Olympic Ring Art

It is amazing how much fun some toilet paper tubes and paint can be!!!

As the craziness of convention time comes to a close, I find myself refreshed and itching to just BE with my kids. Funny how a weekend away from the kids, getting inspired to teach, train and raise these kids makes us antsy to get back to them.

My workshops went well and I had the opportunity to meet some of YOU lovely readers out there! That was so exciting! I never tire of hearing stories and sharing the excitement of new {homeschooling} adventures with others! Now, as we settle back into normal routine here, we find ourselves looking forward to the start of the Olympics with eager anticipation! To kick start the week, we pulled out some toilet paper rolls (with a family of 6, it wasn't hard to locate 5 empty rolls), our paints and made some Olympic signs in preparation for our 'indoor olympics' competition later this week. We haven't finalized our wishlist of events yet...  But we are confident that it is going to be awesome!

We enjoyed learning the background of the rings and then painting away! The younger boys soon delved into making abstract circle art, reminding me that I need to pull out the paints more often - especially for my little preschooler!

Have any of you discovered the beauty of Pinterest?  I LOVE it.  I'm so visual and love this visual snapshot of things I want to remember to try later!  It also is a great way to organize my many eclectic interests!  You can check out my boards here.    I've even put together a Pinterest board for the Olympics that I shared on facebook last week..  I'm debating how we want to make our own medals.  Clay or aluminum foil/wrapping paper???  hmmmm.  If you are on Pinterest, I'd love to follow you, so don't be shy about saying hello!

We've also been enjoying some Olympic reading.  Do you have any favorites?  We've especially enjoyed the beautiful picture biographies!  Here are some of our favorites:

(ETA ~ The two books about Olympians briefly address race-discrimination issues, just so you have a heads-up.)

(if you don't see our Olympics book widget, just click on over to the blog.)

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{The End}

Painting and Pinning Patriotism

With Independence Day right around the corner, the boys asked to repeat both of these activities that we did back in April when studying the American War for Independence.

We love watercoloring.  I like it because the mess is minimal and the boys like it because of the flexibility they have with varying the depth and variety of color.  As we learned about Betsy Ross, I decided that we should paint flags. 

To get our white starts we used our white colored pencil (a white crayon would also work) to draw the thirteen starts.  The boys loved painting that square blue and watching the stars magically appear!  There is something so peaceful about watercoloring.  Watercolors and our Lyra colored pencils are my two favorite art mediums!  Of course the four year old took a good deal of creative license with his flag!

I'm always looking to include fine motor skill work into our days and so we pulled out our pin-punching activity that we utilized when "Pinning Down Africa."  The boys were mesmerized with pricking holes in the star outline and then punching it out.  It kept them occupied for almost an hour while I read to them.  What better way to help them work on that correct pencil grip than with fun 'work' such as this!

What are your plans for the Fourth of July?  I think we're going to go outside (early) and read the Declaration of Independence and pretend that we were there on that momentous day.  It is supposed to rain on Wednesday which means the humidity will be up to around 45%, so the mugginess will only add to the effect.  If we close our eyes and imagine big leafy green trees everywhere I think we'll just about have it!

Of course BBQ pork, homemade coleslaw, watermelon, swimming and fireworks are on the agenda for that evening!

If You Can't Beat It, Utilize It!

It's been hot around here.  As I type this, it is 9pm and still around 108 degrees F outside...

Of course this has meant that outdoor time, aside from being in a pool, is not as compelling as it usually is.  But we've decided to make the best of it and braved the 'heat of the day' to conduct two experiments.

Experiment #1 ~ Making Block Crayons

Over the years I've seen others using bits of broken crayons and muffin molds to make new multi-colored crayons. So we decided to take our baggie of broken crayons and see how long it would take to let the heat outside melt them.  The idea of turning on my oven this time of year is just not appealing...

The boys enjoyed taking the paper off of the crayons.  I found this to be a great fine-motor activity for my preschooler!  He's quite a busy fellow and this kept him mesmerized for quite a while!  Then they had fun placing colored bits in our silicone muffin forms.

Next up, we took our molds outside and started forming hypotheses on how long they would take to melt.  I had no idea since many of the 'recipes' found online obviously utilized temperatures far warmer than ours.  Oldest guessed an hour, Second born guessed two and my crazy four year old guessed 9 hours!

