Our Daughter Is An Artist

Her artistic talent does not come from me.  I love when Stephanie paints.  She isn't very vocal about what she is doing, either.  I will just find art in her room.  

Here is what I found this morning when I went in to retrieve laundry.  She's gearing up for another canvas.

Here's a closeup of what she's planning. 

Good Lord, she is growing up.  This photo is already almost two years old.

Meanwhile, we are reviewing colors.  We have sorted colors into columns countless times, and the kids stay busy with it.  

I am still enjoying the sunshine, and love the way it brings a soft light into the living room.

The kids enjoyed the geoboards yesterday.   Something funny-  yesterday was day two of them sitting on the table. On day one, I stacked them all up in a pile.  Not one child touched them.  All day long.  I rearranged them as shown on day two, and the kids played with them all day.  It must be all about presentation.

Scholastic is awesome and sent me ten copies of this book for the kids.  I love Scholastic.  Warning, the next photo is not for the squeamish.

Smudge has been bringing me rat gifts from the lake.  The battle is real, I have to bleach everything when he does this.  He is so proud when he brings them to me, if I could just catch him outside and pet him excessively then before he brings them in, I would be so happy.  Thanks Smudge!!  You are awesome.  Our neighbors are happy that he is such a hunter.  One of them told me that they always see him with a creature in his mouth.  Not bad for a cat who spent all of his life inside before he moved here!  He has dumped a rat on the floor in front of clients, too.  (Embarrassing!)  

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Surrendered To "Frozen"

Yesterday we worked on a simple 1-10 connect the dots worksheet.  To add time to our table work, they glued the worksheet onto a piece of construction paper that had holes punched in it for lacing.

The kids worked away.  I was encouraging them to use colors of the actual items in the picture.  A lion could be orange, yellow or brown.  Leaves are green.  Most of them thought about it.

I added some tape to the end of a generous piece of yarn for lacing. 

They worked for quite a while!

We have another child who is learning that she can write her name! 

The final product was beautiful!

Out we went, into the cold sunshine.  It is so muddy in the back yard. 

They enjoyed playing "race".

See the path they have created?  

So, this morning I surrendered to the "Frozen" soundtrack.  I saw the movie with my family when it came out, and haven't watched it since.  The over use of the soundtrack made me crazy and I refused to hear it in the house.  I thought I'd surprise the kids this morning because I know that they ALL love the soundtrack.  Right now they are all yelling every word along with the soundtrack at the top of their lungs.  Worth..Every..Penny.

I'm a music lover.  It makes them happy to hear music that they love, too.

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Paint Some Jam On The Bread

 We are still working on the letter Jj.  The kids painted some jam onto the bread for art.

I usually try to make sure the kids have cut outs of the letter to glue onto their art.  It can be difficult, they often get inverted.  That's one thing I make sure to correct..  There is no wrong way to complete art, but I want to make sure that they are looking at the letter correctly.

They glued the pieces of the bread slice to their papers and then painted "jam" onto the paper.  I considered using real jam, but it would just dry clear. 

 There was lot's of talk about how delicious the bread and jam looked.  Gasp- I should've read them the story called "Bread And Jam For Francis".  I loved that book as a child.  I'm not even sure where the book is, I'll have to get it out.

"That looks so yummy, can I have a bite?"  He thought I was so funny.  He would hand it to me and then snatch it away to save it from being eaten.  In the past years, we have created many things for the letter Jj.  Jellyfish, jaguar masks, jelly and Jupiter are some other options.

At the little red table was some foam dough.  This stuff is great.  Light as a feather, doesn't stick to the kids' hands, and doesn't dry out.  You can purchase some HERE at Discount School Supply.
♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

WARNING: Sunshine Brings Excessive Joy

I didn't realize the mood I had been in.  It's pretty normal for me to start to feel mild seasonal depression right around January- February every year if I haven't spent much time working out in the sunshine.  In fact- I take a Vitamin D supplement every day to ward it off.  We had a BEAUTIFUL weekend, the temperature was in the low 60s, I couldn't believe it.  I grabbed my garden tools and spent a couple of hours out in the sunshine, just digging up weeds, cutting pruned branches down.  I then spent time sitting in the rope chair just feeling the sun, soaking it in as much as I could.  I really feel better.  Sunshine brings excessive joy.  It's like a drug for me.  We spent all of our free time outside in the sunshine yesterday.  Look at her hair, blowing in the wind as she spins upside down.  Ultimate freedom!  Excessive joy!  Thank you God for the sun, my favorite star.  I forgot just how important it is. 

The plan was to spend the morning at this park, and the afternoon at the other park.  The sun is at the park above in the morning, and at the other park in the afternoon.

Fuzzy, but one of the eagles was perched in it's usual spot.   

It felt so nice to not be cold.  

The trees and gardens are confused.  Many vines in our gardens are sprouting new growth.  The daffodils are about 4 inches tall right now.  I hope it doesn't freeze.

The tire swing was popular.  I was entertained just by watching and snapping photo after photo.  (Fuzzy ones, sorry!) 

It was perfect.

She brought me.... a slug.  Thanks, I think.  She was thrilled about this find.   I blame the sunshine for causing her excessive joy.  A SLUG.

 Cheese!

I've got to remember to get outside more.  It's so easy to fall into a habit of staying in for the winter. 

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Penguin Goes Shopping

We talked about penguins for no reason at all.  Out came the globe so we could visualize where penguins might live.  Most of the kids chose Greenland.  Actually when I looked up where penguins live, it showed mostly in the Southern hemisphere.  Who knew? 

I cut out some pieces ahead of time.

Keeping with the theme of winter, we created some yarn ear muffs to keep the penguins warm.  Thanks pinterest.

Cute little fellas, right?

They showed me just one finger, ready to spread some glitter glue across the ice to make it sparkle.  Not everyone chose to do this step.  It's nice when someone has a vision and takes control of their art.  Smart thinking.

It was a simple project, penguins are such interesting and strange creatures. 

I'll never forget this neat story about the penguin who goes shopping in Japan.  It makes me want to keep a penguin as a pet.  Enjoy the video below!

♥♥♥Happy Friday♥♥♥