A Dose of Hope

Sorting

2012-01-30T17:03:00.001-07:00

2012-01-30T11:06:00.001-07:00

2012-01-30T10:45:00.001-07:00

2012-01-30T10:38:00.003-07:00

2012-01-30T10:38:00.001-07:00

Sand sculpting

2012-01-30T10:37:00.001-07:00

Conversion of Paul

2012-01-25T14:57:00.006-07:00

God is so good! We had been reading MF Windeatt's book about St. Paul. But I wasn't getting into it and Ren was so-so. At mass today, the first reading with the Conversion of Paul. Ren and I looked at each other: We know this!! So, with reignited enthusiasm, did a couple of projects. One was a diagram of it in chalk on the driveway (camera battery was charging...photo to come).

Second was the gospel message -- Jesus came for everyone, not just the Jews, but we Gentiles, too. This is a Jesus came for ALL collage:

This is our cuttings box -- filled with magazines, calendars, etc. We get a lot from a friend who subscribes to several things that we don't get. He especially gets Peace Corps and international stuff with a diverse cross-section of races and religions.

Using cutting skills (mom and child):

It says: Conversion of Paul, Jesus came for ALL. Gluing and arranging.

Finished collage:

Seeds

2012-01-18T13:25:00.002-07:00

This came out of a PK nature workbook. It has pictures of different fruits and invites you to glue on the seeds. Ren made a prediction of which seeds would be the largest/smallest. Yesterday in the car she proudly announced that, mid-bite in her snack, that she had located the seed in her orange. Oops, now it is rolling around in the car somewhere. We'll find it and glue it on!! Since then, there has been interest in what has seeds and what they look like. Even I was noticing the seeds inside a dried cranberry. You could easily do this with internet clipart.

Love it!

Alphabet Island and other education links

2012-01-18T13:24:00.002-07:00

Ren is VERY excited to start Alphabet Island (available at various retailers). Thank you EC for the loan of the teachers addition. So far, we are on C. I supplement with lots of stuff, but she loves the cd and the personification of the letters. Perfect for girly-girls. The letter family book is from Hubbard's Cupboard. They have lots of printable booklets. We also refriended Starfall. Ren also plays PK math games using a Dragon Tales math cd that was buried under a big pile of cds.

Wrappin' and writing

2012-01-18T13:08:00.002-07:00

Guess who had a birthday? Big numero uno!

We use the sharpie on our gifts instead of the too small gift tags.

Making Chicle Gum

2012-01-15T14:07:00.009-07:00

The Glee Company has created a gum-making kit that they (and others) sell online. This was my husbands first attempt at "Science with Daddy."

The instructions come with it -- albeit brief. But there is great emphasis on the stickiness of this operation. Let me reiterate: THIS IS STICKY BUSINESS. Don't use grandmother's china or, in our case, a favorite coffee mug.

Above: Mixing melted chicle with powdered sugar. The kit comes with the chicle, corn syrup, powdered sugar, and two flavorings.

Below: Kneading and rolling

After this you cut it into gum sized shapes and chew away. Makes a lot!

This is an interesting project, but I am not sure that there was a lot of understanding going on. Ren had a good time and really likes chewing gum...but there was an attempt to connect it with rain forest habitat that I think the Wild Kratts do better. So...if you try this with your kids. Do the rain forest part for a week or so before hand. There are some interesting videos on the chicle extracting process. Google it.

2012-01-15T14:07:00.003-07:00

W wire

2012-01-12T11:56:00.002-07:00

Have you ever had a massive case of the stupids??? I sure have! Going to the wrong place at the wrong time or the wrong day. Wow! Major space in the brain these days.

Well, we were supposed to have Thursday school and talk about W, winter, and wire. Here is the wire W part. I just used ornament hangers that were still kicking around.

Kings. Epiphany Gathering

2012-01-05T10:45:00.009-07:00

Using small rectangles of colored paper, the kids wrote what they would like to give Jesus. This entire production was EC's idea. She is so stinking smart!

Take 8-10 stars and write a motion (jump, skip, slither, etc) on each one. Tape them up all around the house. As a group, the kids go from star to star - think following the star - to the end. They do whatever motion is on the star to get to the next one. They end at the Nativity and put their gifts at Jesus feet. Wonderful!

The star: (says "hop"). Note, it is January and there is no snow. *sigh*

Skipping to the next star:

Now slithering:

Gifts for Jesus:

Oh, Come let us adore Him:

Quilt

2012-01-04T10:38:00.004-07:00

I realized that we have made it through most letters and I almost completely forgot about Q! (Sorry, Q) We told a story about queens and made a wrapping paper "quilt." This also served as an opportunity to cut, glue, and make sequences/patterns.

Ready for pasting.

Gluing down the quilt pieces. We learned that started closest to you will prevent the pieces from getting shuffled around.

Shapes

2012-01-04T10:19:00.001-07:00

Thank you notes. Building letters.

2011-12-28T10:36:00.002-07:00

We worked on building letters by using small strips of paper. I would write a letter and she would build and glue the next. Afterward, she wanted to trade, so I wrote and she built. Then she dictated the note for inside.

