Proud of my craftiness!

I am not crafty. I took a lot of art classes in school but I don't consider myself an artist. I just don't have the time or the energy to pursuit craft projects. My kids love it when I break out the paints.  They are deprived of creative outlets.

Speaking of creativity..... I am also not good at coming up with my own projects.  I depend on the creativity of others. This project of course isn't original. I found it here and thought I needed to give it a try. She used this activity to go along with the phrase from the Family Proclamation that reads  "All Human Beings are created in the image of God". We did our full body tracings the day we talked about that. Instead I used this idea for the phrase "each has a divine nature and destiny". 

I thought the profile silhouettes would look lovely on my wall. I was lucky and while out shopping found some little painter's canvas'. I was just going to use a watercolor paper or something but these turned out so much better.

I did Molly's for her

I let the kids decide on the color scheme. They decided to use all the colors of the rainbow.  A rainbow is full of possibilities  so I gave them the colors and let them go. Their profiles were printed out and stuck on the canvas.  And the kids were instructed to start in the middle on the cutout and paint outward. Sophie did great and didn't require any touch ups, but the boys' didn't quite turn out as well.

Sophie

When they were done and I pulled up the profile cutout there was all sorts of paint that had gone under and the profiles weren't going to work. And just to make it worse Henry came to look at his and put some paint on the edges where he didn't get paint touched his paint covered finger right in the white part of his head leaving a lovely blue fingerprint. My gasp made him feel so bad and he was almost in tears. I let it dry and tried to think of a solution to the problem.

Henry's before touch up.

Ian's before I cleaned up the edges.

I ended up painting white over the edges of the boys profiles and over the blue fingerprint. They turned out alright and they were all proud of the finished products.

I know they aren't quite hanging straight but I am not a perfectionist and it was hard to line up four boards. 

I think they look great hanging on the wall. And my kids love it that they match our rainbow rug as well.




I am entering this in the Family Proclamation celebration and blog hop. You can find other ideas at Chocolate on my Cranium or We Talk of Christ.

Accomplish Anything?

I feel like I really need to do my weekly report just to see if we actually did some work. Each day seemed to pass without us getting to all of what I wanted to do. So going through the subjects and writing down what we actually did may show we did more than I thought. Lets see......

Scripture - We finally made it through 2nd Nephi. We have had a number of good discussions during our scripture reading time.

Proclamation - We are in the 3rd paragraph and each day we do a small activity that sort of goes along with something in that paragraph. One day this week with played with play dough.

We were making people and trying to guess if they were boys or girls.


This was fun for the kids and reminded me that we need to get some new play dough. This old stuff is looking so dry and yucky.

History - I can't say we did history. I am still thinking about a Civil War unit and gathering books and resources but haven't quite decided to get started. We are about half way through Minn of the Mississippi. That is what we have been doing with the time we would have been doing history. The kids seem to like it. They loved Paddle to the Sea when we read it last year. We have a map that I printed off the internet of the Mississippi and we have been following Minn's progress down the river. They are also learning a lot about snapping turtles as we read along with the bit of Geography.

Science - I don't think we did much science at all this week. Nothings formal at least. We did watch a movie about inventions and the kids have been reading The New Way Things Work book on their free time. They love that book. I am glad Henry got it for his Birthday and now they can read it anytime and we don't have to return it.

Math -  Ian is starting his last section in his Singapore 1B book. This one is about money. He is happy to be done with subtraction. Sophie finally finished Fractions. We did the review on Friday so we get to start something new on Monday.  I had to return Life of Fred to the library since it was requested but I ordered a copy and we will do it when we finish this 4A math book.

Language Arts - We are almost finished with The Little Princess.  Even my boys seem to love this story. They worry about Sara Crewe and want her to be happy again. The book really is better than the movie versions. I am enjoying all the internal things described that you just can't show in a movie.

We did a few lessons from our English for the LDS child but didn't do it every day.

Henry is done with his Explode the Code primers and will be starting Explode the code 1 on Monday. He also has been reading Bob Books to me. So far we have gone through the first 4 little books. He is the one asking me to listen to him read them. He initiates it so we do it. I am not pushing it on him.

Ian is just finishing Explode the Code 3. He is on the last lesson. He is also reading aloud to me each day from different books.

Sophie didn't work on her book report at all (at least to my knowledge she didn't) I did find her reading Harry Potter quite a bit so perhaps she is doing some additional reading to get ready to write. We will see....

I think that is about all we did this week. No FIAR book. No music, although my kids keep practicing the first few lessons in the Teaching little Fingers to play book. They are all still working on using different fingers to hit each key rather than just hit the keys with their pointers. Left hand especially. Sophie is actually doing great! She tries to move ahead but gets frustrated and goes back to the easy ones. This is fine by me since she usually fights piano lessons at all.

