"The Greatest Gift of All" (2010)

A friend of ours, Erin Twiss is our children's choir director as well as a wonderful musician and song writer.  She wrote this song, "The Greatest Gift of All" for our annual children's Christmas play. Each year, she chooses one child to sing the solo.  In 2010, Hannah was the soloist and when I was filming her, my camera died!!  I know, I felt like the worst mother in the world....didn't charge the camera before the children's Christmas play!  Arghhh!  Anyhow, a friend of ours videoed it and recently burned it onto a DVD for us.  I was so excited that I had to post it, even though it was 2 years ago.  So, Hannah would have been 7 years old at the time.  She played Mary in the play and got right up in front of a large group of people and sang so confidently :)   Although this is an old video, it's kind of fun to post it during the holiday season. 

FDR Day

Our homeschool group meets every other week and decided to have each child present a historical figure.  Mark chose to present FDR.  When we learned that he would be presenting on Election Day, he decided that a mock election would be fun to do with the group of kids.  We looked through what we had at home and asked friends to borrow certain things for their outfits.  My Aunt who passed away a couple of years ago gave us some items from that era...we found pince ne glasses for Mark & Hannah, borrowed a hat and wheelchair & cane from Nonna, coat from Dad and we made the long cigarette out of a straw (colored black) and paper to complete the look. Hannah borrowed the faux fur from her Nonna and we fixed her long hair in an Eleanor Roosevelt 'updo'!  She was perfect.

So here are the photos and different activities that went on...

President and First Lady Roosevelt

As the children entered the fellowship hall, the Roosevelts handed out candy and political campaign buttons for each child to wear. 

Then Mark conducted his presentation on FDR with dates of important events, photos and interesting facts.

Eleanor Roosevelt wheeled him around wherever he needed to go.

This a 'ration line' where the kids could ask for items for their families...toilet paper, food, soap, etc.

We set up an election booth where everyone got to vote for either FDR or Hoover.  Guess who won?

You guessed it, FDR! (aka Mark)

Drawing and Watercolors

I finally re-checked out "Drawing With Children" at the library and have found the beginning drawing lessons so enlightening.  I admit that it isn't easy trying to teach art to your children, when you are not very artistic!  I began 'googling' phrases like: 'how can a non-artistic homeschooler teach art lessons'?  I found some interesting and helpful blogs, but so far the book has helped the most.  I am learning to accept that what we are doing currently is our best work and that we have 'arrived' artistically already.  There is nothing to wish for here in the future; we are enjoying what we do with art and creating our own expression of what we see and feel right now! It is satisfying to lose yourself in an art project and think about nothing else.  OK ~ here are today's still life drawings with watercolors... I love how H used brighter colors...she is so free and uninhibited.

 Mark is getting into the shading here...

 Me ~ I'm just enjoying the colors...

Microscopes 101

Today we broke out the microscope and began looking at slides of all kinds of parts: frog tongues, cricket legs, insect wings and grasshopper legs!  We then started to get creative by looking at our own hair, skin cells, flower petals, saliva and a fish scale from our fish caught in the Chesapeake!  Wow ~ it's so amazing seeing the detail underneath a microscope.  We learned the parts of a microscope (ours was one borrowed from a friend; a old unit with a mirror as the light source). Thanks Steffan for loaning it to us...what a precious item to own! 

We watched a video on this website: http://www.kidsbiology.com/biology_basics/cells_tissues_organs/cell_history_discovery3.php

Here are some more ideas to look at under the microscope:
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=480

The kids drew the microscope:

Tomorrow we will label a diagram to see what we learned.

Pottery is complete!

This is the 'haul' we made after finishing pottery class! The kids were so excited, that they had to have a bowl of cereal that night out of their favorite bowl...so far no leaks!  See the photos below of their completed projects.... the colors turned so beautifully vibrant.  Here we have two pinch pots, two coiled pots, two slabs, and three pots from the wheel. We have one more from the wheel that we forgot to glaze, so back to the studio this Thursday for our last pot.