Making Angels from Jesse Tree ornaments

2011-12-25T23:02:00.014-07:00

"Not that one" she says.

Even though this seems like a process, the results are fun and great. My goal here was to transform the Jesse tree ornaments into the reality of Christmas. The preparations come to fruition at Christmas. I wasn't sure my 4 year old would get that, but she generally does. The Jesse Tree ornament are now angels. Here is what we did:

Our angels have three main parts: body, wings, head

Again, gleaning the good ideas from Catholic Icing, we took white coffee filters and scribbled on them with all different color markers. These will be the angel wings.

Next, spray with water until the colors run. This bleeds onto the table, so have other filters handy to mop up the color.

Set these on an old towel to dry. (After this, we broke for lunch).

Or, while the wings are drying, gather the ornaments off of your Jesse Tree. Since ours were printed on plain office paper, I mounted them on blue (for Advent) and pink (Gaudete) construction paper. Turn them over and paint on some glitter. Let dry.

Next, cut out head about the size of a quarter. I just folded some tan paper and cut out the head paper-doll style. They aren't perfectly round...but I'm not either. Using marker, add eyes, nose and mouth. My kiddo insisted on hair, otherwise all of our angels would be handsomely bald. Use yarn, raffia or marker/crayon for hair.

(Note the important banana snack...)

When the wings are dry, grab your stapler (or twist ties).

Gather them up from the middle and staple together. Repeat.

Hooray, wings done.

To assemble, I needed some extra length in the ornament hanging wire, so we straightened one end. Each angel needs three pieces of tape. One to attach the wire to the "body." One to attach the wings to the wire. One to attach the head to the wire. You could use glue or even hot glue, but I didn't have the gusto for it.

Whew! Our legion of angels. We did this Christmas Eve because I know we'd have the whole day to mess with it. It didn't take the whole day by any means, but it was nice to be able to not rush the process and let wings and glue dry.

Hanging them on our tree. Sorry, it is artificial. When the 11 month old gets a little bigger, we'll consider a try that doesn't have to be perched up high.

Merry Christmas. Glory to God in the Highest! Emmanuel!!

Thursday School: J is for Jesus

2011-12-22T13:52:00.005-07:00

J is for Jesus and the story of the Candy Cane.

J is for jumping

Jesus Birthday Party: Preschool Reunion

2011-12-20T11:42:00.006-07:00

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Instead of gifts, we exchange books from our home collections. Fun, easy, cheap, perfect. Merry Christmas! MF made this delicious egg-free cake. Yum!

Shape Nativities

2011-12-20T11:42:00.005-07:00

These came from EC and utilize some sorting, shape identification, color identification, and gluing skills. I precut the shapes, but cutting could be added. This time, I put glue in small cups with paint brushes to lesson the quantity used. It worked out well. Just wash the brushes in warm, soapy water. I have the pattern for this and will figure out how to post it.

Chx scratch nativity

2011-12-18T19:48:00.004-07:00

A nod to Lacy at Catholic Icing and EC for the idea. She used colored rice, but I already had chicken scratch in a touch table box -- so Chicken Scratch Nativity it is!

Printing Christmas cards

2011-12-18T11:35:00.005-07:00

Find the main pieces of a foam Nativity kit that had adhesive on the back (all but the stable, which we hot glued) - stable, Mary, Joseph, manger. Then stick them to a large clean glass jar. We used an Adam's peanut butter one. Paint over the foam with tempera paint. Roll the jar over cardstock and set aside to dry. Each painting does about two rolls. Repaint or wipe off and repaint with a different color. The kit we had was just a little big for these precut cards, but we had lots of fun. It makes a lot of cards quickly. Hooray!

Icon of St Therese

2011-12-15T19:53:00.001-07:00

Ready for Feast of St Lucy

2011-12-12T20:56:00.001-07:00

Thursday School: Immaculate Conception puppets

2011-12-08T10:40:00.006-07:00

I drew crude "people" that were Anne, Joaquim, baby Mary, toddler Mary, and an angel. First, I used my puppet set to tell the story. What was the Immaculate Conception? "God brought Joaquim and Anne together and blessed it -- then came Mary. Enough detail for age 4!

The kids colored the characters, then cut generally around them. We taped on Popsicle sticks and told the story. Once home, one mom was trying to cook dinner and told her kids "Take your puppets and go act out the Immaculate Conception! " hahahahaha...oh my....

We also did thumbprint insects onto a large letter I. They put thumbs onto an inkpad and then pressed it on the paper. With a marker they added six (or so) legs, antenna, etc. Cute!

N uts

2011-12-05T11:25:00.001-07:00

N

2011-12-05T11:24:00.001-07:00

Feast of st francis xavier

2011-12-03T18:34:00.001-07:00

Pineapple upside down X cake and the flags of the countries he evangelized. Xavier's patron saint.

Advent Journeys

2011-12-02T15:14:00.003-07:00

We investigated the places in the Nativity story and labeled a large piece of craft paper with Nazareth, Bethlehem & Egypt (after Christmas). Ren drew Nazareth houses and embellishments to the "road" from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I drew some city life in Bethlehem as well as a stable location. Then we put contact paper over the road and Advent candle markers to help pace out the journey. I then copied a picture of Mary on the donkey from a children's Christmas book (ah, someday there will be more colored ink) which we colored in and put contact paper on both sides. Using tape, we stuck it on. Each day, it moves a little farther.

