weekly Wrap up 12/21/18 -- Franklin Lloyd Wright house and art activities and a Christmas Tradition

Every Christmas the kids get a new Christmas ornament that they pick out, usually it represents something they are passionate about or we find something on one of our trips.  This year we bought their ornament over the summer while on a trip to the south west.  I add the names and year to the ornament.  Every year the kids have fun hanging their ornament on the tree and reminiscing on the ornament they chose for that particular year!

For art we are learning about Franklin Lloyd Wright.  We had the boys watch a documentary on Franklin Lloyd Wright homes and style

 We found out there was a home in the area designed by Wright so we went to visit it.  No pictures are allowed on the inside of the house.  This style of home is called Usonian and still contains original Wright designed furnishings.  Wright designed the Usonian homes for middle class people so they are smaller in design but have many of the same features of his bigger homes.

This home was completed in 1955 and the original owners lived in it for over 50 years before it was sold to the county park service.   The owners were Wright fans and kept everything exactly as designed by Wright the entire time they owned the house.

We had a tour of the house and many of the amazing details were shown and explained to us.  Here we are told how the raking of the bricks was done in order to give a very linear feel to the house.  

All the light features were triangular in shape both inside and outside the house

The owner of the house was an artist- including stain glass so with input from Wright the owner designed the many glass features within the house.  We were told the owners original stain glass door design was rejected by Wright.  So he had to submit a different design.

This house had many angles and was built to coexist with the surroundings 

The design of the house was based on the parallelograms.  The shape is seen throughout the house and in the driveway.

A special shape of brick had to be made to complete the house.   the color of the brick and cement floor inside the house is Cherokee red

an example of the roof line found all around the house.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house.  The furniture of this house was very different and many of the pieces were specifically designed by Wright.  MarioFan was fascinated by the parallelogram bed in the bedroom and the origami chairs in the living room.  Neither of which looked very comfortable!!!!

For our art activity I wanted to do something fun and since we chose to do this artist right before Christmas--it was a perfect time to construct gingerbread houses!!!

I cheated a bit and just bought ready made houses

Boys working on their designs after being inspired by Wright.  

Their final pieces.  We still have one more project to complete on Wright but it will have to wait till after Christmas!

I  am taking a two week blogging break to spend time with family and enjoy the holiday season.  See you next year!  Hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Weekly Wrap up 12/14/18-- Christmas Piano Recital, teacher gifts, and driving

This week the kids had their Christmas Piano recitals.  Both of my children have been playing piano since age 7 or 8.  I think having some type of music skill is very important and helps with the fine motor skills and brain development.

Kids and their Piano tutor who has been working with them for four years

MarioFan playing "Walking in the Air" which is from a British Christmas show The Snowman




Here is the full show found on You tube is you would like to see a UK Christmas show.  I just love the music in it:)




Firedrake played Angels We Have Heard on High arrangement by David Lanz one of her favorite piano composers




I thought both kids did wonderful but I am biased:). Couple people came up and complimented Firedrake for her performance although she was mad as herself as she made a couple of errors.  She can be pretty hard on herself if things are not perfect!!

I finally wrapped up making the kids teachers gifts

I made a few stain glass ornaments.

My husband has been working with Firedrake on her driving skills.  They go out every weekend for one to two hours and just drive on various types of roads.  This week I got to ride shotgun, I was a bit nervous but she did great!

Our state requires kids to have at least 40 hours on the road in various weather before they can take the driving test.  She is at the halfway mark!

Weekly Wrap UP 12/7/18 -- Van Gogh and Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol for Literature

We had a snow day for coop this week but by the next day the roads were clear so we decide to get together with our friends and do a make up day for Literature and Art so we wouldn't fall to far behind.  The boys had scheduled a sleep over that night so they were not happy with the Mom's decisions but such is the hard life they have:)

Some of the books we look at while discussing Charles Dickens life.  

I love this picture because it shows you that not all our gatherings go smoothly and this pictures captures the boys's mood perfectly for this day!!!!

Next we worked on our Van Gogh lessons (which are done over a 2 week period).

Some of the books we look at

Mom lecture notes-- we always do a little history of the artist 

Boys reviewing some of Vincent Van Gogh art work 

The first project was to recreate the painting "Wheat field with Crows". I found a free lesson on line giving step by step directions.

Next the boys gave it a try

Their final work

 The next projected was more ambitious.  I have this book on my book shelf and it gives step by step directions on recreating art .  It just happens to have several pieces by Vincent Van Gogh.  I also told the boys this piece had to be Christmas present good.  So the boys needed slow down and really really work on making a great piece.

I copied the basic pattern of the sunflowers onto a 8-10 canvas board  (which is step one for this books on recreating the art)

I did allow the boys to change the color of the table and background to make it individual but emphasized that it must be their best work

Finish project.  It is amazing how good they can do when they want too!  Now we just need to frame them and they will be given as presents to the grand parents for Christmas:)

This was my sample...I was pretty pleased with it considering I am not an artist:)