Pottery ~ fun & functional

We had the opportunity to partcipate in a local pottery class for the last 8 weeks.  The kids enjoyed the class and found that it isn't an exact 'art.'  The art of pottery making is so much fun AND you end up with a functional piece that can be anything from a cereal bowl to a beautiful vase for a table centerpiece.  The class covered the following aspects of clay and pottery:

• Clay and it's different properties
• Scoring the clay for pottery
• Coiling clay for bowls, cups and vases
• Pinching clay to make pottery
• Use of the pottery wheel for small pots and bowls
• Sanding, Glazing and Firing for a finished product!




                                                   At the Potter's Wheel!


                                                              Finished pot





                                                 Sanding before glazing ~ hard at work!


                     Melted wax for bottom of pot so it won't stick to the kiln during firing.


                                        He double-dipped pot in two different colors


                        Oh ~ so MANY colors and so LITTLE time... what to choose??





                                     Pots are all dipped and drying for firing the next day.

                                The Kiln ~ must be heated to 2000 degrees to fire each pot. 
                                            We can hardly wait for the results...stay tuned!

Helen Keller

Hannah's biography lessons for Jan/Feb were on Helen Keller. Her favorite book was:

Two of her favorite quotes she used for copywork and dictation were:
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. "

"Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see."

She did a drawing of Helen Keller of when she spoke her first words: "Water, Ground and Tree!" This was a very exciting moment for Annie, Helen and the whole Keller family. They were there to experience that moment with her. We also enjoyed a couple of movies after we read the books. It was enjoyable for our family to experience this biography with Hannah and we learned a lot about the simplicity of our senses and gained a new appreciation of Helen's life.

Japan Homeschool Day

Hokusai 'The Great Wave of Kanagawa'



One of our friends presented the country of Japan at our 'Terrific Tuesday' get together. Each child takes a certain Tuesday to feature a country of their choice. We participated in several stations that he had planned. The stations were painting japanese symbols, writing haiku poetry, an oragami station and also coloring a picture of a famous japanese work of art (which I will post here).



Hannah and I composed Haikus:

Mine was entitled


"A Tree"

The strength of a tree
Roots, Trunk, Bark, Branches and Leaves
Gently Protecting

Hers was
"Rollerblading"
I love rollerblades
I have a heart to skate...love it!
Woooooooo (in 5 syllables) :)

Our Oragami choice consisted of making the simplest of the designs: a butterfly! My favorite is the crane, but it takes a little longer to fold. Hannah also made a cat. You can read about the story of the Japanese Crane here:

http://www.buddhistcouncil.org/bodhitree/Books/Story_of_the_Peace_Crane.pdf

Pumpkin Blossoms (strange timing, but... oh well!)

I was reading an article about the health benefits of eating squash flowers this morning. I suddenly remembered that we actually did this in the fall with some pumpkin blossoms. We prepared them, fried them up and voila! served them as a side dish for dinner. The children enjoyed learning that you could actually eat a flower and when my husband arrived for dinner, he was intrigued. I've since learned that this is a popular Italian tradition, which is awesome since I'm married to an Italiano and have Pisan bambinos! :) Anyhow, here's a simple recipe with some photos. I can't take credit for these beautiful photos ~ found them online since they were better than the ones I took.

Fried Pumpkin Blossom Recipe

Step 1
Wash the pumpkin blossoms in cool water. Gently pat the blossoms dry with paper towels. Leave the stems intact. Set the blossoms aside.

Step 2
Prepare your batter. Add the flour, baking powder, (some use parmesan cheese), salt and pepper to the mixing bowl. Whisk to combine the dry ingredients. Add the water and eggs. Whisk the batter until all of the ingredients are well incorporated and the batter is smooth.

Step 3
Heat the oil in the frying pan to a temperature of 375 degrees F. Dip one blossom at a time into the batter and carefully drop it into the hot oil. Fry only four or five blossoms at a time, ensuring not to crowd the pan. The pumpkin blossoms should not be touching each other in the pan.
Step 4
Fry the blossoms for around two minutes on each side or until they are golden brown, turning once. Remove the pumpkin blossoms with a large slotted spoon and place them on paper towels to drain. Continue to fry the blossoms in batches until they are all cooked. Serve immediately

Other edible flowers are:

Daylilies, Lavendar, Violets, Squash Blossoms, Chives & some Roses (caution: read about the type of rose and check if it's edible first).