The candles marks were added later. I have also seen where one could put a dot for each day. My brilliant friend EC has a gorgeous one at her house. I'll see if I can get a photo.

the green is the shepherds meadow with some shepherds (copied from the same book) hanging out. We also colored some angels and added glitter glue. When the big day comes, we will put them on. Soon after Christmas day there will be another, probably shorter, path to Egypt.

Jesse tree ornament

2011-11-28T12:03:00.003-07:00

With Advent comes the Jesse Tree. Holy Heroes does an awesome job of bringing home-spun Advent to families everywhere (among the loads of great stuff they already have -- shop there for Christmas goodies like Glory Stories)

Preschool & Advent

2011-11-27T10:29:00.007-07:00

Here are some things we did to welcome Advent.

1. We changed the liturgical banner from green to purple. We changed the liturgical season wheel (foreground) from green to purple. Check out the Lit. season wheel and link on an earlier post.

2. I cut out the letters for Advent (die-cut machine would be handy here) and each morning they are in the wrong order. I also wrote it in glitter glue to have tactile letters she can trace with her finger and guide in spelling Advent correctly. We studied the letter V pretty heavily. The diagonals have been tricky!

We made a super easy Advent wreath. Just tear some green construction paper length wise in slightly different widths. Gather them together with the short widths on the outside and staple into a circle. Cut out the rectangles for the candles and just slide them in between the wreath layers (or glue to inside). Cut out flame shapes and glue on to candles. Easy, no flame, totally portable -- can also use as a St. Lucy crown if needed.

Ready for Advent

2011-11-27T09:16:00.002-07:00

It is true. I get really excited for Advent. Way more excited than for Christmas itself. There is such joy in the anticipation AND there are so many ways to get ready. I am learning that my spiritual journey is advanced by the liturgical "chunks" that come my way. The liturgical seasons are great and even in Ordinary Time, God gives me themes like saints -- sometimes specific ones like St. Teresa of Avila -- or scripture themes or songs or some other niche. It is great!

Other than putting the angels away until closer to Christmas...this is our start. With the little guy beginning to get mobile, this space is unfortunately barricaded by the ottoman most of the time. It is still a wonderful place to gather and sing "Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

Nature Circle Art

2011-11-25T12:20:00.009-07:00

Today we brought the slowly sleeping outdoors in to do circle art. Inspired by rose windows and mandalas, we worked on patterns and shapes to make this art. First, we went outside to collect materials in a big pan. Second, we decided on the layout and placed the plant material down. Third, we glued from the inside out. It was great fun -- the mint leaves even make it smell good.

Additionally, we are working on the letters in Ren's name and now have come to Y. Y is a tricky letter! We did a large Y out of yellow stickers and have practiced every day. I thought S would be tough, but Y is the stickler (and N). We'll keep plugging away -- open to suggestions!

Arranging materials:

Gluing it down:

This was a pretty focused activity and she asked for some open tactile play with shaving cream! Hooray!

Turkey

2011-11-21T10:56:00.006-07:00

We wrote who and what we are thankful for on the feathers. Fun and simple.

I love its eyes! too fun...

Playing Games on a chilly day...

2011-11-20T12:11:00.001-07:00

Leaf Prints

2011-11-19T20:37:00.006-07:00

This project was inspired by Deep Space Sparkle. The instructions for it on on the site. EC talked about color vs warm colors. This was a beautiful project!

Ragdoll

2011-11-19T20:36:00.002-07:00

This should be a shocker...I made a ragdoll! After reading Pegeen by Hilda Van Stockum, Serenity wanted a dolly like one of the characters. Knowing that I could not pull off any type of sewing project with no machine, I did think I could put together a ragdoll. Voila! I used an old sheet that was torn into large strips. We hot glued some hair on the back - sorry you can't see it - of yarn. Then Serenity "crafted" a poncho type dress. I used Sharpies to make the face. Hooray!

Capitol

2011-11-15T07:37:00.001-07:00

B-O-I-S-E

2011-11-14T11:40:00.007-07:00

The wheels on the bus go round and round all through the ___________. Right! Town. What town to we live in ?? Boise! We talked about Boise and played Bounce the Ball on Boise with a letter on each card. Li'l bro helps.

Then we played a twister version.

From a Highlights or High Five Magazine came the template for Paperbag Town. We cut out the door, window and sign for a library, diner, grocery store, preschool, bank and, of all things, pharmacy. We glued them on to lunch sacks. Then we stuffed each sack "building" with a wad of newspaper, stapled it shut, put it on the "street." When we finished, it occurred to me that we were missing an important building...the church! We drew it by hand a named it St. Mary's. Fun project, interesting discussion. Additional buildings and scenery could be easily added. Great pretend play!

Discussing the church architecture with Nini (grandmother).

Afterward, we went downtown and walked through the capitol building. Granted, the excitement is riding the elevator, but she can spot the capitol from any vista. It is a great space to love!