We did have a painting art project but I will share that one tomorrow. It was related to our Family Proclamation study.

So I feel alright about our week. It is a Birthday week.

 Both Henry and Sophie had a birthday and that always adds to the excitement, planning and sugar load of the house.

I think the kids rode the carrosel at least 5 times. They wanted to ride all the different animals. At one point Sophie was in tears because she had to ride the Ocapi instead of the Bald Eagle. So of course we had to go one more time so she could ride the eagle.

These pictures are from our trip to a Park and Zoo near us. This is what Henry choose to do on his Birthday.  This is the new tradition. No party just a trip to the museum, zoo or fun place of your choice. It works well.

So we did accomplish quite a bit. We are learning and that is all that matters.

Healthy Cinnamon Rolls??

I was up at the crack of dawn. Actually it was before dawn even cracked because all the world was dark still.  I had a job to do and it couldn't wait. I had a birthday girl who was expecting something special for breakfast. I decided to make her the Cinnamon Rolls I had been planning to try for ages. I LOVE my Laurel's Kitchen Bread book and have now tried quite a few of the recipes. I am getting really good at making bread. It also helps to have the Kitchenaid mixer that does the kneading for me.  But cinnamon rolls require raising time and that ment I had to get up early.


I don't feel totally right about posting the recipe for these tasty treets but here is the page from the book.

In case you can't read it, these rolls are made from dough that uses cottage cheese and milk as the liquids. Pair that with the whole wheat flour and you can almost say these are healthy. It was a good thing I didn't need any all purpose white flour because Molly dumped my bucket all over the floor (see previous post) and I didn't have another bag in the pantry. I don't use white flour very much any more so haven't bought it in a long time. I guess it is time to get some. I do have a birthday cake to make later today.

The Recipe make two loves of bread so I just made one of them into the rolls and the other into Cinnamon Raisen bread. But the not so healthy part of these rolls is the frosting. You can't have cinnamon rolls without the melting, dripping frosting. (Now you know why I have those extra 25 lbs.)
Mix a little butter and powdered sugar together and it adds the finishing, and fatning part of these tasty treet.

I know my girl was happy with her tasty birthday breakfast!

I hope it has some staying power because we have a busy day ahead of us.

Girls and Free Time

Sophie was in distress this afternoon when she couldn't find her How to Draw Animals book. She had gotten it off the shelf and couldn't remember where she had left it. This book along with her sketch book are often busy together.  When she doesn't have anything pressing to do this is usually what she chooses to do with her spare time.

Today, after she found the book, she spent a good amount of time laying on the floor drawing and drawing while I was reading my book, Molly napped, and the boys played outside. She goes outside to play a lot but evidently today she had something in mind that she wanted to do and luckily the other kids were out of the way so she could accomplish it.

Henry got a new Webkinz pet for his Birthday.  When I saw it I thought it was a duck bill platypus but Sophie said it was called a google and was a duck of some kind. So today she dug out her animal encyclopedia (She keeps it by her bed for a little late night reading) and looked up platypus. She went to work drawing, labeling and writing about a platypus in her sketchbook.

When she was finished she spent a lot of time telling me all about what she learned. I knew they were mammals but laid eggs. She told me all about these very different mammals.

I love it when she learns new things just because she loves learning and not just because I tell her to do it. This was completely unprompted and at her whim.  Her drawings are getting really good too.

This is what Molly does with her time.

She loves to play with my pots, pans, and bowls that are in one of the lower cabinets. I feel like I am always putting my bowls back where they belong. She has been exploring other cabinets lately to see what fun things they hold. This was a particularly good day because I was distracted making bread.  She got her hands into the forbidden cabinet where the flour, sugar and other baking supplies call home. Good thing the flour bucket was almost empty or else I would have had a much bigger mess to deal with.

Lending Support when Needed

When I read the Family Proclamation I usually think about the family I am in the process of cultivating with my husband and my children. But so much of who we are and how we raise our children has to do with those that brought us up. The Family Proclamation includes these Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It simply lumps them all together as extended family and then explains that their role is to "lend support when needed".

Today I thought I would highlight a few of those people that give me advice, a listening ear and what ever "support" I am in need of at the time.

This is a picture of my parents surrounded by their grandchildren. This is a somewhat old picture. There are three more that have come since. Lots of little girls!


Here are my kids enjoying a little time with my husband's father.


Grandma loves to watch the kids perform the Christmas story for her.

This is one of my favorite pictures. My Dad snoring away with a very sleepy Henry.


My mom is put to work when she is at our house. She is almost always reading books to the kids when she comes to visit.


I am often surprised by how much my sister Julie loves my kids. She has always been rather motherly with them.

