Challenge Your Kids To Think Outside The Box

To use their imaginations, in another words. My kids are pretty creative, except when it comes to the Arts. Whether it be writing, drawing, or painting they are more of concrete thinkers. I am sure that is somehow my fault, lol! We haven't had time for an Art class in a while, but I was determined to get one in today. A while back I had been researching Art projects for kids. One of them was to have your child draw a whole picture and everything had to be a specific shape. So, I picked rectangles. DJ thought about it for what seemed like forever, and then all of a sudden a light bulb went off in his head. He made a creeper mask like on Minecraft. If you play Minecraft then you will recognize this thing. He even made straps so he could wear it. Caitlin complained the whole time that her trees looked like boots, and was she really supposed to paint the sun in the shape of a rectangle. LOL, we all got through it, and you can see the results below. What do you think?

4H County Events

Each year the county we live in, and all the surrounding counties, have 4H County Events. Each group, and their members get to show off their talents, and win ribbons. All first place winners are eligible to go to District Events. This is our third year in 4H, and I really would like DJ to do Districts. Last year I didn't force the issue, though they really wanted him to. This year I am going to try and be a bit more forceful. Caitlin got 1st place for Fashion Review for her leopard print jacket and skirt. DJ got 1st place for his demonstration on the Fire Ant, and 3rd place in Photography. Each year I tell him he should enter a picture that has to do with Agriculture, and each year we enter another cool photo he took. Every year he gets second or third place, and a cow, chicken or plow wins 1st place. Maybe we will actually take our own advice one of these times. He has pictures of chickens, and horses, but they just don't seem all that interesting, lol! The one cow picture that did win 1st place, was exceptionally unique, I have to say. I never thought I would say that about a cow. I love County Events because I always get to take the Saturday off, and don't have to work. Love it, LOL! Today, we went to church and the kids and hubby are now doing yard work. Yay! Back to school tomorrow.

Oh, the first picture is Caitlin and the fish bowl she painted earlier in the week.

Basketball, Math and Earth Kids Club

Seems like I get to do own one or two posts a week now. Just too much going on. Anyway, I wanted to share my very talented dog, Biscuit. Some of you know Biscuit from reading this blog. She has taken up basketball with Caitlin. When Caitlin throws the basketball, Biscuit actually jumps in the air like she is shooting it, then retrieves it and runs off with it, when it comes down. Now if she could learn to dunk, we might be famous, lol!

If your homeschooled child likes the Math they are currently using, don't change it, even if you hate it. Over the Christmas break I decided to try different Math with DJ. We have been using Saxon and it works for him, but I was getting annoyed with it. Anyway for three weeks I have been fighting with him about Math. This does not work for either of us, and achieves little. So, back to Saxon we go. He is comfortable with it, does well with it, and ultimately that is what matters.

We are about half way through our Earth Kids year. Each child finished up their snake demos, and in two weeks we will be doing a nature scavenger hunt. I am especially excited about this, and I hope they have a ball.

That is it for now.

Back To the Cold!

We have had about three weeks of Summer like weather. It was heavenly. Now today it is raining and about 30 degrees colder. It was the first day we had to miss our Run/Walk Club. But don't worry we are making it up on Monday. I had so much to do this week, and believe it or not I got most of it done and I still have tomorrow.

We had to go through all of DJ's photo since September, and pick one to enter in County Events next Saturday. Then you have to order it, mount it, and make sure it fits all the crazy rules. Yesterday, we had to make an emergency run to my Mom's to get Caitlin's leopard print skirt, that my Mom sewed for her. All the entry forms, and items have to be turned in tomorrow. Plus DJ has to tweak his demonstration and then practice it. All before next Saturday. Thank goodness he has all the data, now just needs to organize it. This year he is doing Southern Fire Ants. A huge nuisance here, but they do actually do some good too. The only thing I have not been able to keep up with is blogging and email. I haven't checked my email since last Saturday. I hope there was not anything important in there, lol! Speaking of email, I wanted to share the website School Express. I have been receiving their newsletter, each week, for almost a year now. I had it before, but then forgot about it, so I signed up again. Each week they send you a free themed unit. I have enough that I can use them for Caitlin for next year of school, mostly Science stuff, so that is awesome. I don't start planning for the next school year, until we get a little closer to the end of this one. Speaking of Science, for Christmas, each of the kids got a mini Science kit in their stocking. Since Caitlin has never seen snow, she got one to make snow. Now it was cold, and white, but trust me was not the texture of snow. And it does not melt. Now she has been playing with this cup of snow for about a week. Today she came out and showed me that she had made a snowman. LOL isn't he cute? Tomorrow we have horseback riding lessons. Have an awesome weekend!