Sight Words at GCPL

2011-11-10T13:36:00.002-07:00

With our favorite Miss Kate at the Garden City Public Library Kindergarten Readiness Program. They are working on site words and using simple books from Reading A-Z and sight work cards from Dolchflash.

Thursday school - M

2011-11-03T10:48:00.008-06:00

What you feel.? Sensory cards with Mrs C.. The theme was M and St. Martin dePorres.

Using blindfolds to test tactile skills.

Snacktime! Making St. Martin's Mice out of rice cakes, peanut butter, pretzels and other small snacks (raisins & MMs)

He made a spider.

Marshmallow M's.

The kids LOVED this game. The teacher hides the mouse under a house (you can use any two rhyming things - duck/truck, flea/tree, slug/mug, etc.). Then a child chooses a color and all chant & clap the rhythm: "Little Mouse, Little Mouse, are you in the (color) house?" The teacher checks: yes? no? Go on until the mouse is found.

St. Martin de Porres

2011-11-01T12:17:00.001-06:00

St. Martin de Porres is such a great reminder that one cannot talk about the reality of diversity enough. He is half Spanish and half black from a Panamanian free slave. As a mulatto, he was extremely poor, yet grew to have such a generous heart for people and animals alike, that he is the patron of social justice.

Here we made a poster with people of all colors and ages. We even added a few animals...

Winter house 1

2011-10-31T10:17:00.002-06:00

Winter cottage

2011-10-31T10:17:00.001-06:00

Saint party

2011-10-30T13:56:00.001-06:00

All saint party

2011-10-30T13:54:00.001-06:00

2011-10-26T20:49:00.001-06:00

Saint lineup

2011-10-26T20:47:00.001-06:00

Saint spoons

2011-10-26T20:46:00.001-06:00

2011-10-24T15:16:00.003-06:00

All Saints Links:

Cottage Blessings Spoon Craft

Catholic Icing Boys, Girls, Other

EHow

Catholic Cuisine (Nov 2010 Recipes and Ideas)

Paper Dali

Very fun! We are working on our St. Teresa of Avila Costume.

Recipe

2011-10-24T14:56:00.003-06:00

This is a recipe for:

Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake

adapted from Sarah Kramer's book La Dolce Vegan (I obviously un-Vegan-ed it)

Topping:

1/2 c brown sugar (could use less)

2 T soft butter

1 t cinnamon

3/4 c finely chopped walnuts (Pampered Chef chopper does great)

Cake:

3/4 c plain or honey yogurt

1/3 c oil

1/2 c milk

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)

1/2 c sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 chopped apple (opt)

1/2 c raisins (opt)

350 degrees 9x9 greased dish

Mix topping ingredients in small bowl and set aside.

Mix wet ingredients in large bowl, add dry ingredients. Mix until incorporated.

Add apples and/or raisins.

Pour into baking dish, sprinkle with topping.

Bake 35-40 minutes. Yumm.

St. Teresa of Avila Book

2011-10-24T11:18:00.006-06:00

Since St. Teresa of Avila's feast day (Oct 15)- and Ren spying a picture of her. There has been a lot of "Teresa from Avila" talk at our house. Really, I didn't know much about her so stayed up late(r) to read up. Then we made our book.

Slightly related - I get a Saint a Day on my phone from Catholic.org. Each day I say "and the saint of the day is...." Ren gets excited about it and it comes with a picture. I have learned a lot, too.l

I wrote the words from a few notes I took. We cut out "nun" shapes and faces to go in them. As well as a dress for the young Teresa and clothes for Rodrigo. Honestly, we made up the artwork as we went along.

One of the pages: I drew some and she drew some. She did the larger lettering on the cover.

Finished!

Art Co-op: Mosaics

2011-10-20T10:29:00.008-06:00

The Art Co-op Class today was about Mosaics and Greco-Roman Art. This is particularly cool because I have been reading about mandalas and rose windows. I didn't know we would be working with round mosaics, so I was excited. Ren really liked the beans and still takes it down to "show" her brother. He just eats the beans...

Working an floor tiles with salt dough and multi-colored beans/peas.

1 c salt

4 c flour

1+ c water

bake at 325 for 1 hr

Swankes create!

Show off a bean.

N is for Nun

2011-10-19T12:22:00.004-06:00

This is linked earlier. The template is from Catholic Icing. This is St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese, the Little Flower.

(brother in the excersaucer makes it possible)

Approaching the Altar

2011-10-18T19:59:00.002-06:00

Playdough morning

2011-10-18T10:35:00.001-06:00

Mosaic

2011-10-15T10:20:00.001-06:00

Checking out the mosaics at Dawson Taylor's coffeehouse in downtown Boise. We were getting local meat at the Capitol City Market. I love the buzz of the coffee and the market.

The next art co-op is about mosaics. Cool research, huh!

Reading

2011-10-14T23:15:00.003-06:00

We have been reading chapter books outloud. This usually happens around bed and naptime, but a rainy day can lead to a lot of nursing and snuggling and reading. A friend turned us on to Hilda Van Stockum. She is originally from Holland, but lived in Ireland for a large portion of her life. The stories are of the O'Sullivan family and their tales. There are four exciting children: Michael, Brigid and twins: Francie & Liam. It is set in the early 1930s.