The older boys were bummed that there was no clear winner.  When we thought to go back outside an hour and a half later, they were mostly melted so I called it a tie!  I can't imagine how quickly these would have melted if we had tried this in the afternoon instead of mid-morning!

Because we had some dirt cheap crayons in there, the colors weren't that great when we went to color with them, but the boys were thrilled anyways because they made them - with the sun's help!

Experiment #2 ~ Baking an Egg on the Sidewalk!

Over 30 years living here in the hot, hot desert and I've never tried this...  until now.  Every summer, you'll hear about the toddler that fell on the sidewalk and severely burning his skin.  And of course, there will be talk about it being so hot you can cook an egg on the sidewalk.

We decided to give it a try!  Again we made guesses on whether it would actually work or not and how long it would take to cook an egg on the sidewalk.  See, I even took out some cooking spray for easy clean-up afterwards.

An hour and a half in to our experiment the yolk was all bulgy, but the whites hadn't cooked at all.   I would love to be able to report further on our little experiment, but we simply don't know as a certain four year old found it and decided to kick that irresistible little golden 'ball'.  I'm skeptical on if this even works...  But I think we'll go ahead and try it again on a warmer day since it was merely 109 that day.  We'll also  shoot for the middle of the day when the sun is directly overhead.

Has anyone else tried to 'cook' foot on the sidewalk before?  I'm thinking that this will not be the end of our summer heat experiments!

As for the rest of the days, we've been focusing on swimming and water play.  My middle guy still doesn't know how to swim.  Yes, we live in Arizona, he's almost 6 and STILL doesn't know how to swim.   He had a pretty traumatic experience 2 years ago when a man he didn't know threw him into a pool at a party and has resisted learning how to swim ever since.  I'm working on trying to get him comfortable this year so that we can proceed with actually learning how to swim.  Anyone have any ideas???

What have you all been up to outside?  I'd love to hear of your adventures in being intentional to spend time outdoors WITH your children.

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Nature Painting and the Daily Outdoors, Week 3

Well, we just finished week 3 of the Daily Outdoors Challenge!  Despite our soaring summer heat, it is my goal to spend at least 30 minutes outside WITH my children, playing and exploring God's beautiful creation.  Want to join in?  Blog about your goals and weekly outdoor adventures and link up below.  If you don't blog, feel free to leave a comment sharing some of what you did this week.  It is always so encouraging and inspiring to see what other families are doing.

I am loving our special time outdoors.  It is so calming and I love how it is giving us special moments to connect as a family!

Last Friday before my sister and her kids returned to Michigan, we had a last family dinner together at my parents house.

I decided to take a normal 'indoor' activity into the beautiful outdoors.  I love our water colors because they are a less messy way to paint.  But every once in a while I am brave enough to pull out the tempera paint. 

In keeping with our nature theme, I purposely left the paintbrushes at home.

I had several children following me as I brought the supplies outside, eagerly eyeing the paint and plying me with questions. They quickly noticed the lack of paintbrushes.  I told them they would have to hunt through God's creation in the backyard to find suitable replacements to try painting with.  After watching me pluck a leaf the kids set to work collecting an assortment of fallen or plucked objects and we set to work painting.

It was a beautiful way to enjoy the beauty of those twilight hours!

So here is what we did this week:

Friday
Using nature finds as our paintbrushes - exploring texture, patterns and technique while enjoying the evening breeze!
Saturday
Cleaning up the backyard with the boys in the morning and then an outdoor wedding that evening with my husband and Greta.  Everyone should attend a wedding on the eve of their own anniversary.  It makes you cry that much more! :)
Sunday
Soaking up the warmth mid-day.  As long as I'm not running around, I actually enjoy feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin.  We took out some of our compost and worked it into the little plot that I like to call my garden.  Someday I will rid myself of my black thumb streak.  Maybe this fall will be my moment of success!  Quality dirt has been one of my problems.
Monday

How many ways can we go down a slide?  The answer may surprise you.

I joined in the fun and tried flipping myself over on the balance bar.  It has been so very long since I mimicked a gymnast.  My head was spinning and I'm thinking that I will need to reacclimate myself to that kind of motion again.  It made me feel both old and yet young at the same time...

