Painting On Plastic Easter Eggs

Even though we are on Spring Break, we decided to have our regularly scheduled painting class yesterday, rather than reschedule. And since Easter is next Sunday, I wanted to get the Easter eggs done when my mom was here. We used acrylic paints and painted on plastic Easter eggs. Since no one really eats the hard boiled variety, this works for me. These particular eggs will be filled and hidden by the Easter Bunny. I have treated them once with a sealant, and will do one more time. I wish I had gone for the pastel variety, rather than the darker colored eggs, but I will know for next year. Also these eggs have holes already drilled in them for stringing and making garland, or hanging on a tree as ornaments. DJ did not participate, as he was already doing something else. I know most of you don''t know me personally, but I get distracted easy and some of my eggs were not as thorough as I normally would do, lol! This is an easy and affordable project for you to do. Acrylic paints go a long way.

We will be going back to Shired Island tomorrow eve, to spend the last night with my sister and bil. Then they will head back to NC. It has been a fun week off, though I still have not done report cards, too many other fun things going on.

Shired Island, FL

We decided to take our Spring Break this week, because my sister and brother in law were coming to town. They decided to stay at Shired Island. If you like being on the Gulf of Mexico that is quiet and remote, then Shired Island is for you. At 20 dollars a day, with electric and bathrooms, you really can not beat the price. Plus it is beautiful. The Gulf is not known for blue waters, but my kids don't mind, they love the water. We went out at dinner time yesterday because we had to wait for my hubby to get home, and DJ wanted to get some sunset and shadows pictures. As you can see he got some doozys. The kids swam, even my sister got in, the guys cooked, we ate and then walked the beach. It was the end of high tide when we got there, so there were some goodies that washed up after the tide receded. I always look for Sea Glass, but never find any there. There was a pretty large stingray, I would say at least 18 inches across, that had washed up and the Turkey Vultures were eating it, see pictures. Then we found a Horseshoe Crab, which Horseshoe Beach and Shired Island is kind of famous for. The first one had no tail, but was still alive, so we helped it back to the water. The second one was complete and intact, but dead with very little flesh left. DJ took it for a souvenir, it is currently sitting outside in a pit letting the bugs finish cleaning it. We saw a dead bird of some kind, not sure, pretty much not much left. And one tiny little crab that looked a lot like a spider. Only one Blue Crab, but he too was deceased. Last time we went we saw a baby armadillo, unfortunately it was dead too. The sunset was phenominal and peaceful. Shired Island is actually the northern part of the nature refuge that we volunteer at, that is how big it is, almost two hours apart by car.

My sister stayed the night with us, and then we all hung out today at our house and just visited and relaxed. Tired now, and tomorrow is another busy day. We did decide we would paint our Easter eggs tomorrow, as it is a regular paint day, and my sister decided to join in. Her hubby will do whatever he does, lol! After my hubby gets home we are off to the Chinese Buffet for dinner. More pictures tomorrow of the eggs. See everyone soon, and I will catch up on drops and comments asap. BTW don't mind my hair, the wind was whipping out there, glad I decided to put it up.

Spring Break and Reflection Photography

Thursday was a full day of lessons, you can see lesson plan below. Friday was grocery shopping, and yes I count this as part of school time, because not only do they have to learn to act appropriately in the store, but they have to compare prices and help pick products. DJ now can go into Save A Lot himself, get his donuts and pizza, and bring me back the change. He is very proud of this. Plus they help me remember things I need, that I forgot to put on the list. It is very helpful. DJ also had to read his lesson on controlling the lighting, which mainly had to do with flash and reflecting light. We used his finger, masking tape, and just plain turning off the flash for this lesson. He also had fun with using a mirror to reflect light. This is a chapter that could use some more practice. Learning to aim the flash away from your object being photographed, takes a lot of practice. All his pictures, he has taken throughout this year, will eventually be posted to his blog. It is quite a timely process. We also watched a documentary on the ocean, on Friday, and that pretty much rounded out the day. Now we are on Spring break. Yes, we took it the week after public school, but that is because we have family coming to visit and we didn't want to have to worry about school work. With that said, DJ will have to do Spanish lessons, and Caitlin will have to do one cycle of Head of the Class, most days. I too will have work, report cards are due. Still will leave tons of time for relaxing, and enjoying some out of state family time.