After reading so much with an Irish accent, I find myself wanting to say things like, "Faith, m'darling, I think yer right" or "I just need a wee bit."

Loving these books! There is one more in the series. We'll see if Van Stockum can hold out.

Readiness class at GCPL

2011-10-13T13:09:00.003-06:00

Our awesome Garden City Public Library has a kindergarten readiness class twice a week. We go once and learn all kinds of fun stuff. There are only a handful of kids - what a great ratio! Mom gets a little break in the library and brother crawls around checking out the reachable books. Hooray for Miss Kate!

Today they are using felt pieces to retell 5 Little Ducks and Baby Beluga. We have a felt board and felt...so let the creativity flow!

Thursday school

2011-10-13T10:34:00.004-06:00

The theme was Catch and was based on the gospel story of Jesus sending Peter and Andrew back out to the lake to catch fish. Of course, they'd been out all night and were tired. (I can empathize.) But they did it anyway. Their nets were overflowing!! Jesus commanded them to follow him and they did.

The kids are "fishing" for the letters in their names by using poles made of sticks that have magnets on the end. The fish have paperclips so the magnets attach. Don't be fooled, this was EC's idea. All great ideas come from someone else.

These were the blankets and pillows that were the boat and nets.

Practicing catching. EC can sure multitask. I want to be her when I grow up!

The letter C is tricky for early writers. We used Handwriting Without Tears' Magic C song and wrote it in the sky, then on a wipeboard, and, finally, in salt. Then they created all kinds of wonderful things and places in the salt. No, I don't keep it afterward. I figure it cleans my drain.

Peter's "Boat"

2011-10-12T09:31:00.002-06:00

Looks like Peter is overboard. Roll playing the story.

Disciples

2011-10-10T11:04:00.003-06:00

We read about Jesus calling the 12 Disciples in the gospels. Then we worked on "D" for disciple and talked about how Jesus called them not to catch fish but to be "fishers of men." Slightly confusing verbage for the kiddo, but we talked about sharing Jesus in the hearts of others - that is how we cast our line.

Thanks to Lacy at Catholic Icing for sharing this great craft! Click on Catholic Icing in the favorites for more of her great stuff.

12 Disciples plus Jesus. Ren continued to great the women who followed Jesus. It was not complete without girls!! (Ok, there were 12 at one point...only 11 made the picture. Used Matthias instead of Judas -- maybe this was in between)

After that we did Matman and a couple alphabet connect the dot pages (thanks Grandma C).

Thursday School - St. Francis of Assisi

2011-10-06T14:26:00.008-06:00

Front row at Catchat!

2011-10-05T18:41:00.002-06:00

www.catchat.ca

It is difficult to see, but Ren is front row by the cone. They slowly edged up until they were almost on top of the stage. Very fun and great energy. J-E-S-U-S!

2011-10-04T10:33:00.002-06:00

Thanks to EC for lending the patterns for the math shapes. Vrooom!

Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi

2011-10-04T09:41:00.007-06:00

Breaking down the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi. Praise you Lord for: Brother Sun, Sister Moon and Stars, etc. Then we picked one image to make into a light catcher for the window.

We used contact paper and ripped up tissue (some in fun colors and patterns). We stuck the tissue on the contact paper and layered another piece of contact paper on the top.

Then we cut out a cloud shape. Finally, she wrote, with much coaching, "PRAISE" and I wrote "you Lord for Sister Cloud."

MHS Ag Expo

2011-10-03T12:34:00.007-06:00

This is the Meridian High School Agriculture Expo. It is a GREAT day to learn waaaay too much about Idaho Agriculture. The FFA students were great! I had many "green" questions, but didn't get a chance to ask...like: Is the phosphate mined in a sustainable way? Are there emission standards on tractors? What is the nutritional difference between commercially grown and organically grown crops? Does Monsanto own everyone?

Nonetheless, it was a captivating and informative day for the homeschool kids!

Learning about Idaho products:

Making tracks and being mindful of Idaho's wild places and residents:

Admiring the cows:

We heard a lot about "the bird with crazy hair."

The crew and the tractor!

We learned that pig bones are made into cosmetics. I felt good about not wearing make up.

Preschoolers started to fade, so we took a break.

St. Terese Feast Day

2011-10-01T09:16:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to link to this fun "Make a Nun" craft from Catholic Icing.

We read a children's book about her. But according to Catholic Child's website, it isn't available anymore. The doll is

St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, pray for us.

Playgroup at Holy Apostles

2011-09-30T10:32:00.002-06:00

With my parents visiting this week, attempting "schools" was pretty much a bust. We did look for some letter A's at the Warhawk Museum, but found that they seemed more obvious on the chocolate bars at the Boise Co-op. This is the little man exploring the decorative pumpkins in the courtyard at Holy Apostles during playgroup. Playgroup is catechesis focused on the very young. It is a fun program that happens two Fridays per month. Meets in room 103. Come in the back door.

