Making Do With a Kitchen Table

I wish I had known about the home bar furniture available at CSN stores when we lived in Costa Rica.  We needed some bar stools for our kitchen island.  We've been back in the States for 8 months now and I still miss that kitchen in spite of the mismatched stools.  We were so blessed to be able to build our dream home when we lived in Costa Rica.  Of course, when you live in Costa Rica, nothing ever quite goes as planned.  But my kitchen, it was perfect (well, minus the one drawer that stuck and the fact that the plumber messed up so big that we couldn't get hot water for the first three months!). 

I love everything about our house in the States, except the kitchen.  I can live with small closets and small bedrooms, but a small counter-less kitchen is challenging for a momma who was used to using that kitchen island for teaching, feeding, baking, and just absolutely everything else.  It's so silly to miss a kitchen, but oh, do I ever miss it! 

This year, our kitchen table will just have to do for rolling out Christmas cookie dough!

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Artists and Art Week 12 - Andy Warhol Inspired Christmas Trees

I got inspired to try some Andy Warhol art with Bear after browsing the internet.  I started by making her some Andy Warhol art cards so she could get familiar with the art. (You can see the   I read aloud this blurb about him and we read Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit With Andy Warhol.

I couldn't find any winter/Christmas art ideas I liked, so I took this idea and tweaked it a bit to make it more wintery.  It has occurred to me that I am turning my daughter into another girlwhopaintedtrees as this is probably our fifth or sixth project involving trees.  What can I say - I lived most of my life surrounded by West Coast trees.

First she drew her trees in the four rectangles.

Then we looked at a color wheel and I explained about complementary colors.  I had her choose two different pairs of complementary colors for each rectangle.

She colored inside the tree with the colored pencils.  This was tiring work.  She kept switching between right and left hands.  She likes to press very hard.

 She has a trick of putting her finger along the edge of where she is coloring and that is how she stays in the lines quite well for her age.  She came up with that trick herself.  Where you see she went out over the edge in the purple tree is where she switched to her left hand because her right was tired.

 She used chalk pastel, her favorite medium, to do the background.  This gives a nice dark/light contrast as well as the contrast from the complementary colors.

Her finished work.

If you've done any art with your child this week based on an artist or illustration style, or taught some of the elements and principles of art, or studied a musician or any other type of artist, please join the Linky.  Please remember to link back or grab the button on the side bar.  

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What's on the Shelves - December

Our December themed practical life and sensory works went on the shelves today.  Bear was involved in creating some of the works for J-jo.  Some of our works remain the same (the Melissa and Doug Jumbo ABC Chunky Puzzle always stays out for example) and some are old ones with a December twist.

Tweezing tiny sparkly pompoms and placing them in the holes of the shapes. The shapes are from our Plan Toy Geometric Sorting Board. I love this toy.  It has come in handy for teaching various concepts (colors, shapes, numbers, and matching).

J-jo trying it.  He can't use tweezers, so he uses his fingers.

Bear using the tweezers.  They both love this work.

Pompom sensory tin.  We hide things in there for J-jo - like his puzzle pieces.

Christmas open and close with wintery surprises inside (pompoms and snowflakes).

Christmas stickers.  (Both toddler and preschooler love this too.)

Sorting erasers into pairs.  Work is made harder for Bear by having her find the homes in the package for each eraser. 

Sorting presents by color.

Finished work.  Again - Bear uses hullers, J-jo does not.

Punching.  This particular punch is very hard for Bear still.

Play dough - green with red beads and gems to make trees.

A sample of a finished tree.

Christmas stamps.

And finally, this continues to be J-jo's favorite, but I was very tired of seeing Quaker Oats on the canister so I covered it with wrapping paper and switched out the Fall pompoms for sparkly red and silver ones.

Linking up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1 and to the Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations.

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Work in Progress...

Bear's Santa Lucia wreath to wear December 13th.

...all pinned and ready to sew.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

May everyone have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

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Tot School

 J-jo is 15 months old.

There is so much learning happening in every day things.  We read a lot and J-jo is repeating most of the animal sounds from the books.  He has started "reading" aloud.  Before, he would just look at the pictures, but now he "talks" as he looks, making it seem as if he were reading:) He understands an enormous amount and can follow simple commands.  He is very independent and tries to do many things for himself.  One day this week we found him shirtless as he had taken off his own top.  I'm still not sure how he managed or why he wanted to be half-naked, but he did.

Of course, he loves to imitate his sister.  Often he goes to our calendar area and wants to point to the cards as he sees his sister do.  She left the pointer where he could reach it and thankfully I found him before an eye could get poked out.  The pointer has been banished into a closet until further notice!