A quick question for any of you who might know. DJ is the Historian for his 4H group this year. He is required to put together a scrap book of our year, by June. I need printable templates for scrapbooking, preferably free, with clover design preferably. If I can buy then rather than print them, that would be OK too. I am going to start searching for them, but if anyone knows off hand of where I can find them, it would save me some time of searching for them. Thanks and have an awesome weekend!

Lesson Plans For 03/22/12:
DJ:
Language Arts: Irregular verbs
Social Studies: Chapter 28 Middle Ages, and map skills
Treasure Island: Literature Unit
Spanish
Science: National Zoo
Math: Saxon 65 chapter 83

Caitlin:
Head of the Class: 4 cycles
Math: Addition, subtraction, place value
Language Arts: Reading comprehension, verbs
Spelling: Write out each word

Park Day, Art Class and 4H Fair

Yesterday's lesson plans will be listed below. Today was park day, and the weather was quite warm. I changed park day to 10-12 just because of this reason, and I still got raccoon eyes, lol! After park day, Caitlin and I came home to have Art class. This is not our usual painting day, but I wanted to paint. So Caitlin started a new paint by number, not shown, and I painted the bottle and the painting below. I am still learning which techniques I am most comfortable with. Caitlin's new painting will take her some time to complete, especially since she paints like ten minutes then goes and plays, lol! The picture frame shown, was Caitlin's entry into the 4H fair. She got a Clover Bud ribbon, next year she will be 8 so will be able to get placement ribbons. DJ won 2nd place for his ladybug photo, he won second place last year too for his sea lion. I told him next year he has to take a picture of something related to Agriculture as those always seem to be the first place preference to the 4H judges. DJ went to a friend's house, after park day, to work on his Art for Peace project. I can't wait to see what he came up with, when I pick him up later. I painted one other small project today, but you will have to visit my jewelry blog to see that.

Yesterday was a complete full day of school, with all lessons covered. We are in our last semester of school, if you can believe that.

Lesson Plans For 03/20/12:

DJ:
Health: Growth and Development, adolescence
Spanish
Science: National Zoo endangered animals
Reading Comprehension
Math: Saxon 65 chapter 82
Photography
Treasure Island literature unit
Social Studies: Chapter 27 Middle Ages, and map skills

Caitlin:
Head of the Class: 3 cycles
Math: Addition, subtraction, and place value
Printing Practice
Social Studies: Fire Safety
Science: Plants and Seeds

The History of the Automobile in the US

As you may already know, Henry Ford, did not invent the automobile. He did however, invent the Assembly Line, which exploded the manufacturing and affordability of the automobile. That is what our co-op lesson today was about. It was DJ's turn to pick and this is the topic he chose. Since he really wanted to do car designing, I printed off some cars each kid could design themselves. You really need to check out the Henry Ford Museum, it has some really awesome things there that your car lover will love. In the essence of time, I chose a video on Netflix with Harpo Marx, that was quite humorous. Then we read about the Assembly Line, the pros, cons and how it changed life in America. I will provide a bunch of links below, so you can make your own lesson, how your kids will like it.

http://www.freeprintablecoloringpages.net/category/Cars_And_Trucks\
http://www.yourdiscovery.com/cars/timeline/
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Automobile.html
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/22545.html#objectives
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/sshenryfordandtheimportanceoftheassemblyline3-htm/
http://www.lessonplanet.com/worksheets/automobile

Have fun with it, we did! This lesson can cover both History and Science in your school day. Since we also designed our own car, Art is also covered.

I also forgot to mention that we walked before the class, and DJ did a Spanish assignment once our friends had left.

