Valentine's Day and Good-byes

 Our co-op fell on Valentine's Day this year so we spent the day doing various Valentine's crafts and activities.

Like sorting and graphing candy hearts.

And making sun catchers by drawing on paper with baby oil.

Then the kids all handed out their Valentine cards to each other

This was also our last day with our friends...we were moving the next day...

They surprised us with this picture- the kids had made their hand prints at the co-op the week before but I hadn't known what they were for. I love it and know perfect spot for it on the wall of our new school room.

We loaded up the moving truck on Wednesday- so now we are in a sea of boxes, trying to get everything set up. We have been blessed with beautiful weather- 60s on moving day and today and yesterday. So we have been trying to finish up the goats' shed before the colder air and rain moves in. We still have to go back for a couple of our cats and our chickens, as well as a few more boxes, but for the most part we are all moved in and about half unpacked.

The Group Picture Project

This week's art co-op art project:

Each of our 12 kids completed one piece of the picture.

I printed out a picture and cut it into 12 pieces. The kids were each given one square to reproduce onto a larger square and then color however the wished.

Once most were done we started to assemble the pieces.

For a moment they thought it was the USA, but then the butterfly came through.

I thought it was really neat how some of their lines matched up completely, even though each of them drew their lines free hand.

(project idea credit)

Fun. Life. Holidays.

 Miss Annika will be one in 12 days.  A couple of weeks ago she finally decided walking wasn't so bad. Still not her favorite mode of transportation, but she's getting there. 

We had a Christmas craft get together with friends. We made cookie mix in a jar. Which a couple kids cleverly gifted to each other so they could eat the cookies. We gave one to a friend and one to the mail carrier and one is earmarked for Santa. 

And painted gingerbread ornaments.  They smell really nice, Annika has to carry hers around and smell it at least a couple times a day.

 

And time capsule ornaments.

Annika's scrunchy face. This is a mellow, happy version. When she doesn't get her way she scrunches it up completely and pouts. Apparently she gets this from me. Leave it to Paul to point that out. He said she gets it from me and I turned and said she did not....accompanied by my own scrunched up face. Guess I proved his point....

Paul graduated yesterday. The first in his family.

 After the ceremony...

 Wearing Daddy's hat...

 

Can you tell who is turning into a Daddy's girl?

 

 We stopped for a Christmas tree on the way home.

We've gone to the same farm down the road from our house for the past 8 years. The boys already have asked about finding a tree farm in NC. 

Decorating at home

We have collected a ton of ornaments over the past 10 years. The tree is so full, but each one has a story and a memory attached to it and I can't leave any out. 

 

The boys have gotten into playing around with the webcam and all it's weird effects. It's like the house of mirrors distorting their faces. I like this effect though- 

Annika was napping during my attempt to get us all in one picture....

Now I just have to get every one happy, dress and smiling at my camera so I can get Christmas card pictures.

A Week's Worth

We started off the week in North Carolina....

Enjoying the fall colors and cooler weather


And painting inside.

And showing Bandit around his soon-to -be home.


And more painting inside.

We pulled from our fall garden.

Tuesday we did some art with friends.

Optical illusion drawings.
I had seen these on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and was happy to finally try them.


Then we played games

And read books

and more games.

Then I took over the playroom-

with 150+ cookies

And lots and lots of icing

Lots of icing.

Here's the finished product- they were for a friend whose daughter is getting married tomorrow.

Wednesday was packaging day. Thankfully I had some help and conversation which made the time go by much more quickly.

Thursday was cupcakes-


Chocolate and white cupcakes in 4 bouquets for the Bride's Luncheon and Rehearsal dinner.

And tonight, I am doing nothing.

Fish Classification and the Dichotomous Key

We had our co-op today, I was leading and between that and Annika I didn't get to take many pictures during the actual lesson. But I thought it was a lesson worth sharing.

The topic was fish. My boys requested to learn more about them- technically they wanted to learn more about their fish- but I couldn't think of good group activities revolving around Raphael and Pictus catfish, a peacock eel and knife fish amongst others...so I went with a lesson I found online about fish of the great lakes.

We started with a discussion about what a fish is and how they can be classified. Then I gave each group of kids a set of 12 cards to sort in anyway they wanted. We had 3 groups and each sorted different ways- by fins, by color pattern and by tail. We discussed other ways they could have been sorted as well.

Then I gave each group a dichotomous key for the Great Lakes Fish Families. We talked about what a Dichotomous Key is and then they went through their 12 fish and tried to id which family it belonged to using the key. They did good- and classified them mostly correct.

Then we sorted the kids by making our own dichotomous key. We started with the question: Is the person a boy or girl? And kept on asking until we had identified everyone. Using characteristics such as hair color, glasses,earrings, eye color- and in the case of my boys who all have blonde hair and blue eyes- clothes patterns and lack of front teeth.

Then we moved on to art.


With fish as the subject.

Using black oil pastel they drew their fish and any other details such as rocks or plants.

Then colored in the fish and background using chalk pastels.