  We've been playing "Twinkle, Twinkle" to learn colors and matching.  I always bombarded Ber with everything at once when she was J-jo's age.  With J-jo, I try to break things down more.  We're focusing on red, blue and yellow right now. I line up one set at one end of the room and then come back near J-jo and sing,

"Twinkle, twinkle, little blue star, 

how I wonder where you are.

Over there I see you bright.

Can you make them match up right?  

Twinkle, twinkle little star, 

how I wonder where you are."  

Then I hand him the blue star and he is supposed to put it down next to the color star I just sang.

 I was pretty shocked when he actually matched them! 

 He keeps asking to pull this out of the closet but he isn't quite ready for it.

 I am rearranging the playroom half of the school/play area and created a little hideaway for them.  J-jo likes to go there and read or snack.

 Bear really loves the pan flute and J-jo managed to sneak in a turn.

 More work on colors: I had a file with all the cars from the story Freight Train.  I have no clue where the file is from.  I downloaded it about 2 and a half years ago.  I printed it out and laminated and we use them as I read the story.  Soon I hope to ask for one of the cars and have him give it to me.

 Nature provides the best sensory experiences.  I have loads of leaves to rake.  It makes for great play for them (and fabulous photo opportunities too).

 He is showing a lot of interest in letters and sounds so I am following his lead.  Melissa and Doug puzzle and (large) objects paired together allow him to make a connection between what the letter looks like and an object that begins with that sound. I don't teach him letter names, just letter sounds and I use all the short vowel sounds.

 W for water.

Linking up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1

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Artists and Art Week 11 - Textured Leaves

I love autumn's colorful leaves against a bright blue sky.  What a wonderful example of contrast in the natural world.  All those bright leaves crunching and crinkling underfoot add a great sensory experience too.

A smooth, freshly fallen leaf feels much different than a dried, not-so-freshly-fallen leaf.

And so began our art lesson on texture.

The inspiration for this project was once again Art projects for Kids.  She has such fantastic art projects.

Bear tried to cut her own paper towel leaves, but alas it was a bit too challenging for her so I ended up doing it.  The rest of the project she completed on her own.

 First she glued the paper towel leaves on the watercolor paper.

 After they had dried (kind of - we weren't that patient in waiting. lol) she traced around them in oil pastel (normal crayon would work too).  Just make sure you press hard.

 Then she painted the sky with liquid watercolor (I think the hard watercolors would work too).

 She had to be very careful not to get the paint inside the leaves and she was so patient and attentive for this part.

 Next she painted the inside of the leaves to match the outlines.

 It didn't really matter about the few places where the blue had entered the leaf since real Fall leaves are blotched and mottled.

You can see the texture that the paper towel added.  You can feel it too on the original.

 If you've done any art with your child this week based on an artist or illustration style, or taught some of the elements and principles of art, or studied a musician or any other type of artist, please join the Linky.  Please remember to link back or grab the button on the side bar.

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Traditions

The coming of Advent has me searching for simple traditions to begin in our family now that Bear is a bit older. (Trying to do a craft each day last year burned me out).  I want the Advent season to have meaning to our family and draw us closer to each other and to God. Most importantly I want Bear and J-jo growing up to think that Christmas is about doing for and giving to others more than it is about receiving gifts for themselves.

Today we celebrated Martinmas (I know we're a good nine days late, but Bear was none the wiser) and all four of us really enjoyed the beauty of the candles and lanterns and the sweet little stories about the last Autumn spark and the good deed of Saint Martin.  It made me want more of these types of celebrations.

As I research other Waldorf celebrations and look for ideas to tide Bear (who asks on an hourly basis if Christmas is tomorrow) over to Christmas Day, I wonder: what are your holiday traditions?

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Some Turkey Activities

 Bear has been enjoying her button turkey that was inspired by My Montessori Journey's turkey.

 Today she did an impromptu craft.  She traced and cut out the circle herself and added some ellipses I had already cut out.  The bottom two yellow ones are the turkey's feet "covered in snow."  And the one red feather that's tucked in is because "the turkey is shivering and tucking it in to keep warm."

We dance around the turkeys singing,

"Ring around a turkey,

Big and fat and round.

Wobble, wobble, gobble, gobble,

We all fall down!"

We've enjoyed A Plump and Perky Turkey
a lot the past few nights too.

Here's a good coloring sheet with the parts of the turkey. 
And I didn't realize that the turkey we eat is white, not brown and speckled the way turkeys are portrayed in literature!

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