United Nations Art for Peace Contest

Do your kids like art? Do they like to enter contests? Then the United Nations Art for Peace contest is for you. The theme this year is peace without war and nuclear weapons. The deadline is April 30, 2012. DJ has already thought of his piece, and will begin working on it this week. Caitlin has not decided yet if she wants to enter. This is a free contest, and also international so not just US residents can enter. Get your thoughts in gear and get drawing. Click the link provided for all the rules and details.

Painting Class Today

Today was painting class with my mom. Picture number one is my painting. I opted for an Easter theme, painting on a cross with flowers, two bunnies, and some Easter eggs. This was the last placemat, and all four are now completed.

Picture number two is DJ's painting. He continues to work on his landscape picture. When it is completed it will be a painting of our backyard. He is also entering an art contest, for which I will share the details in a couple of days.

Caitlin painted a fish. It is a paint by number, with the smallest numbers I have ever seen in my life. It came with its own special painting pens. She actually started working on it a couple of days ago, and finished in painting class today.

This afternoon we went to the park, for Caitlin's playdate with her friend. While DJ was there, he let the girls be. It is thundering and icky out now, so anytime now is a good time to go to bed, lol!

The History of Time and Clocks

Yesterday was our co-op day. Since it was not my turn to choose the lesson, I had no idea what the lesson was going to be about. Much to my happiness it was another History lesson. This one covering the history of time and clocks. Since the lesson plan used by the other mom is no longer available for any of you to print and use, I thought I would share some of the questions we were asked to answer. Many them could be answered by watching the video below. Your child might have to do some research to find a few. Still a fun, easy and free lesson you can make and use yourself. I printed off two clock face coloring pages, for the two younger children to color and design. Listed below are the questions to the lesson. They are in no particular order, as each child placed them in a lapbook wherever they chose to. Have fun with it, and please share if you do this. It was a lot of fun.

1. How were earliest sundials made?
2. How can a shadow be used to tell time?
3. What time did the Romans call noon?
4. Name some ancient civilizations that used sundials"?
5. Who was the first clockmaker in America?
6. How did King Alfred divide his day?
7. How many days are in a week?
8. How many months are in a year?
9. What are the different types of methods to tell time?
10.What kind of transportation made Standard Time necessary?
11. What did King Alfred use to tell time?
12. Who developed the first pendulum clock?
13. Who studied clocks to learn more about pendulums?
14. How were early grandfather clocks wound?
15. Who made the first clock?
16. What is the difference between a watch and a clock?
17. Did ancient people have matches?
18. Where were the first water clocks built?
19. What is another name for a water clock"?
20. What three things does a clock need?
21. How did night watchers learn to tell time?
22. What is the material in an hourglass?
23. How did clock making change during the American Civil War?

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the actual date of my 6th wedding anniversary. Yes, those of you that are good at math, that means I had children before I was married, gasp! Since I work overnights tonight, and Craig had a class today, we couldn't do anything special today. We have never gone out without our kids, I always feel guilty. But yesterday, my mom came and stayed with them. They watched Dolphin Tale, which now I can not wait to see, had popcorn, and painted. We went to dinner at Carrabas, which I must admit it was fantastic. I even had some leftover to bring my mom. We were going to see a movie, but since we didn't plan our time effectively, none of them were starting until 7. So instead we went bowling. We had a ball, but I can not bowl and I mean I can not bowl. Bowling was not as affordable as I remember, did I mention it has been 20 years, 36 bucks for two people, for an hour. However, it would have probably cost that much to see the movie, so there you go.

Now for the pictures. I mentioned it is my anniversary. It is also my MIL birthday. Unfortunately she passed away before I met Craig. Since we are here, and she is still in NY, every year we buy some kind of plant in her honor. This year we bought three. Although I didn't realize it these are all annuals. But, I think because we are in FL they will come back since it stays warm. I just won't put them in the ground, instead in containers, so I can take them in when it is cold. Walmart had the cutest teacup planters, I want them so bad. You see Caitlin with the flowers. The pink one she is holding is actually going into the Chiapet they got me for Christmas. Then I am going to use the grass seeds that came with the Chiapet for an extra special Science lesson. I can't share it yet.

