Weekly wrap up 2/22/19-- Claudel and Great Courses

For art we have been learning about Claudel who lived a pretty sad life and then her family committed her in an asylum where she lived for the next 30 years.  Her work is just now being recognized as one of the great women sculptures of our time.

As always we learn about the artist and review some of their works 

We learned her family committed her at at the age of 40 and her family refused to allow her to be discharge from the hospital despite many people's pleas to do so.  While in the asylum we don't know if she was allowed to do any art or at least no art from that period is known (or that we could find from our resources)! 

For the art projects I wanted the kids to try to do a sculpture.  I found a simple but neat wet floral block sculpture idea on Pinterest that I thought would be fun but still show how hard sculpturing in stone would be (but using a much simpler material for us -- and a lot less expensive)

I found cheap floral rounds and squares at the dollar store and using simple soap carving  patterns the kids tried their hand and making an animal carving.  I made a squirrel as an example

both kids chose to make a pig!  Getting the boys to be careful and not cut too much off at a time proved challenging. 

their end results

Not to bad for them-- if you do this at home this material is very, very soft and was a bit more challenging to us  for our heavy handed boys but it made them realize how a artist  might look at a simple stone or wood piece and make it come alive

Next we tried a block of dry floral brick and encourage the kids to try again.  this time completely cutting out the shape

both boys choose to do the turtle pattern (they had many choices to choose from)

square dry floral foam

carefully cutting out the shape

a turtle before adding the details

adding the finishing touches of the turtle

This was my example


Next we made a more modern sculpture and again I found this on Pinterest (love Pinterest for art ideas)

We took a square wooden block and drilled four hole in it.  Took 2 wire coat hanger and untangle them and added the ends into  the holes (I used super glue to hold the coat hangers ends in the holes.  Next the boys bent the hinges into interesting shapes and cover the whole thing in a knee high stocking.  then we hot glued the stockings to the bottom of the wood block.

Next we used gesso white paint to cover the entire sculpture.    We found 2 layers of gesso paint worked best 

we needed to paint to dry for a week.  Love how the shapes turned out 

The following week the boys painted them

MarioFan went for a solid blue base

while his friend went with an orange base...He was envisaging his sculpture as a sea horse:)

Completed sculptures

My example of a modern sculpture I only use one coat hanger and I  prefer the look the 2 coat hanger gives the sculptures.

A couple weeks ago Great courses had a fantastic online sale.  I have heard a lot about them but their normal prices where a bit too much for me.  However this deal was great and I bought a few courses for MarioFan to do. Two we will work on this year, Spanish and Electronics.  The rest will be added in for next year classes.  I am still going through them but I am excited to give them a try.

Weekly Wrap UP 2/15/19-- Piano performance, 42Electronics, and other stuff

Last week the kids participated in a local Sonatina Piano festival at East Central Community College.  Both kids did very well in there categories scoring Superior solo performances.

Getting ready for their performances

Me and their piano teacher hovering by the door to listen to them play

Both did very well 

Afterward they held a piano performance of the top players and I was blown away by the young ages of some of these kids and their amazing skills:)

The kids getting their trophies for their performances.  While they were not chosen to do a performance they still earned the highest award in their category

I am hoping the kids will let me record their piano performance at home so maybe I will be able to post it one day, I know my parents what to hear and see them play.  

 Our new Electronics/programming program has arrived and we have started delving into it.  Right now it is mostly review for Firedrake but we should be into the new learning shortly.

the program comes with all the electrical components and a PDF of the student and teacher guide.

So far for the first 2 lessons (which is review for him) he is able to follow the directions independently which is what the program authors say should be the case.  let's hope that continues once the program delves deeper and further into new areas.:)

Completing a simple circuit. 

Right now the program is simple but there are four levels, I bought the first two and by lesson 8 I think it will be more difficult for MarioFan and he will beginning learning the python coding program which is new to him.  I will post about it every once in a while and let you know how it is working out.  

Firedrake is continuing her driving and I have gotten into the car a few times with her but her Dad is doing most of the driving teaching.  However I was there and caught her learning one new skill;) and just had to take a few pictures, much to her dismay:)

I am seeing this face a lot lately lol:)

The weather has been very severe in our areas recently that we have missed two coop days due to snow closure.  Since Firedrake has had 2 snow days off from school, so has MarioFan which means we are a bit behind.  Hopefully next week we can get back on track with school work:)

weekly wrap up 2/8/19-- dual enrolling, city museum and other stuff:)

My Husband and daughter went to the local community college for parent information night on dual enrollment.  Firedrake is interested in trying this next year in leu of attending public school.  Since she only going to public school part time and needs only 4 classes to graduate from high school we are encouraging her to give it a try.  Our local community college has half price tuition for high school students who are dual enrolling.

Filling out her forms- we are going to have her take the ACT this spring and then met with a admission counselor to determine class work for the fall semester.

We are all excited for this next chapter in her life.  Firedrake is especially looking forward to planning her schedule for late start mornings and no school on Fridays!!!!  However she will have to have a part time job to help pay for the car she will need next year so I don't think she will be having as much free time as she thinks she will have;)

We are plugging along in school, nothing really exciting to write about.  This week we went to the city museum with a friend in order to break the winter blues that is setting in for school work:).

this place is a favorite place for MarioFan and while they run around and play, I sat down in the cafe and did some lesson planning for the up coming months.

I have gotten a few new patterns for my stain glass and have been slowly working on a new project.

I have a thistle panel that I want to do but need to buy some glass in the upcoming months.

I am very excited to have received my Tiffany peony lamp mold and pattern

I am beginning to cut out my glass pieces to create my new lamp.  I actually hope to make two of these lamps for my bedroom side tables. 

I haven't made a Tiffany style stain glass lamp in over 20 years so I am anxious to see if I can do it and see how it turns out.  Luckily I have all the glass I need to make this lamp at home so the only expense was the mold and the lamp parts.    I just need more free time to cut the glass.

Both kids are participating in a piano contest this weekend.  Both are scheduled to play Sonatina's before judges.  Hoping the kids do well as they have been practicing so hard to get their pieces perfected.

weekly wrap up 2/1/19 -- Middle Ages, 1-2 pt perspective drawing, snow

MarioFan and I have taken a momentary break from Crash Course World history to further delve into the Dark and Middle Ages.  We feel that this period is so often glossed over in Schools and it is so very important as many events that happened then really influenced the world today.

Some of the books we are looking reading 

We are enjoying reading this book about Charlemagne 

This just came out and we are going to look thru it as well.  My Husband is a Viking re-enactor when we lived in England So we love this period in history.  They were more than just raiders and looters of monasteries:)

In art we are working on one and two point perspective in drawing.  I found free worksheets that the boys used to draw floating boxes, first doing 1 pt perspective and then 2 pt.

We discuss vocabulary words like vanishing point, horizon line and the like.  I found this free art project on Teacher pay teacher.

Boys were given free reign on their project so long as it had all the requirements of the lesson

MarioFan stayed pretty close to the outline while his friend decided to make a volcanic landscape:)

 We had what is being called a historic snow fall in our area.  It snowed for the whole weekend.  buy the first morning we had 9.5 inches of snow.  the next day added another 4 inches!!!!

Luna the dog took one romp outdoors--This was heavy snow (cardiac snow) so the kids took most of the day to shovel us out and earned some extra money.

before calling it and demanding to go back inside, lol