Shine On My Friends!

Kendall has her best "thinking face" on

Here we are, Day 2 of our homeschool journey.  The excitement is still palpable around the house and I'm enjoying it while it's here as I know there will be days that it will be missing as the days roll on.  I know that we will find our groove and will figure out how to bust through those days.  But for today, I'm enjoying it.  Kendall and I started out the morning with some basic cooking, today we made tomatillo salsa.

We roasted all of the veggies.  Then threw it all in the blender with a little salt and some cumin.

Voila!  Who said cooking has to be complicated?

Once everyone was up and had had breakfast, gotten dressed and made beds we started our day with some gentle yoga.  Kendall lead us in a couple of sun salutations and tree pose.  She had yoga camp a week ago and was glad to share with us what she learned.

tree pose

growing branches!

namaste

Keeping with our theme of "shine and sparkle" we talked about how ancient people incorporated "sparkle" into their cave paintings and used different elements from nature to incorporate a sparkly appearance within their makeup and clothing. Today we focused on Ancient Egypt and why they created make-up, the uses of makeup, the processes of creating it and the chemistry behind it.  We learned that both men and women wore make-up on a daily basis.  We used this as a theme for our morning journaling.

We started with blank canvas panels and colors that were available and popular in Ancient Egypt; gold, green, black/slate/kohl and purple.

Kendall's tree at night

Tyler's River

Tyler's Weeping Willow

After that we moved to our paper journals to continue drawing and to incorporate some writing.

Kendall's page - the image in the center is an aerial view of a pyramid

Kendall chose to do her journaling in a separate book

Tyler decided to write another story about his character 'Robby Rabbit'

I absolutely love their creativity and how they interpret their visions onto the page.  From here we moved onto handwriting practice (print for T and cursive for K) and then spelling words.

For this weeks spelling words I am having both children use the same list.  It will not always be this way.  We've discussed the definition as well as context for these words.  They will study these through next week and have a quiz on spelling, definition and context next Friday!

Today is Friday which in our homeschooling land means PARK DAY!!  It's a wonderful opportunity to get out and see/meet other homeschoolers and to run around and enjoy the gorgeous day!

It was a beautiful day so after we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves outside we came home to finish our academics.  Grammar, math and D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) time.

teepee reading

I'm finding that it's hard for him to focus when I'm working with Kendall so he keeps noise cancelling headphones in one of his drawers.  This enables him to cut out the ambient noise and focus on his own work.  

*always with a lovey (this makes me smile no matter how old he is)

Once we finished our academics the children burst from the classroom - their brains full and brimming over but still with smiles on their faces anxious to get back to their imaginary play in fairy land!

I adore that they will sit for hours and make up stories and act them out.  They create, act, resolve conflict and come up with some of the most creative story lines I've ever heard.  

That's all for us today!  Happy Friday and Happy Labor Day weekend!  See you all next week!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

And away we go!!!

Today marks the first "official" day of our homeschool journey!  I had planned to start next Tuesday, after the Labor Day weekend but my daughter was literally begging me to "start school" so I pulled it all together to make today Day 1!!

Everyone got up at a reasonable hour, got dressed, made their beds, had breakfast and brushed their teeth in prep for our day.  Each of my older children picked out a special first day of shirt to wear for today - just as they would have if they were headed to PS.  We went outside and took pictures.  We then came in and got to work.  We took advantage of the quiet morning while the baby slept and started our day with art journaling.  Our theme this week is "Keep Calm and Sparkle On".  We discussed the origin of the original phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" as it dates back to England during WWII.

For our purposes we were inspired by these iterations:

They did journaling pages with this theme as a jumping off point.  The intent of the pages is for them to use the inspiration to write and create however they want.  These pages must involve writing and some kind of art.  How they interpret the theme is up to them.  I put out a grouping of supplies:  lots of glitter and glue, a box of assorted embellishments, a box of sparkly gem stickers, markers, and an assortment of crayons/colored pencils.  

They sat and focused on this project for 90 minutes.  It was truly beautiful to watch.  They shared ideas, shared suggestions and complimented each other on their processes.

