

 Firedrake would love to own a snake one day--right after she moves out of my house lol

 Watching the Joust match

 This just confirms to my daughter that I will take a picture of everything!  Her very first purchase using her own bank card!!  She bought a knife that she can use in her cosplay costumes!!

We found a unicorn!  MarioFan looking to see how they got a horn on the horse!   

We tried a middle eastern (from the Silk Road we were told) meditation water device.  If you wet your hands and rub the brass handles a certain way the water dances in the bowl and the bowl makes a humming sound.  It was pretty cool

A Hurdy Gurdy musical instrument!  

MarioFan playing a archery game with his friend

Belly dancing

Fire performance

We had a great day out with friends and just enjoyed being with each other.  We haven't had a outing as a family for just fun in quite a while!  We all enjoyed it and it was a gorgeous day!


Yes we got some school work done as well, but nothing really exciting to talk about:)

Weekly Wrap UP 10/12/18 -- Rembrandt, Treasure Island and Japan

For the past two weeks in art we have been learning about Rembrant and learning how to draw human figures.  Since I am not an artist I had to find some good resources to help with my art lesson.  I found this site and loved how she presented drawing human bodies.  You really need to go to her site to get the full impact of her lesson, this is just a brief look at it!

She has several pictures and demonstrates where the joints are and how to show people in motion.   First she does it  

then she adds a few pictures where the students try it

I had the boys work on the drawings and we went over it together

Next I brought out my little wooden man (don't know if there is a technical term for this figure or not) and we all tried to draw it in a simple pose.  

Next I found this website where we can use the above technique but in drawing animals.  Since I knew this would interest the boys,  we made this our next project.  The boys found an animal they wished to draw and followed the steps and then colored it in with colored pencils.

I brought out some drawing books to show how other artist learn to draw more realistic human forms.

After drawing the figure your the wooden form I encourage the boys to add clothing.

After trying drawing the human form we moved to animals using the site How to draw animals.  It gives a list of animals from A to Z and step by step directions to complete your animal using the techniques I taught for this art lesson!

Boys finished work, while not quite Rembrandt's level they got the main idea and that was what I wanted them to understand.  Since neither boy is going to be an artist in their future we concentrate more on the understanding of the technique then the mastery of it;)

For Literature the boys are reading Treasure Island and learning about how writers work on settings and the mood of the story.   We are spending about 3 weeks on this book and topic!

Some notes from our lectures

After reading the book the boys will be watching the movie and doing a quick compare contrast:)

We finished the book and the boys enjoying the movie:)

For History we are wrapping up our Japan unit by reading about Commodore Perry and the opening up of Japan to the West.

We are enjoying this book and learning quite a bit about Japan  and how the West demanded they open up trade.

MarioFan and I also watched the movie "The Last Shogun", which is based on a true story.  As always be careful with movies for learning history as they often get things wrong.  We enjoyed looking up what was accurate and what was false after watching the movie!