The Visit of the White Witch

After we read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" with Jonah for the first time I bought some Turkish delight and played the white witch after bath time (posted here).  So, when Jim finished reading it to Rowan a few weeks ago I decided to find some Turkish delight (much harder in the states but Amazon came through.)  So a few nights ago Jonah and I put together a winter wonderland while the little boys got a bath.

Rowan wasn't scared like Jonah was when we did this with him, which was probably part personality, part mom didn't try as hard, and part age.  He just gobbled that Turkish delight and hot cocoa!  We finished the evening with a partial showing of the first movie on the wall using a very dated projector.

Oh, the wonders of playing with a beautiful story!

Late Lenten Trays

I'm going with "better late than never" on this one.  I took these photos in lent, but they never made it to this space.  I had so many plans for our lent together this year, but they met with resistance, so it was a fine, though unremarkable lent.  The one project that was finished (though not used as much as I thought it would be) was to make some seasonal trays for Rowan to use while Jonah did his skill work during lent.  I found these little trays at hobby lobby and am thinking some chalk paint will make them something special one of these days, but for now, they are unfinished wood trays lined with seasonal scrapbook paper.  If you changed the colors, these trays could work for the season of Easter too.   

Word Building: I made this set last year and we used it in our godly play room at church for a work option.  Laminated watercolor paper with purple-painted wooden letters, they are simple and perfect for mister three, who is lately showing interest in letters and sounds.  I bought unpainted wooden letters for a couple dollars at a craft store in St. Andrews and traced them on the paper before drawing and water coloring the objects.

 Beading: Beads on pipe cleaners is a real favorite around here right now.  They are fun to string and then connect into long, long necklaces.

A Sensory Bag: I made the sack from the same fabric as our palm sunday underlay.  It is basically a drawstring bag, but instead of a string I used elastic at the top so an arm can slip in, but you can't see what is inside.  The idea is to don a blindfold mask and then reach in the bag and find an object.  I filled it with a lego, an egg, wooden bunny, small cross, piece of train track, and a wooden peg doll.  I would love to make a card with pictures of the different objects (maybe next year), but it works to have Mum say an object too.

I made these little blindfold masks a couple months ago and have been doing a few different sensory exercises with the boys.  They are fun exercises and are stemming from some research in helping the early cognitive child.  They help with motor and sensory skills that sometime are skipped when a child focuses on reading and other cognitive development earlier than most.  And mostly, I love that sensory games are always eagerly met because they are fun and different.

And, now I'm off to pack these little trays  before I go to bed; slow and steady we prepare for the move!

Paint Your Blessings

Last week we read the lesson about Jesus blessing the children in our Bible curriculum.  I like that the lesson focused on what a blessing is and what it means to open oneself to receive a blessing.

It seemed appropriate to bless the boys after the lesson and I decided to do a secret message blessing (a big hit with mystery loving boys.)  I wrote a blessing in white crayon ("May Christ's light Shine in You, Jonah!" and "May you, Rowan, know God's love for you!") on white paper and then let them watercolor over it and discover the message.  When they were finished I blessed each boy with the words they found.

We also enjoy singing Let the Little Children Come by Steve Green when working with this story. 

 Isaac was just given a paintbrush and water with construction paper.  It was his first encounter with painting, so that was fun to watch!  He loves, loves, loves drawing with crayons (and markers if he can find them... and somehow he does manage to find one most days!)

Family Story: Enter the Tooth Fairy

Jonah not only lost his first tooth earlier this month, within two days he had lost the second.  At six and a half it was to be expected, but it still took me by surprise.  I had known he had a loose tooth, since a dental visit in December, but the dentist said it could be a couple months yet.  I've been planning to design and make a tooth pillow with my boy ever since I heard about the tradition in other families.  But, the tooth fell out a day after our boxes arrived here, and with no fabric or sewing machine unpacked, I lamented the fact we couldn't have the pillow ready for the first tooth fairy visit.  When he lost the second two days later I was determined.  Everything was newly unpacked and a bit disorganized, but Jonah made it easy, saying "I want a yellow pillow (yellow is his favorite color) with a red dinosaur."  I originally planned on doing it all in wool felt, but the yellow wasn't unpacked and he found this yellow fabric saying "Wow, what a cool leaf pattern, that is perfect!"  So a simple pillow was born and placed on his bed just in time for the tooth fairy's second visit.  Whew!

I don't know that I've ever seen him so proud.  Since discovering that his cousins (nine months older and younger than he is) had both lost teeth, loosing teeth has been a regular conversation topic over the past months.  There have been several photo sessions of 'the gap' and then again with his pillow.  Oh, it is exciting!  

note: he was eating blueberries before this picture, his teeth aren't normally an odd shade of blue :o)

Giotto made Egg Tempera Paint.

So did we.

I purchased the book Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters this year for school and love the idea.  In the book each artist is introduced along with an art project for the child in the style of the master.  I had grand plans of looking at one great artist a week and making a scrapbook with the kids art on one side and small reproductions of the artist's work on the other side.  But, homeschooling is really hard when you lack a home and your own rhythm, so some of these extras have fallen by the wayside.  But, we did do the Giotto activity to make your own paints by smashing chalk pastels and mixing them with egg.  The boys loved the crushing and mixing; they made more colors than they used in their quick paintings.  I'm hopeful we'll discover more great artists soon...

Insects!