This is my 8 year old son's page about one of his imaginary friends names Robby Rabbit.

This is my 9 year old daughter's page.  She was inspired to write this beautiful story.

We then moved onto some handwriting.  I have a fun cursive handwriting practice book for my daughter.  She learned cursive last year in third grade (and she is really good at it) so now we're just keeping her skills up.  Here is the book that she's using:

Here's a LINK to it.  (no one is paying me to share this link with you - I like the book because I like the book and I shop mainly at Barnes and Noble - which is why the link goes there.  No other reason)

My son just finished first grade last June so we're still working on neatening up his print.  We'll move onto cursive with him sometime this Winter.  For worksheets for him I have been using a website that I found (no affiliate links here - just something I found that works) called worksheets.com.  You can create your own print or cursive handwriting practice sheets here.  I've been making them with the children's name, interests and silly things we say to each other.  I find that it engages them more, at least in our house, when what they are writing about is familiar to them.  (being silly doesn't hurt either!;)  I use this site for math, puzzles and other worksheets.

I also have this book for him:

You can find it HERE.

D.E.A.R. time (drop everything and read) happened next.  Each child had approximately 45-60 minutes to read anything they wanted.  They each had a turn in our homemade teepee.  It allowed them to separate for a little bit, rest and recharge for the rest of the day.

We went off for a short visit some friends then a quick dentist appointment for my daughter.  In the afternoon, when the baby went down for nap #2 (so thankful for the time he gives us!) we did our math and science.

The children used baking soda, food coloring, tons (and I do mean TONS) of glitter and vinegar for this sparkly experiment.  The second they added the vinegar to the baking soda it was an instant and super fabulous WOWWWWWWWWWWW moment as the mixture came fizzing rapidly over the top of the cups they were using.  The "fizz" as they called it was sparkly and twinkly due the glitter and definitely added to the awe factor.  

Ty's reaction in the last picture in the series is just the best.  That came along with a huge "whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"  Just priceless.  I will tell you that at the beginning of the experiment, the colors are much more vibrant than the root beer color my son has going on in the last pic.  We started out with one color each of glitter and food coloring and then they kept doing the experiment over and over with different colors until I ran out of vinegar.  Hence the muddy colors in my photos.

If you're interested in this experiment (which, I may add, is super easy, inexpensive, and has a big "ooo and ahh" factor) here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• tall cup or vase (we used a large water glass and my Tervis travel mug)
• baking soda (I got a big box of the store brand)
• vinegar (store brand is fine - I definitely should have gotten 2 big bottles)
• food coloring
• glitter
• tray or pan with sides to catch the overflow 

Directions:

·        1.  Put your vessel in the tray/pan - this will catch the overflow.  Place 2-3 tablespoons baking soda in the bottom of your vessel.  
         
2.  Add 6-7 drops of food coloring and 1-2 teaspoons of glitter.

3.  Pour in about 1/2 cup vinegar.  Get ready to enjoy the peals of laughter and giggles!  (at least that's what happened here!)

We cleaned up and the children wrote their description of the experiment along with what they thought it should be called, their thoughts along with a picture of the experiment.

I will note that there is a bit of spray with this experiment so I would suggest wearing smocks of some kind if you don't want to get yourself covered with food coloring (it can stain).  

I was making dinner for everyone while they were doing their write-ups and pictures and when they were done they were officially done with their first official day of homeschooling!  Big thumbs up all around.  My daughter finished her work and then handed me this beautiful note:

I love you too sweet girl!  I consider myself honored and beyond blessed to be able to be home with my children as well as being able to educate them.  I consider it life's biggest treasure.  

My tiniest one made an appearance here and there throughout the day as well!  He's just harder to snap pics of because he is constantly in motion.  Here we are full of post-bath exhaustion.  Off to bed!!

Night night everyone!  Looking forward to more adventures tomorrow!

Huge, Amazing, Life-Altering, Wonderful, Sparkly, and Beautiful Life Changes

Greetings Paper Canteen Friends!!