Glovebox - Air Warhawk Museum in Nampa

2011-09-27T11:54:00.002-06:00

Simulating the astronauts trying to do finemotor activities with the big gloves. No small task! The Warhawk Air Museum is in Nampa and is a great treasure. The bummer is that there are few things that excite younger kids. This is the only activity that kids can get into -- but I think it was meant for adults.

By contrast, a museum that my parents volunteer at in the home town called WAAAM, has a great children's area.

Evidently this submarine was made of propane tanks.

Teaching

2011-09-23T08:36:00.002-06:00

At ILLA (Idaho Lifelong Learning Association) Conference in Twin Falls. I taught a yoga class there. It was at the College of Southern Idaho campus - gorgeous day to be stretching outside.

Squares, Rectangles & Tower of Babel

2011-09-20T08:48:00.001-06:00

Liturgical Colors...and shapes.

2011-09-19T11:01:00.005-06:00

We went to the craft store and and found solid color dishtowels - now banners - to mark the liturgical seasons. Amazingly, there were options of blue-purple for Advent and red-purple for Lent. The other bonus was that they were on clearance!

We have a book called Jesus Speaks to me about the Mass from Word Among Us that has a picture of several priests in different colored vestments. Since dressing dollies and playing dress up is a big thing these days, having different outfits for the priest was of great curiousity. This prompted the question: "What color is Fr. wearing? Why that color?"

The banner hangs proudly by the calendar (thanks CW!) and I will try not to use it to clean up spills.

Next we made the Liturgical Season Wheel that is on Lacy's website Catholic Icing. (See link to your right). This is her picture since I forgot to take one:

My circle was smaller, so I couldn't get the inner hole done that has the name of the season. I just wrote it on the colored section. It will work for us. My daughter keeps asking about her birthday, so I was mentioning that we have Advent, then Christmas, then some family birthdays, then Lent, then Easter and THEN it is her birthday... She obviously just had one. Her response: "Mommy, is it Easter yet?" The wheel will be helpful in all kinds of ways!

This prompted some discussion about circles. Mat Man has a circle! We drew Mat Man this time. She claims this drawing is of her baby brother. You can see her little hand going "ta-da!"

There is a slight resemblance...

Caveman art

2011-09-15T10:35:00.004-06:00

Angelique is offering an art co-op this year. Today was the first one. A story was read about cave drawings found in France during WWII. Then, we crumpled and recrumpled a paperbag until it was soft. Then they used natural materials - ash, beets with juice, blueberries with juice, lard, and twigs to make images on the bags. Great project!

Making the art base - ashes, lard, juice

"painting" on the faux-leather

finished!

Where we found crosses...

2011-09-14T21:13:00.001-06:00

C is for Cross, Crucifix, Car, Flying Pig

2011-09-13T09:15:00.003-06:00

Having fun with the letter C. About a year ago, I had the foresite (Spirit induced, I am sure) to cut letters and pictures out of some old magazines that were lying around. I saved these in envelopes (not by letter but by "letters" and "pictures"). Today we hunted and sorted for the letter C and for things that started with C. I laughed at the very random things that I cut out - a flying pig, coffee maker, three kids sitting on a front step looking gloomy, corn. This was fun.

After the C hunt and find we built a cross out of big Legos. Using Lacy's corpus template (See the Catholic Icing link to the right), she colored the corpus and we taped it to the cross. Little brother really, really, really loved the legos and made things a little distracting. Oh well.

Holy Cross

2011-09-12T10:29:00.005-06:00

In looking at the possibilities for this week. I chose to run with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - primarily the cross part. Our letter focus is C and H, though H is already easy for my kiddo. C is another story.

First we read about the Crucifixion of Jesus on the cross and what the cross was about. It lead to an interesting discussion. The children's bible we use talked about how Jesus could have come down off the cross, but love kept him there. That is a heavy concept, so we talked about it for a bit.

Then, we listened to the HWT "Magic C" song and played with Mat Man. We also glued cotton balls onto large cardstock C. The cotton was a hit and we played games with cotton balls and such.We even morphed Mat Man into Cotton Man which was great fun to keep away from her crawling brother. Sorry the pic is a little blurry (and I don't know why it is so huge...)

All great days (and new letters, I have decided) end with shaving cream. Funny, Ren likes to play with it, but doesn't really want to touch it. She informed me that she needed "tools" and came back with spoons and other kitchen utensils for working with the shaving cream (and the cottonballs in the shaving cream.) At least the table gets clean.

Public art: Just a taste of what is on Idaho between 8th & 9th

2011-09-09T17:52:00.005-06:00

Lewis & Clark with Twisted Hair. (If you visit the governor's office in the Capitol, you can get a complimentary book for kids about Idaho history and an explanation of this statue and who Twisted Hair was is in there. Just stop in and ask. If you are lucky, you can sit in the gov's chair and admire the history tea set.)

In the parking garage!

Mosaic in the parking garage

Ren evidently didn't want to smile with the art.

Another in the garage.

The City of Boise's Art Dept has an Alphabet book that is all local public art. There is TONS of it in this area - not just downtown, but in parks all over the city. There is a walking tour map for downtown that can be scaled down for kids. What is great is that it is all art they can touch! Wonderful!

