From Pooh to Planets

This lamp used to be in my daughter's room but it has been replaced by a more grown up sort of lighting. I was going to donate this one but I just couldn't bring myself to part with it. It was my baby's lamp!!!

Then I found a brand new, still-in-the-package lampshade at the thrift store for dirt cheap. That gave me the inspiration I needed to change this from Pooh. Here are the details on the base before the make-over...

A little sanding, a coat of spray primer, a little spray paint and Shah-zam! Here's what it looks like now...

Poor Pooh, he's all gone!

My son loves the moon and we have glow in the dark stars all over his ceiling. The colors in his room are blue and green, so this fits perfectly in his room. He loves it. I'm considering putting glow-in-the-dark paint on top of the images on the shade. Hmmm, can't decide.

Confessions of a Garbage Picker

So, I must confess. I'm a garbage picker. I don't do it often.

Honest, I don't.

But sometimes I see something and I think, "Surely they are not throwing that away?!?!?" Then, I have to stop. I have to rescue the discarded treasure from the landfill.

This happened recently. One problem... It was one of my neighbors. I saw an easel propped up against their garbage can. Normally, if one is picking through someone else's garbage, you can hop in your car and drive away and remain anonymous. When it's a neighbor, it's not so easy. Until now, I have resisted garbage picking in my own neighbor hood. I don't want to be the neighborhood garbage picker. But this easel was screaming my name. I saw it out my front window and resisted at first. But I kept peaking out to see if it was still there. I waited until most of the neighbors had gone to work and then I ran out there and snuck it home. It was covered in paint and pretty grimy but hey, it's mine now. A little elbow grease and a hose later and I am so happy that I rescued this easel. Could you resist? Take a look at it...

It has a dry erase side and a chalk side with a clip at the top for holding paper.

It has removable trays with compartments that hold all the art supplies in place.

The only thing that is missing is the brace on one side. I'm going to see if I can get a replacement for it online but the one remaining brace holds it just fine...

The beauty of it is that it folds up easily for quick storage. Both sides can be raised or lowered to adjust the height for shorter or taller children. The other great thing about it is that it's lightweight and I can move it outside with ease for a quick wash down with the hose without ruining it.

The kids love it. They were my helpers bringing it home. At first my daughter was shocked by how messy it was. Then, after we got it cleaned up, she couldn't believe that someone would throw it out. I thought my hubby would wonder why we needed it since we do already have an easel in our home. His response was perfect, though. He said, "You could use this one downstairs while you're homeschooling the kids." Love that man.

One last thing, the trays were filled with old art supplies - mainly wet chalk - that needed to be thrown away. But to my surprise, there were some profession paint brushes in there. They took a lot more elbow grease to salvage but I got them clean and they're for me. Yippee! And it was all for FREE! I'm glad I learned to overcome my fear of the neighbors thinking I'm a crazy garbage picker!

Guitar Party

I just realized that it's already July and I never posted about the June boy's birthday party. Oops!

On his actual birthday, we did a few of his favorite things. We took a nature walk - his choice of activity and it was a gorgeous day.

We let him pick dinner - "pizza wit' meat".

During his nap, his big sister helped me make cookies for him. It was her choice. She knows how much he loves cookies! The frosting and sprinkles were her idea and a nice touch.

Then, we gave him his present. He loves his big sister's guitar but it's pink and oh-so-hard to share. So, he got his own guitar and he LOVES it.

For the guitar loving little boy, we had a guitar themed birthday party a few days later for family and friends.

We used an old burned out guitar with missing electrics for a Pin the Pick on the Guitar Game. I just covered the burned parts on the body with scrapbooking paper and made a matching blindfold by covering cardboard with the same paper and attaching elastic to it.

(In case you're wondering, I don't have any idea why the guitar was burned in the first place. It was given to my husband by a co-worker who was throwing it out. He has high hopes of rebuilding it someday.)

Then, we used a piece of left over wood to make a beanbag toss. We just traced one of our guitars on the wood, cut it out with a scroll saw and then spray painted it. We used a rubber band to attach it to a guitar stand and it worked nicely.

The beanbags were made with leftover material from the quilt the boy received for his birthday last year from his grandma. I filled them with rice instead of beans because it's what we had on hand.

Next, we had Bozo buckets - guitar style. I used the cardboard box that his birthday gift came in. I traced his guitar and colored it in with crayons. I hot glued star jello molds along the guitar and put sticker numbers into the center. Instead of tossing a ball, the kids tossed guitar picks into the stars.