I've missed you all so very much!!  I keep updated on you all from a far for sure.  I come and visit your blogs, and read and become inspired always.  I've been out of the "bloggy" crafty loop myself for quite some time but am looking very forward to getting back into it in a way that works for me and where I'm at in my life right now.  I miss commenting on your postings and reading all of your lovely comments on mine.  I'm greatly looking forward to getting back into the crafty blogosphere (is that a word!?) and reconnecting with you all.

So I figured I'd update you on what's happening in my tiny corner of the world!  So, if you're interested, grab a cup of whatever you like, have a sit down with me and snuggle up!  ;)

There are so many decisions in to be made in life.  Some are tiny, every day decisions like what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, and which line to stand in at the grocery store.  Some are medium size - where to go for a family trip, what to do for your children's birthday, and what car to buy.  And some are huge and life altering decisions - getting a pet, getting married, buying a house, and having children.  The last two years (2012-2014) have fallen into the last category for my family.  In 2012 I got pregnant - not intentionally but not NOT intentionally either.  At the time we had a 7.5 year old and a 6 year old.  So we'd been flying in the "life is easy" zone as far as the independence of our children was concerned.  No baby gates, no worries about choking hazards, childproofing was a thing of the past.  Everyone could use the bathroom, shower, brush their teeth, help around the house, get dressed and make their beds.  Going out anywhere was easy - day trips, overnights, movie outings, shopping excursions, meals out.  I had successfully graduated from diaper bag back to my own grown up purse and we all had at least 9-10 hours of consecutive sleep every night.  It was just the four of us for a very long time.  That all changed in March of 2013 when I gave birth to our third child, an uber deliciously fabulous baby boy named Ari Tucker Winston.  We were now "Winston Family - Party of 5".  Kendall was 8.5 and Tyler turned 7 just three days before Ari was born.  They were excited beyond belief to have a baby in the house.  We made it through a third c-section, through 10 months of breast feeding, through a few months of broken sleep, through the adjustment of losing the freedom we'd grown accustomed to for so long.

(park day!)

Fast forward to today.  Ari is 17 months old.  He is amazing.  He sleeps, eats and plays like a champ.  As controversial as some find it, I sleep trained him at 4 months and he's slept through the night ever since.  It worked for us...not for all but for our family it worked. (read: I'm not recommending it to anyone...just giving my opinion of what worked for us.)  He naps solidly at least once a day but most days twice.  He's funny, witty, goofy, snuggly and so yummy.  I've adored watching my older children envelop him into our family fold as if he's always been here.  They help, love and watch over him.  It's simply made me realize even more how infinitely important this job is that we're doing. Raising these children to be good children, later in life to be good partners, good parents, good people.

(all of us on the steps of the Boston Public Library - talk about apropos! the littlest is on me in the backpack - just couldn't catch him in the photo)

This past June, Kendall and Tyler successfully finished third and first grade respectively.  It was then that we sent our letter of intent to our town withdrawing them from public school.  We sent in our education plan for both children and received our letter back from the town giving us our official status as a homeschooling family.  This is a HUGE decision.  HUGE, HUGE, HUGE.  Regardless of the enormity of it, besides marrying my husband and having children it's a decision I've never felt more confident about.

(a rarely posted selfie of me and all three babies en route to Boston- I even caught the littlest who rode on my back all day!)