We loved our entomology unit this fall.  It was meant to take a month, but it stretched out a bit and I'm just now getting photos from the last couple months organized.  There was an ant farm, an ant picnic experiment, a cricket home, a butterfly garden, and lots of insect observation for nature study (we are enjoying this book).  Watching caterpillars become beautiful butterflies, seeing the efficiency of ants, and attempting to catch dragonflies over the pond were my favorite moments.  I also based Rowan's options around the theme (see previous post here.)

We read A Cricket in Times Square together, it is such a fun book!  Other favorites were Two Bad Ants, One Hundred Hungry Ants, and The Life and Times of the Ant.

extra{ordinary} : Lemonade for Sale!

{a few words today: Jonah made his own sign, helped to make the lemonade and managed the stand mostly on his own (there was some help with pouring glasses.)  What a fun project, and a rather lucrative one (for a six year old).  He set up before Daddy's lecture and caught all the students going into Chalet Bellevue.}

Snow Day! In May!

Well, I was all ready to write a post on the little green shoots in our garden today when I woke up to this...

SNOW!

And now, I'm just hoping that my little green shoots survive the day!  We had a fun snow day with some embroidery by wee hands, some painting, some Heidi reading, some cookie eating, and of course, some running around in the snow!

While the boys embroidered I finished off this snow child that I started back in winter and then was set aside while preparing for the move.  She wasn't supposed to be coming to Switzerland, but somehow missed the shipment to the states, so I tucked her in with my craft supplies and was glad today that I had a snow child to celebrate this unexpected snow.

Unexpected indeed!  Yes, yesterday, my baby had no trousers and I was lathering sunscreen on my wee men (proof below) and now I'm watching flakes fall outside my window.

It is December

December means making to me... making garlands, cookies, presents, cards, traditions, tree decorations, fudge, and wrappings.  This year, my making is taking a backseat to caring for a newborn and two little boys while daddy tries to finish his thesis up (oh, we are so so close!)

Friday night I found a large package in our shed that had been left during the day.  Grandma had sent a box of craft supplies.  Wooden beads, postboard letters, wooden ornaments, paint, shell beads, twine, two sided scrapbook paper were all waiting to be made into something!  So Monday morning Rowan and I redd up the school room table, covered it with white paper and I set out all the new craft supplies, some that Jim's parents brought last month, the salt-dough ornaments the boys made Sunday and a few basics.  

We've spent the past two days at the table.  Jonah is beading up a storm, Rowan is painting and painting and painting, and I've been stringing popcorn for our tree.  It isn't the crafting I normally find myself doing in December, but it is delightful to be joining in with my two older boys and making together!

New Smocks and Wet on Wet Painting

The main mama-made for Rowan's birthday was painting smocks for both boys.  Rowan loves to paint and is notoriously messy, so it was the perfect gift.  I found the tree fabric when I was home this summer and used old sheets (that had been cut up for another project somewhere along the way) for the sleeves.  Jonah's is from some dino pillow fabric and the sleeves are sheets again.  Jo chose the dino fabric from my stash and loves it, and even though it wasn't my favorite fabric to work with, he is thrilled and, I suppose, that is what matters.  I used the pattern from the Little Things to Sew from Oliver + S, which is such a fun book (you'll be seeing more from it in the future).  I did omit the pockets, because I know my two year old and pockets when he is holding brushes full of paint really aren't a great idea!

Both sets of grandparents sent Rowan wonderful art supplies for his birthday, which we are so excited about!  And this week, in the midst of potty training and with no Daddy around (he's at a conference), it was the perfect time to try out the stockmar wet-on-wet watercolors.  We've only ever used pallet watercolors, so this was a wonderful discovery!  Even Jonah, who isn't typically overly excited about art projects was begging to make picture after picture (note to self: must wishlist lots of watercolor paper!).  Wet-on-wet painting is a true exploration of color and even mama had to make one, because it looked so fun!

Yes, he is using both hands at once, Jonah still hasn't declared handedness and writes and draws equally well with both hands... go figure.  I'm pretty sure Rowan is a lefty as he switches to his left a lot, but we'll have to wait and see. 

"Its like being up high in the sky or down on the ground and looking down or looking up" (at autumn leaves) - Jonah

"A Mangrove Swamp" by Jonah - I was just going to introduce two colors today and make autumn colors (thinking maybe we'll cut leaves and pumpkins from their paintings), but after his first painting Jonah really wanted to use blue to make water.

A Rainbow Sort of Day...

 We've been reading through Genesis as a family (starting with creation, which I shared here) and we just finished up Noah's story.  So we've been thinking about God's promises and, of course, rainbows.  The above verse has been the verse we've been sharing and memorizing (and we'll continue with it through Abraham, because this theme of promises just keeps going through Genesis).  I cut the watercolor above into a puzzle for Jonah (but it was frustrating as the watercolor paper didn't want to stay together well - next time perhaps I should back it on poster board before cutting the puzzle)

The boys attend a 0-5s group at our church every Tuesday morning and they spent the past few weeks studying Noah.  We were able to time it so that finishing our reading of Noah and the 'Rainbow Party' at their church group coincided.  Jonah made a card for the leader with wet on wet watercolors and we attempted to make Rainbow cookies.  I just used our normal sugar cookie dough and food coloring to make the colors (I used liquid dyes as I didn't have paste dye available - I'll bet the paste would work better).  I was pretty disappointed with the colors and then they totally faded when we baked the cookies.  But the boys were thrilled with them and very excited to share them at the rainbow party, so they were a success even though mama wasn't thrilled with the finished product.