Tuesday
As a hard-core desert folk, we left to go peach picking again and join up with others at "Homeschool Day" at a local farm.  It was 100 degrees when we left a couple of hours later- hot, tired and out of water... {note to self, bring extra water next time}  With 23 pounds of fresh peaches we have visions of peach-vanilla jam, peach fuzzies and anything else peachy floating through our minds!

Wednesday
Saltwater sandals and foot races on concrete don't exactly go together.  The boys were thrilled that it slowed me down.  Tonight we staged foot races.  It felt so good to laugh and run with my boys.  Next time I will wear my running shoes.

Thursday
Tonight, we departed with basket in hand and collected Acacia seed pods and took turns leaping over newly pruned grassy bushes.  We've talked about how the flower to fruit/seed pod process and the boys had so much fun collecting, shaking and in-general inspecting nature's latest gifts!

Next week as temperatures continue to rise, we will need to be more intentional about getting out first thing and in the evening hours.  I'm thinking of setting a routine for our outdoor time so we make sure and keep making it a priority...

My only big problem right now is bugs.  I'm getting eaten alive.  What do all of you, espcially those in more 'bug heavy regions,' do about bug bites???

The Daily Outdoor Challenge, Week 2

So, I'm back for week two of the Daily Outdoors Challenge.  As I mentioned last week, my goal is to spend a minimum of 30 minutes outdoors with my children each day exploring and enjoying God's beautiful creation.  If you want to join us, simply make a goal for spending time outdoors with your family and post/link-up or comment about your adventures!

 

We had a fabulous time and although I didn't quite make my goal last week, we had such a wonderful time outdoors together.  I'm thankful that I'm taking the time to make sure that I join them outside as well.

Spending outdoors every day might take some forethought, but it certainly doesn't have to be complicated.  While this week we had more 'destination' outdoor adventures than normal, most often it is time spent in our own yard or neighborhood. 

So here is our Daily Outdoors Diary...

Saturday

Peaches, sweet peaches. We left early Saturday morning in search of succulent peaches at the Schnepf Farm's annual Peach Festival. I hate crowds, but it was still a delightful morning wandering the peach grove in search of ripe peaches, riding some carnival rides (4 out of 5 eligible cousins rode the little roller coaster this year) and enjoying the beautiful sunshine!

I think it is so adorable that each of these biplanes are named after a farming family in our area! 

Sunday

My parents backyard is a popular gathering spot on Sundays. They have trees to climb, toads to locate, a putting green, spiral staircase to the balcony and ready access to a faucet. Climbing, golf and water - what more could little boys ask for??? Greta and I enjoyed some patio time!

Monday

I hang my head in shame as I report that aside from running from my car to an air conditioned building and back to the car again (way too many times with four children on a hot day), we did NOT find time for outdoor adventures. I spoke at a wonderful MOPS group that morning that was on a beautiful campus. We should have stuck around there for a while, enjoying the beautiful desert landscape. Next week, I'll try and think through my schedule in advance and find time to squeeze in an outdoor adventure into those occasional crazy busy days.

Tuesday

My grand plans to have a cowboy meal (beans/rice) at the park didn't quite materialize. My hubby vetoed eating a hot meal outdoors when it was 109 outside. After I stepped out of my air conditioned home to ascertain the situation, I had to agree with him.

Instead, the boys and I went to the park in our neighborhood after Greta went down for the night {6pm bedtimes come in handy}. We took paper and our rock crayons and explored textures by doing some crayon rubbings.  Initially, we chose leaves that we found, but the boys quickly started doing rubbings of all different kinds of textures they could find. 

 

Wednesday

We are just soaking up everything my sister loves about Arizona while she is visiting.  She misses the sunshine and I think we've done a pretty good job at helping her soak it up!  Today we spent the morning at our 'The Lagoon' (aka my grandfather's community pool).  Greta had her second exposure to sand and LOVED it this time.  It was fun to watch her wiggle her toes and explore the new textures and sensations!

 

Thursday

Another several delightful hours were spent exploring our zoo. I've written before about why we go to the zoo so much.  I just love how we see new things each and every time we go.  The coati's gave us quite a treat this last time as they played possum and went into all kinds of crazy positions while sunning themselves.  We also discovered that Thursdays are 'bone days' for many of the animals and happened to be back by the wolves when they were thrown a bunch of fleshy bones.  It was quite a scene to behold.

Friday

 Friday found us painting in my parents backyard!

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