Apple to Oregon Art

We have been a little behind on our artwork lately.  Natalie has moved into climbing, so my ability to focus on other tasks has been hampered.  This is a project I have been meaning to do for a while.  I got the idea from Splish Splash Splatter, but once we had time to do it, I could not find the original post.  So, here's how we did it - basically this is a lesson on perspective...well and history.  First we read Apples to Oregon (multiple times - since I planned to do this craft eons ago).  It is a (slightly) true account of a pioneer who brought fruit trees along with his family on their journey west. 

Step one:  watercolor ground and sky.  We let this dry overnight - mostly because that's all we could get done before our resident rock climber's nap was over.

Step Two:  Tree Trunks - I did an example (pictured below) showing them to draw larger trunks at the bottom, middle sized ones in the middle and tiny ones in the back, but...well at least we got tree trunks!

Step Three:  Leaves - I cut up a sponge to dab on the leaves, very nice effect I think.

Step Four: Apples - the end of a dum dum stick was the perfect size!

My sample trees.

Annalise's trees - She drew the middle row of trunks.  I helped her out on the other two rows, but she did all the rest herself. 

Caleb's Trees - can you tell he got bored with the craft after a while!  He really enjoyed dabbing on the leaves though, and I guess that's why the back trees got so huge :)

So I'm not sure how much we learned about creating perspective with artwork, but I think that is ok.  Kids know that things look smaller from farther away.  We put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving afternoon and a couple of days later I saw Caleb standing back from it, holding up his hand and squinting, "From here, our Christmas tree is as big as my hand!"

Scenes from Thanksgiving

Kids with Broccoli

Big Tree Frog

Rainbow in the Neighborhood

Look Ma! No Training Wheels!

On the First Day of Deer Season....

Just Off the Nightstands: Two More

I whipped off two more books from my 7th grade reading list.  The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  I liked them both a lot.  The Door in the Wall is set in the 14th century and is about a boy who is being raised to become a knight.  But before he can seriously begin his training, he becomes very ill and loses the ability to walk.  He is challenged by a monk named Brother Luke to look for 'the door in the wall' and throughout the book, Robin finds ways to gain skills and help others without the use of two perfect legs.  Brother Luke helps him strengthen his arms and teaches him how to read.  The climax of the story comes when Robin, although crippled, saves the lives of the people who live with him.  The lesson of the book is simply "Thou hast only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it."  Very encouraging - and a very short book

Number the Stars is the story of a girl named Annemarie and is set in Denmark during World War II.  Her family works together to help their Jewish neighbors escape the Nazis.  It is tense and moving, yet it is a very easy book to read.  It has a good lesson on how to be brave.  Her uncle tells her, "it is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything."  And I think, for someone who likes to have everything planned out, it is a good reminder that knowing too much can sometimes lead you to be too frightened to move forward.  This is another quick read - mostly because, whenever I found time to read it, I could not put it down.

One

 About a year ago, I remember thinking that the newborn stage was one of near perfection - so much that bigger kids throw at you just isn't on the scene yet.  Just that nagging lack of sleep...  well I have started thinking one is a pretty great age too.  One year olds are very funny, they like everyone, they are friendly and cheerful,

 and curious and they can walk (so you don't have to carry their increasingly heavy body everywhere that you go), they can say a few understandable words but they don't really argue (or cleverly rephrase their request), they think the milk and the cow are the same, they think the moon is amazing, they call every animal on 4 legs a dog, they think dumdums are the best candy ever invented,


and they still take a nice long nap!


And...the 4 and 6 year olds that did most of the work cleaning the bathrooms today are pretty great too. :)

A Hospital Visit

All of our kids were born at different hospitals. We pass by the hosptial where Caleb was born pretty often because it is visible from the Turnpike. Annalise was starting to get a little jealous because she had never been back by her hospital since she was born. Natalie's isn't on our regular path either, but so far she hasn't complained! Well, last week Rob had to go by Annalise's hosptial to visit someone, so the kids and I hung out in a courtyard while he visited. Annalise was not disappointed with her visit.

The entrance we used 4 years ago is being renovated.

One of the many "treasures" found in the courtyard - a 4!

One of my faithful readers has had trouble commenting on my blog.  If you are having trouble too, please send me an email, I'm not sure what's the problem.