Our craft was to decorate a guitar. I cut out the shapes from poster board and the kids got to decorate them with an assortment of buttons, sequins, feathers, etc.

The party was complete with a cupcake guitar. It's not exactly as I had envisioned it. I had a really hard time with the frosting for the strings but the boy loved that it was a guitar and that's all that mattered.

Instead of treat bags, each of the guests went home with a guitar shirt made with freezer paper stencils.

It was a fun week of birthday celebrations!

Kids' Art Silhouetted for Daddy's Day

Recently, I had the kids paint their silhouettes for their Daddy. I got the idea from this blog. I didn't follow those directions exactly. Instead of tracing the silhouette onto the contact paper before cutting, I just placed the silhouette photo over the contact paper and cut through both pages. It worked fine. I used the contact paper that I had on-hand which was not specifically removable, but I didn't have any trouble peeling it off. I used water color paints on drawing paper. I am so pleased with how they turned out.

Here's my daughter...

And, my son...

I love how they look hanging together on the wall...

Last year, I gave my husband silhouettes of the kids. I think this may be becoming an annual tradition!

Therapy through drawing

The end of last week brought about some pretty heavy thunderstorms. The tornato sirens started going off and we headed to our crawl space to wait out the storm. The power went off and we had dinner by candlelight/flashlight. There was no tornato but it did rain buckets!!! We personally know five families who were/are bailing out their flooded basements.

All of this really bothered my 4 year old. She was very concerned about the thunder and lightening. She was worried about what would happen to her playroom if we flooded. She was very worried about our friends who live in the area where a possible tornato was spotted. For several nights, we slept cuddled together. She asked tons of questions and really had a difficult time dealing with her fear.
One morning, after the storms, I came into her room and found her quietly lying on the floor, drawing on her Aquadoodle.

She drew our home, a firetruck, our neighbors home, and in the middle she drew a tornado touching our house.

At the top, she drew the thunder and lightening.

She finished it off by drawing her and her little brother being led out of the house by the firefighter.

This was such an eye-opener for me. She loves to draw. I never thought of using her drawing to help her work through her feelings. I know that therapist often use drawing to help children but I never thought of using it with my own children. The drawing became a springboard for her to really discuss her fears with us. I know that we will be encouraging her to use her drawing to express her emotions again.

They've Flown the Coop

Remember the nest and eggs that we've been watching? Well, they hatched!

We have had so much fun observing, journaling, and reading about Robins!

The babies could be best observed through the space between the floorboards of our deck. The above picture was a common sight at our house. My bird-loving girl sure did enjoy our visitors. Whenever she would peek down on them, they would do this...

They seemed to think that she was their Momma and were looking for food from her. She LOVED this and did indeed want to feed them. But, look Momma, they want me to feed them! (No, I didn't let her.) She learned that if she found a place a safe distance away from the nest to observe, she could watch them get fed by both of their parents. Did you know both Robin parents return to the nest to feed the babies?!?!? We did not know this but we actually were able to observed both parents at the nest at the same time. That was cool.

Well, as you can see in the pictures, there were three baby Robins. Now, however, there are none. The babies have left the nest. While my little ones are sad that their feathered friends are gone, it sure was an exciting adventure. And, in a unique blessing of well-timed nature, on the day that the birds left the nest, a caterpillar that we had collected from our backyard made a chrysalis in the jar that we were observing it in. One nature observation ending and another one just beginning!

We learned so much about Robins. Here is a link to a great site with tons of information on the American Robin. Enjoy!

2 Years Ago...

I love you through and through!

Little Red Wagon

I've had this little wagon for a long time. Long before children. In fact, long before I was even married. I held onto it hoping that one day I would have a little girl who would pull her little dollies along in it. Guess what? I got the little girl and (suprise!) she's never really used it much. She wanted to be pulled in it. (and found it's too small.) She used it as a stepping stool. (and it rolled out from underneath her.) The only times she has put dolls in it was at my suggestion. Frankly, she just doesn't have much interest in playing with dolls. She'd prefer art supplies and a blank canvas over a doll any day.

So, now I've got a little boy and guess what? He uses it all the time. He loves this little red wagon. On a daily basis, he can be seen hauling his latest treasures around the house in it. So what if it's not filled with dolls. It's filled with Lego's and dumpees. (That's construction trucks for those who don't speak almost-2-year-old-eese.)

I snapped this picture this evening as I was heading to bed and it just made me smile to see the remnants of his play setting there so peacefully. It was a precious reminder of the lesson that I continually need to learn... to allow my children the freedom to express themselves without letting my preconceived ideas get in the way of their natural creativity.