Ready for the party

2011-09-09T15:00:00.006-06:00

Celebrating the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Happy Birthday Mama Mary!

The room is ready with blue decor and letter tracing with paint.

Flowers for Mary.

All celebrations have WINE...I mean, cake!

Welcome Back

2011-09-08T22:36:00.002-06:00

According to the lock, it has been over a year since I visited this place called A Dose of Hope. Well, I am back again. This time I plan to use this to express what we are doing with homeschool and activities and church stuff. It should be fun. Today is the Feast of the Nativity of Mary and as soon as I get smart enough to download pics from the new camera, I will offer photos of the Birthday Party we had for Mary this year.

We started by using Tomie dePaola's book Mary and focused on the first story about Mary's parents and her miraculous birth. The story comes from tradition and is beautiful. It finishes with Mary's presentation at the temple.

Craft! We made toilet paper tube characters of the story and retold it (and retold it and embellished and wandered into other topics - namely princesses or mommies). Focusing on the letter M, we worked with Handwriting Without Tears (HWT). The next day we made party banners and hung streamers. We made an interesting peanut butter and chocolate swirl cake with frosting and sprinkles.

On the day, we went to mass. Afterward, we threaded one decade of a rosary and use the dePaola book to pray one decade. We ate cake and picked a bouquet of flowers from the yard for Mary. We took cake to Daddy at work. It was a splendid day.

Outside of that, we are reading Trumpet of the Swan by EB White on recommendation of LP. Ren (age 4) is liking this very much even with the eloquent and lengthy speeches given by the father swan. I don't remember reading this. We are going to focus on church topics and classic children's literature for school. Will let you know if that changes.

Duck

2010-05-01T22:42:00.002-06:00

Yes, the "quack quack" kind. Kevin noticed a fuzzy duckling cruising across our patio this afternoon. This is a dangerous thing - we have have a strange abundance of neighborhood cats and this little dude didn't stand a chance. Of course, we were heading out the door. K caught it and we put it with a couple of worms in our emptied recycle bin. I listed it for free on craigslist because I didn't really want to own and raise a duck.

The strangest thing is: how did it get here? We live a couple hundred yards from a pond, but it is way too far for a duckling to wander. And it would have gone by the neighbors with the cat fetishes. We called friends with 4-H connections and eventually met this great family that had a pond and kids and wonderful excitement for a duckling. God gathers people together in such funny ways!

Ren was sad to see the duckling go, but we are relieved to not have to buy duck chow. Have a happy life Duck!

Happy Easter! Get in the Garden

2010-04-08T13:54:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to share a great companion planting source: http://www.companionplanting.net/ListofCompanionPlants.html

Enjoy!

Oh - and to my brother Neil, who is a BIG (enormous, grandious, gigantic, very, very sizable) fan of Duke U and their basketball team...Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dirt on dirt - Tues, Mar 23

2010-03-23T21:19:00.002-06:00

This morning I gave a presentation on garden spirituality, quick raised beds, soils and new veggies. That is a lot in one hour (well maybe any hour and change.) It went great! Excellent day.

Prayer - Mon, Mar 22

2010-03-23T21:18:00.001-06:00

My daughter is 2.5 years old and can say the Hail Mary, most of the Our Father, and the Glory Be...along with the traditional grace. That is awesome!

Coffee Jitters - Sun, Mar 21

2010-03-22T09:18:00.002-06:00

I gave up coffee shops for Lent. Not coffee, just the shops and the silly money that gets dumped into them. This has been a good financial move. So, on Sunday, the family goes out to breakfast and I have some "real" coffee. I've been drinking tea for breakfast and decaf at other times (plus water - lots of it). So here I mix 2/3 decaf and 1/3 caf and it still gives me the jitters. What was I doing to my system before?? Crazy. My body doesn't like that jittery feeling and I think we'll go heavier on the decaf. mmm

Grass Be Gone - Sat, Mar 20

2010-03-22T09:15:00.003-06:00

We took the plunge. We made the commitment. We yanked out 2/3 of the grass in our front yard. Grass be gone! Let there be water-free yard joy! Ok, there is still some grass in the front, but not enough to move a bunch of sprinklers for. We rented a sod cutter and figured out how to use it (all fingers still in tact - amazing), then rolled it and hawked it on Craig's List. As we were cutting, there was a lot more than we imagined, so offering it for free really worked for us - hooray! Next is the mulch. What I learned: cutting and rolling sod is hard work! giving it away was brilliant!

Madness - Tue, Mar 16 - Fri, Mar 19

2010-03-22T09:13:00.001-06:00

I am just writing off the whole week. From the many friends I spoke to, this week was nutty busy. I had the opportunity to sub for SL Prenatal Yoga and taught eight extra classes - plus our usual activities and swapping child care for child care. So, I learned that I don't want this schedule on a regular basis by any means! Yikes.

I love it when a plan comes together - Sun, Mar 14

2010-03-20T13:11:00.002-06:00

I sing in a band at church and the members are SO great. When we are all in the grove, there is great glory to God to be hand. Amen!

