30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 11 - Artwork

These are two framed pieces by daughter G.  They were hubby's and my Christmas gifts year before last.  They hang in the kitchen where I can see them all the time.  Love them!

Daughter G's latest piece, just finished in art class.

And the peacock she painted for daughter H's Christmas gift a few months ago.

This horse was drawn by Little Man!  (I know, right?!)  He learned how to draw horses in his drawing class at co-op.

And these next three are by son L, who is taking a cartooning class at co-op.  This first one was an assignment to design a comic book cover.

(this last one inspired by our neighbor, who religiously chases down every single leaf on his green, manicured lawn!)

Contest Painting

Daughter G finished her contest painting this week, and we got it mailed off yesterday!  I am so immensely proud of her for all her hard work and perseverance.  It was a little hard to let this painting go, as it represents HOURS of work and is so well done, and it now becomes the property of the grocery store chain sponsoring the contest, so it is highly unlikely we will ever see it again.

So I did what I do best.... take lots of pictures!  :-)

The point of the contest was to use some art form to depict what black history month means to you.  Daughter G came up with this concept of showing through pictures, in timeline form, the journey of blacks from slavery to equality.  We have no way of knowing how many others have entered the contest (has to be people who shop at our grocery store chain!), but she will be competing against all the other 10th graders in our state who have entered.  Because it could be hundreds of other students, she is not holding out much hope of winning, but she is very satisfied with how it turned out, and how she worked to make her vision a reality.

We are so proud of you, G!

Our Week in Pictures

In history last week we learned about the opening of China and Japan to the west, so instead of pizza on Friday night, we had Chinese food!

Son C and Little Man, during recess.

Daughter G has entered an art contest for black history month, and she is busily working on a picture collage that tells the story of blacks in America from the days of slavery to modern day.  This was her concept, and she is doing a fantastic job!

Building pans of lasagna for dinner.  These two boys are *always* eager to be my kitchen helpers ~ awesome!

$378 worth of groceries....

My hubby reading The Hobbit outloud to the family in front of a cozy fire on a cold night.  Love!

Our Week In Review

 This would be for last week. :-)


We did all the usual work, but focused on our writing assignments which we'd been working on for the past two weeks.  To wrap up our three week study of South America in the early 1800's, each of the children chose a South American country to write about.  The specifics of the assignment were as follows:

I specifically added the "one picture must stick out from your poster" part to give each of the children a chance to be artistic and creative.  I was curious how each child would choose to do this. 

Little Man chose to study and write about the country of Bolivia.  For one of the four pictures on his finished poster, he chose to put a map showing where Bolivia is located.  Here he is coloring in the country of Bolivia on a map of South America.

Sons G and L chose the countries of Peru and Ecuador, respectively.  Son G became fascinated with Machu Picchu, while son L was enthralled with the Nate Saint missionary/martyr story (he chose to write about missionary work in Ecuador for his fourth paragraph).  Son C, not pictured, chose to write about Venezuela.

Daughter G chose the country of Brazil.  She had such FUN with this assignment ~ spending hours and hours researching this particular country, finding pictures that would adequately represent the incredible flora and fauna of the Amazon region, and choosing the subject for her "famous person" paragraph (retired soccer star, Pele).  Her poster is the only one completely finished.  Unit celebration is fast approaching this weekend, so everyone else is finishing up with their poster assembly this week!

I love writing assignments.  They can encompass so much learning from many different disciplines.  We did quite a bit of internet research, so I had the opportunity to help direct the children in how to do this.  We did use some info from wikipedia, but talked about how usually that source is just overwhelming because there is almost too much info.  Certainly for the scope of their paragraphs, I discouraged wiki.  We found books at the library, we read, we outlined, we wrote, we edited, we typed, we printed pictures, we drew pictures, we worked a bit on graphic design ~ the laying out of all the pieces on posterboard.  Such great learning!  And the children really know about their country of choice, so much more than they would have known otherwise.

I can't wait to display these posters at our unit celebration!