These are the cousins and that my kids get to see and play with most often. Good kids, all of them. (Notice it is mine that are acting up.)

These cousins live a little farther away so we don't get to see them as often but my kids love them and wish we could see them more than just once or twice a year.

I wish this sister didn't live so far away then we could lend her the support she needs while she starts her family. We don't get to see that little niece very often except through pictures.

I have a great extended family that does support me, not just when needed, but always.

Thanks!

For the Record - Week 2

Before the next school week starts and before I forget what we accomplished over the past week I thought I had better write it down.

Devotional - We continue to do our Family Proclamation study. We are in the 2nd paragraph now. We talked about being made in the Image of God. Each of the kids colored a tracing of their body.

They are enjoying this study of the Proclamation. Coming up with activities for them each day is challenging me. We will see what I come up with.

History - Nothing really formal. Still don't have a program we are following but we did read a number different books this week. I know my husband read a different "You wouldn't want to...." book each night as the bedtime read with the kids. So they got to know why it wouldn't have been fun to be a Victorian servant, on the first submarine, a mill worker, or a coal miner. I read to them the one about the potato famine in Ireland. So they have been getting some History in even if they don't know or call it that. They just think those books are interesting. I also picked up a few books about Florance Nightengale and we read those during the week as our History study.  I am not quite ready to jump into a study of the Civil War yet. I think we may take one more week or so and continue to read books about things and events about the world of the mid 1800's.

Math - Singapore Math went alright this week. Sophie can do the math quite easily once she gets over the fact that it is math. She throws a fit about doing math each time but when she finally calms down and does the math it isn't "impossible" at all. She is almost done with 4A, one section left.  Ian is doing great through his Singapore Math book too and is almost finished with 1B.  Henry has no desire yet and so I don't push it for him at all.

Science - We didn't do any science reading but did do a few experiments about air and built a
hovercraft. I didn't get the camera out to document our work. I was too busy making sure they didn't burn down the house.  They did do a few of the write ups on the different projects.

Language arts - We are reading A Little Princess. The boys don't seem to mind that there isn't any boys in the story. 
Ian is reading My Father's Dragon to me. We take turns reading a page each.
Henry tried to read the first Bob book to me. He actually didn't do too bad. He is almost finished with the last of the Explode the Code primers. But we haven't really worked on putting the different sounds together so this was a big jump.
Sophie read Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban and is starting to take notes on it for a book report.

FIAR - Our first Five in a Row book is the Adventures of Peter Rabbit. We have been reading Peter Rabbit as well as another of Beatrix Potter's books each day.  We talked about England and colored in a Union Jack. We also have read a number of books about rabbits. I can't say we exhausted our study of  Peter Rabbit but at least Henry got some quiet time with Mom each day.

I still haven't figured out how to fit in a lot of the extras we used to do into our schedule. We haven't done music, art or latin in a long, long time. Eventually we need to start getting them into our week.  This isn't the one however. This was the start of Birthday week. Henry just turned 5 and Sophie will turn 9 in a few days.  With so much excitement and cake in their systems I think anything we accomplish is good.

Fruit of the Tree

We started our Celebration on Family on Monday. It just was a good time to start something new. We have added the Family Proclamation to our devotional time each morning. I like the idea of doing a little craft or activity each day to go along with our study, much like Jocelyn does here with her 30 day for Family activities.  I am not as crafty as she is so I am sure my activities are going to be a little less impressive.

In 3 days we have actually only got as far as the first paragraph.

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

On the first day we discussed who the First Presidency and council of 12 are. We went through and named each one and then talked about to whom the Proclamation was given . Who is the message for? They realized the answer was in the title. It is proclamation to the World, not just members of our church or to the United States but to all people in every country.

The next day we reread the first paragraph again and this time talked about the Creator's plan. I have some left over visuals from my missionary days so the kids arranged them to form the Plan of Salvation. 

After playing with the visuals for a bit they decided to draw their own versions of the Plan.

(I think we have been listening to a little too much Harry Potter because Ian called the Judgement the Sorting. It think the idea works.)

For our third day on the first paragraph we talked about families and how they would be central to the plan. We talked about Molly and how she came not knowing how to take care of herself so she needs all of us, her family, to teach her things and help her learn how to take care of herself.  We talked about how each of us comes as a baby to parents who then teach us how to live. For our activity we made a little family tree and wrote the names of some of our Grandparents and Great grand parents. The kids thought it was fun that they were the apples under the tree. The "fruit" of our family tree.

I think we have exhausted the first paragraph. Today we will have to start the 2nd. I don't have every lesson or day planned out yet. I like just taking each line and discussing it with the kids. The activities so far have just flowed out of the discussion.  We will see where it takes us next.