Preparing for Madness - Sat, Mar 13

2010-03-20T13:09:00.000-06:00

This coming week is going to be very, very busy. I sub for SL and will teach 8 extra yoga classes. Mostly in the evening, but two during the day. There is a lot of people tetris happening since K is working long hours on a PITA drill project. Sigh.

Passion - Fri, Mar 12

2010-03-20T13:08:00.001-06:00

At playgroup today we learned a version of the Hail Mary in song that the pilgrims sang. Ask Angelique to teach it to you.

AlphaPancake - Thur, Mar 11

2010-03-12T07:22:00.004-07:00

Ren and I have learned that it is fun to make letters in the pan using pancake batter. One more letter lesson you can eat!

Fuzz Buzz - Wed, Mar 10

2010-03-12T07:22:00.002-07:00

The most delicious, fresh from the hive honey can be found at Edwards Greenhouse. It is called Fuzz Buzz and is Boise local. Hmm

Y Stress - Tues, Mar 9

2010-03-09T13:15:00.002-07:00

So, we are still trying the Childwatch at the Y. On Monday, I went in and stayed with Ren for a half hour then we went swimming. Today, even though she was upset, I left to simply go to the bathroom. The Childwatch bathrooms there are, conveniently, child height and some work for an adult to squat without major exposure. She cried until I came back and was looking sad out the window. Ah, it just broke my heart so I started to cry and then we left. At this point, I am not sure how to proceed. Just baby steps, no rush, and no need to push if it won't work. There are many workout avenues. Admittedly, the room is a little bare and it was hard for me to get excited about the activity level she would have. The good news is that there is a 2 hr max, so no parent can really "dump" there kiddo. The staff tried to reassure me and I was just a mess. Geez.

So, one idea is to bring a friend with her so there is at least one familiar face for play. Maybe we'll try that. Again, I really don't have the stress energy to spend on this and will happily try other avenues if this doesn't work.

Red - Mon, Mar 8

2010-03-09T13:05:00.002-07:00

I found a new favorite book. Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors. Has been such a delight for Ren and I. The author is Joyce Sidman and is amazingly illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. The story, told in poetic stanzas, focuses on colors and what the colors are or are doing in the season for example:

Spring - "Green floats through rain-dark trees,...In spring, even the rain tastes green."

Summer - "Yellow melts everything it touches...smells like butter tastes like salt."

Fall - "Fall smells purple. Purple: the small of all things mixed together."

Winter - "In the winter woods, gray and brown hold hands. Gray and brown sway shyly, the only beauties left."

The verses just roll out of your mouth and the tongue is so happy to be artfully playing with these words. It is not a color book or a season book, but a poetry book with the color and season theme. The art is so intricate. The jacket states "The illustrations are mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustrations. The words for the seasons show up repeated in print in the background. There is a main character that is triangular and has a dog named Pup. The costume of this character changes to match or accent the seasons, but is outlandish and colorful. Funniest of all is that commonly inserted is a crown on the character or on extras in the pictures.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2009

ISBN: 978-0-547-01494-4

Bricks - Sun, Mar 7

2010-03-09T13:03:00.001-07:00

My awesome hubby has been very motivated to put brick around the garden arbor and it looks so great! It needs some more, but he has some great vision of adding height to the area around it so it is nook-ish. I am very excited!

North End Garden Center - Sat, Mar 6

2010-03-06T19:42:00.002-07:00

One of our favorite weekend wanderings is heading to nurseries and exploring the multitude of plants and flowers. A new one that had its grand opening today is the North End Organic Nursery. This is a welcome site because it is in a garden center building that has been abandoned for a long time. We perused the fruit trees and tried to envision how cool they would look in our front yard since we are going to KILL the grass.

Sprouting - Fri, Mar 5

2010-03-06T19:41:00.002-07:00

We purchased a grow light system to sprout seeds early. We can't help it...we will force spring! We have basil and a couple tomatoes that are sprouting inside and spinach, kohlrabi, and kale sprouting outside under the floating row cover. Excellent!

Garden Arbor - Thur, Mar 4

2010-03-06T19:38:00.002-07:00

I am very excited about a garden arbor we found on craig's list. What really amazes me is that the woman selling it was "down-sizing." By the size of her house, I couldn't imagine going any bigger! I wondered about the life perspective of wealthy people hawking their stuff. We had been in that neighborhood before buying a shop vac. I admit, that we are in a "give away" community in which we donate stuff we don't use or need to each other and then to charity. True, we have sold a thing or to on craig's list and been happy with the transaction, but how much stuff under $100 is worth the PITA to sell it. Hmmm

Bam! Robots - Wed, Mar 3

2010-03-06T19:35:00.003-07:00

Today we went to Toddler Wednesday at the Boise Art Museum or BAM. We had a great time in the robot exhibit (yes, at the art museum -- see photos of your favorite Transformers) then crafted robots in the art classroom in the back. Additionally, there is a kids play and learn area that is so interesting. Kids can make mandalas on computers, use a color wheel, play with colorful puzzles and draw on a giant chalk board. Extremely fun. Ren showed off her "robot" aka abstract toddler art, to everyone we saw!