Our Week In Review

We've had an interesting week, school-wise and life-wise.  In school we are learning about the push for independence among South American countries during the early 1800's.  Little Man and I have enjoyed learning fun facts about the cultures of some S.A. countries, while the older children studied more about each country's journey to independence.  Fascinating how the ideas of freedom and justice spread from the American War for Independence, to the French Revolution, to South America!

For next week's writing assignment, each of the children got to pick a specific South American country to write mini reports on.  The reports will be put onto posters for our unit celebration coming up in a few weeks.

Just had to post this cute picture of Little Man wearing my reading glasses.  He realized that my glasses are called reading glasses, so deduced that they must cause anyone wearing them to magically READ!  He has been working hard to gain fluency in his reading.... it's a work in progress. :)

In life.... most of our week was spent caring for my 94 year old father in law, while his wife (my mother in law) was hospitalized for major abdominal surgery.  My father in law has had quite an interesting and varied life.... he worked in the 3 C's upon graduation from high school, signaling fire fighter aircraft from a watch tower.  Lived through the Great Depression as a young adult.  Served in WWII.  He went to art school and dreamed of becoming a working artist, but ended up drawing auto parts on a CAD machine for most of his working career.  He became an "older" dad ~ having four children from the time he was 40 to 47.  He used to have so many interesting stories to share.  But he is beyond sharing them now.  They have merged with other pieces of information in his brain to make somewhat fantastical, somewhat scary, somewhat sad, and somewhat funny false memories.  He has dementia.

We tried to engage him in activities, such as painting with our daughter like this:

But most of his time with us has been spent like this:

He is very hard of hearing, so even the noisy activities of the children did not always keep him awake.  And sleeping so much during the day has made it difficult for him to stay asleep at night.  Then he wonders where his wife is, and where he is, and what he is supposed to be doing.  Isn't it time to get up?  No dad, it is 3:00 a.m. 

It is sad for us to see him so diminished.  At times his trademark humor still flashes.  But those times are few and far between.  He has loved his family so well for so many years..... it is our privilege to love him well now.

So, look those you love in the eye and tell them what they mean to you, while they can still understand.  Ask questions and record the answers in some way.  Have your children interact with their grandparents ~ even if through pictures long distance, or through skype (mom and dad, I'm thinking webcam?!?).  Because there is a time for everything under heaven.  My father in law's forgetting time is here.  Thankfully so is our remembering time.

Daugher G's Art

Daughter G, who absolutely loves creating art, recently participated in a craft show where she was able to sell hand painted products. For several weeks leading up to the show, she spent her after school hours painting. Here is a glimpse of her room (I still need to post "after" pics!) with her school desk on the far left, and her art desk in the middle. Her art desk is on wheels, so she can pull it closer to the lamp when she is working at night, and push it next to the window for natural light when she is working during the day.



On this particular night she borrowed my reading glasses. She probably needs glasses of her own. :-( (it's on the agenda for January)


This is what it looks like to "mass produce" the same scene, by hand.


Many evenings she brought her work downstairs to the kitchen table so she could work while listening to daddy read aloud.



The night of the show finally arrived!



She sold many different bookmarks and postcards,


watercolor paintings,


charcoal drawings,


and painted cork hot pads.



She earned $68 throughout the evening, which is pretty good Christmas gift buying money! She was very encouraged and satisfied, and we are proud of her!

Daughter G

Since receiving this art table for her 14th birthday, daughter G has spent a significant portion of her time in her room creating various pieces of art. She has been in an art class since February, and will often continue working on a project she began in class, or come home and start a similar project which she finishes completely at home. She can see in her mind's eye exactly how she wants the piece to look, and is quite meticulous.


Last week there was a show at her art studio of all the students' work throughout the year. Since she began the class mid-year, she missed some of the instruction in oils and focused on acrylics and watercolors. Here she is standing next to some of her favorite pieces.


Here are my three favorites up close:




Her art teacher, Mrs. D.


Wonderful job G! I am thankful for the art talent God gave you, and love to see how you are developing it and using it for His glory!