That being said, for us - it is a huge, life altering, amazingly wonderfully, sparkly and exciting decision.  I've been pondering homeschooling since before my oldest was in Kindergarten.  It just wasn't my time - or theirs.  But the time is right, right now.  There was nothing at all technically wrong with the public school in our town.  But as my oldest went through her third grade year last year, I very slowly and very clearly watched the bright light in her eyes fade as the year went on.  She was always excited about school, always ready to learn, always excited about the challenges she would face.  But the year started to wear on her.  As our state and their school started gearing up for the MCAS test I saw a shift in the workload and the type of work that she was doing and the type of work that was being sent home.  I'll stop here and say that I'm not averse to any of my children working hard.  I believe that with hard work and persevernece that they can do anything they set their minds to.  Truly.  What I do not believe in the MCAS test.  Nor do I believe that it's an accurate way to teach or test.  I think that since the push of this and other standardized tests in our schools the teachers have lost their freedom to be creative.  One might argue that the teachers have to find a NEW way to be creative to teach what they need to teach in a different manner surrounding the MCAS.  I disagree.  I think the teachers who got into teaching for the love of teaching and the love of creativity suffer and I think that the students definitely suffer as a result of having to hammer facts, memorize and drill over and over simply to achieve high scores for their school.  Don't get me wrong, I do feel that some memorization of some things is necessary.  But - not to prove anything to the town, state or federal government.  For example, I do feel that kids need to memorize their multiplication tables as it makes math easier as they get older.  But, I believe that children do this at different ages and at different paces and I feel that the MCAS pushes kids who may not entirely be ready to master this particular skill perhaps earlier than they could or should.  I noticed that my son - who was in 1st grade bringing home worksheet upon worksheet upon worksheet (ad nauseum).  Some of the worksheets were identical to ones my daughter brought home when she was in the second grade.  That made me wonder a bit.  Again, not that I don't think he's competent enough to handle the work, it's just another example of how bit by bit the fun, creative and engaging parts of elementary school are being systematically plucked out of our children's lives.  They are being driven - driven to succeed, driven to be ahead, driven to be competitive,driven to perform and driven to perfection.  They are not being driven to individuality nor to creativity.  That's to be done in all of the other hours of the day - extra circularly.  There had to be a better solution - for my children.

(hangin with some homeschool buddies at the park learning how to catch snakes)

(who doesn't love a tray full of foam paint!?)

The amount of outdoor time that both of my children had was pitiful.  They had approximately 20 minutes of recess and that included the amount of time it took to line all 22 children up to head out and then back in.  So the REAL amount of time spent outdoors was more like 15 minutes.  Both children usually came home with at least half of their lunchbox still full because they didn't have enough time to finish their lunch.  We have taught our children to eat slowly both to enjoy your food but and to aid in good digestion (as well as good manners).  Giving the children such small amounts of time to rest, recharge, eat and socialize is not enough. The reason they have such small amounts of time is that they are cramming the rest of the day with academics and one "special" (art, music, gym, etc) a day.  When my children came home, they were literally exhausted. I completely expected this when my daughter, my oldest, started full day Kindergarten.  I figured it would last a few weeks maybe a couple of months at most.  Nope.  It lasted every single school day of every single year. My son who is 2 school years behind her was exactly the same way.  This exhaustion made any after school activities (horseback riding, dance class, art class, skating lessons, etc) almost an argument between us.  Things that should be enjoyable shouldn't be a struggle - but they were because of the intense exhaustion my children felt after the school day.  It was not working for us...year after year.  I want my children to truly enjoy learning, to embrace the challenges that come to them with open arms and open minds.  I do not want their learning to be hindered because they are exhausted or overwhelmed.  I do not want them to learn simply because they are being driven to exceed the town/governments test scores.  I want them to learn to better themselves, to do something great for themselves and society and to help others do great things for themselves and society.

(handwriting practice)

(The Lemonade War word search)

I want my children to be able to have the time to learn all of the basics - the core subjects, but I also want them to be able to delve deep into subjects that interest them.  To be able to spend large amounts of time studying aviation and garbage trucks (my 8 year old son), fairies, writing books, how stickers are made, and how to make crayons (my 9 year old daughter); these are things that will truly engage and interest them and will allow me to pull in a variety of subjects while teaching them by using things they love.

We are finding our way within our local homeschooling community which has opened its arms to us and welcomed us in.  It is taking shape and form very slowly but we are all meeting friends and finding times to get together and socialize.  I'm trying to resist jumping into 1000 things at once and trying to enjoy each day as it organically forms.  One foot in front of the other is how we're rolling at this point.  And it's amazing.