The second picture is actually the ring I made for myself to go with my wedding band. Since I bought the new camera I have had a very difficult time getting jewelry pictures that are clear. I finally figured out the right setting, and just thought I would see what it would look like taken with the plant. I took several shots, and I think they are very creative. If you would like to see the others I took, you can visit my jewelry blog, Melissa's Jewelry and Gems. I hope to get all my pieces taken this way, then they all have to be uploaded, very time consuming.

US Constitution: 3 Branches of Government

Yesterday we had a playdate at the park, from 12-2. Each kid had to complete at least three assignments before that time, they did thank goodness. We are at the end of our third grading quarter tomorrow, so report cards will be done in a timely fashion, or at least in theory they will, lol. I was smart enough to keep up with the grading of the papers this quarter, so that will make it much easier. I can't believe we only have one quarter left until Summer vacation.

Since we have been studying the US Constitution this year, and we are up to the 3 branches of government, I thought the kids would like a little video to help explain it in a more fun way. You can see the video below too. Today the weather is beautiful, so Caitlin is having a hard time concentrating. It will be a full day of lessons and housework. Oh if anyone is interested I got the lesson for the Constitution on Edhelper. I pay 20 dollars a year, and have access to most of the lesson plans. I print DJ's reading literature units from there as well.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping in the morning, and then DJ will begin a new reading book, The Indian in the Cupboard, a writing assignment on his blog, and one Spanish assignment. Caitlin will be basically be doing just math tomorrow. Since my wedding anniversary is Saturday, and I have to work, and Craig has class, we will be going out together tomorrow eve for dinner and a movie. This is the first year we will not be taking the children. My mom will be staying with them, and I am buying Dolphin Tale, for them to enjoy together.

So those are my plans for the rest of the week. What are is everyone else up to?

How Coins Are Made

Yesterday, we did a group lesson with two other homeschool families, on how coins are made in the US. The video below goes through the process, except it is for new coins. Older coin models the design stays the same and is just used over and over in the process. The two younger kids got a print out of a penny to color, and decorate in their own style. The older children had to do a timeline of pennies. This was accomplished by having each family provide ten pennies, with ten different dates on them. Then one child called out the date of the penny, a second child used Historyorb.com to look up what happened in history for that year, and the third child plotted and wrote on the timeline the date and event that occurred. The timeline of course took the most time, as the video and virtual tour were quite fast. There was not a big selection of videos to choose from, which was kind of disappointing. There is a full virtual tour at the US Mint, that you can view, but we opted not to this time, for the sake of time. We also went on a walk, and then had playtime. All in all a good and beautiful day. Next Monday, we go to the next families home to see what education fun they will plan. The links I used are below. Feel free to browse through the US Mint, they have awesome education lesson plans, that I
am sure I will use again in the future, and for free.

http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=coinshttp://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/lessonPlans/viewLP.cfm?lessonPlanID=8
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/index.cfm?action=vtShell
http://www.usmint.gov/kids
http://www.historyorb.com
http://www.ancienthistory.com/history.shtml

Teddy Bear by Red Sovine

Not that this song has anything to do with homeschooling, but it is one of my favorite songs. Makes me cry every time. If you have never heard the song, Teddy Bear, by Red Sovine, be sure and listen now.

We had a full and regular day of lessons today, with no interruptions for a change.

Lesson Plans For 02/01/2012:

DJ:
Spanish
Science: Insect pests, endangered species
Reading: Literature unit for Treasure Island
Social Studies: The Constitution, Middle Ages chapter 24, Map Skills
Math: Saxon 65 chapter 75
Heath: Growth and Development

Caitlin:
Social Studies: The Constitution
Head of the Class
Math: Money, graphs, ordinal numbers
Spelling: Short a words, word search
Language Arts: Right and wrong