Our Springtime Visitor

There has been a lot of activity under our deck recently. We've seen a Robin flying in and out making numerous trips a day with a variety of natural items clutched in her beak. My daughter has been fascinated by this and has eagerly anticipated the baby birds that will be born here.

Her nest is in the perfect spot for a curious 4-year-old to observe. It is several feet away from our outdoor toy box that we use daily this time of year. Yet, this mama bird was wise enough to put the nest just beyond the reach of those curious hands.

Several times a day, we sneak over (not too close, of course) and check on her and listen for the sounds of the babies chirping. I couldn't ask for a better observation and prediction activity for my bird-lovin' little girl!

Inspired by Art: Van Gogh

I just have to share my favorite homeschool activity that we have done so far. This was such a great activity and my 4 year old LOVED it! I am so happy with how it went... we are definately going to continue this activity with other artists.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine (who is a homeschooling mama) called me from an estate sale. There was a set of 16 Time-Life Library of Arts artist books. She knew I would be interested. The price was $40. That's $2.50 a book. Not a bad price but not a steal either (in my opinion). Another problem - I only had a $20 bill and a few singles on me. We were in the car and the sale was in the direction we were headed. My hubby and I had a few minutes to discuss whether or not it was worth the investment. We hemmed and hawed and finally he suggested seeing if they would take $20 for the set. One problem - I hate to dicker. No sooner had I let those words out of my mouth and the phone rang again. Same friend is on the other end and she says, "Because it's raining, they want to shut the sale down. They'll take $20 for the set." I said, "SOLD!" We drove there immedietly and picked up our set of books! I love it when a friend does the shopping AND the dickering for me!!!

For our first lesson using the books, we studied Vincent Van Gogh. She loved looking at the pictures of him when he was a boy and then again as a man. The picture below is of Van Gogh when he was a year older than I. When I told her that, she said, "He looks much older than you! he looks like a grandpa!"

She loved hearing about what his interests were and discussing with me how she was like Van Gogh and how she was different.

Here are a few of the similarities and differences that she noted:

Same:

• Blue eyes
• Liked collecting beetles
• Liked looking for bird's nests
• Was good at inventing games
• Loved to read
• Loved to paint
• Had a flower garden

Different:

• Boy
• Red hair
• Freckles
• Had younger brothers and sisters
• Painted naked people (this she found very funny)

Finally, we took one of his paintings that already hung on the wall of her playroom and we looked at all the details in it. The piece is called Field With Cypresses - Champ Aux Cypres. We hypothesized why type of medium she thought he might have used. Her responses were much like this, "I don't think he used markers because the colors aren't bright enough." Without much prodding, she came to the conclusion that he used paints. We looked for the brush strokes throughout the painting and guessed at how he might have created the different parts of the piece. Then she collected what she would need to reproduce a similar painting and set to work to create her own Field of Cypresses. She diligently worked on this until she had her completed work. The pink and purple flowers: She said that a yellow field just isn't as pretty! I love that she was willing to make the picture her own by adding those colorful flowers.

This was such a great activity for my little artist. We will definately be doing more activities like this!

Children's Book Week

This week is Children's Book Week. I thought it would be a good time to post a link that I found a while back...

100 Books Every Child Should Hear Before Starting School.

I found the list really interesting. There are a lot of really great titles on the list. My favorite from the list is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Both of my children have LOVED this story. We read it over and over and over again! There are many others that I haven't read and I look forward to reading real soon! This list is coming with me on our next trip to the library. With one of my kiddos starting Kindergarten this year, this is a perfect list for our summer reading.

Rice Fun

We're waiting for the weather to cooperate so that the kids can consistently play in their new sand and water table. Until then, I was inspired to try an idea I've wanted to try for a long time. I dyed rice!

I followed this recipe . It was super easy and it turned out great.

I spread out a sheet on the kitchen floor, put the rice in a container, and let the kids at it. I gave them mini shovels and plastic Easter eggs to use for scooping, pouring and making music shakers.

I think they could play in this stuff for hours!!! They played with it very well together. They scooped and poured together without fighting. They loved the feel of it running through their fingers. If fact, I love this sensation too. It's a great sensory activity.

I'm definitely going to need a bigger container. I've got 25 pound of rice just waiting to be played in!!! Next fall, the sand and water table is going to emptied of sand and brought inside to our playroom. This is going to be part of our winter sensory play.

I just had to share this last picture. Being that it's rice, it just had to be tasted. Thankfully, it's all edible! I don't think he'll be trying that again anytime soon!!!