For me, I'm finding that not only does homeschooling make me more organized, it makes me a more aware parent.  I am not only watching my children learn but I'm learning HOW they learn and how I can help facilitate that learning process.  Right now I have a picture of what it's "supposed" to look like in my head but I know that will shift and change as the days go on and we'll find the groove that works for us.  Selfishly I breathe a little deeper with my babies around me, I find that I am more present when they are around and honestly - I don't want to miss everything that they do during these formative years.

(performing a "walking water" science experiment)

I am more excited about this than anything else I've ever done.  I'd be lying if I said that there isn't a small percentage of me that's petrified but I hear that's normal and will pass as I watch my kids blossom and flourish.  I know there will be amazing days, terrible days and all kinds of days in between.  The amazing thing is that I'm going to be there with them through all of them.  And honestly...i.can't.wait.

So folks, that's the big goings on around here!  I will definitely be finding places to join in with a few crafty challenges here and there as time allows as I miss that piece of my life very much.  I miss connecting with you all and sharing in the crafty inspiration that is abound! 

(a rockstar that my son drew last night)

(a beautiful walk in the pouring rain)

I look so forward to sharing this journey with anyone who is interested.  I will be posting about all things crafty and homeschool"ey" (yes - I just made that up ;) - sometimes together, sometimes separate.  I'll try to make my post titles obvious in nature as to what the subject matter is in case you'd rather skip my rambling diatribes.  (wink!)  I promise not to be offended!  It's really mostly for my own record/memory keeping than for anything else.  But I'm always more than happy to share.

(straight up goof balls)

(I mean, really!? He's crazy delicious)

I'll definitely be seeing you all around!

OH and these pics are for all of my crafty friends!!  While in the city we went to Dick Blick Art Supply!  Talk about heaven!  ;)

(yes please, I'll take 1 of each!!)

(my more realistic crafty haul! not pictured - what my children got! ha!)

With Big Crafty Hugs!

Meredith
xoxo

You...

I am so excited for the upcoming release at Simon Says Stamp on May 16th that I had to whip together this eclectic and bright card to share with you!!  This card was created with a new stamp and die set called Scribble Flowers.  It comes with a fantastic accompanying die set (not used here) but I played around with the dies and they are FABULOUS!!  Very versatile and funky!

I used watercolor and masking techniques to create the flower arrangement with my Distress Inks and Markers.  The black ink is Hero Arts Black Dye Ink - an awesome ink to use with any watercolor technique.  (can you tell I'm in the middle of the Watercolor for Cardmakers class right now? *wink*) I hand drew the grass in at the bottom with my Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint Distress Markers.

My sentiment is from the You stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.  I embellished my card with some black and wood varnish sequins and a strip of Basic Grey paper along with some black cardstock.  I also ran a quick bit of zig zag stitching for some visual balance.

Thanks for joining me today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

One Card...

I am a firm believer that the small things in life really do make a difference.  I hold to that idea firmly when things get crazy.  Small things like one card can really bring a smile.  I created this card for one very special little girl in our lives.  She needs a smile and she needs to know how amazing she is and that she is capable of wonderful things.  I made this last night and sent it off in the mail this morning!

I started with a watercolor panel and used SU! watercolor crayons in Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Staedtler watercolor pencils, and MFT's Razzle Berry Dye Ink to create the background.  I scribbled back and forth laying my color down, then took a brush and water and blended it all together.  I then took the leftover paint and liberally flicked it all over my panel.

I took my color inspiration (and patterned paper and card base) from this (Bluegrass Farm) and last month's (Office Hours) Studio Calico card kits.  I cut random strips of patterned paper and layered them in the lower left hand corner of my panel and then used a Martha Stewart punch to cut out the butterfly.  I layered the butterfly back in using Glossy Accents for the center and then used clear dimensional adhesive for to make the wings pop up.

I added one of my VERY favorite stamps right now from MFT's Chalkboard Greetings, Too.  This is stamped using my favorite Hero Arts Black Ink.  As a final touch, I used a few clear "pearls" and one self-adhesive star which came in the Office Hours Card Kit.  

I must admit, this took me about 20 minutes (with 3 kids that's about all I have these days!!) and I am thrilled with the results.

I hope to be back with another creation soon!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith