Friday, March 22, 2013

Art and Ponies and Songs...Oh My!


What a week this has been...

I was hesitant to share this but I think I will anyway. Among the many things that we did this week, was my going back to school! I am so excited to be a student again! When I graduated high school, I thought I knew what I wanted to do (NOT!) so I went to school for computer information systems and the knowledge that I obtained was beneficial and kept me gainfully employed the decade following college. However, now at 30something, I believe I have finally located my passion or gift. I've often told people that I either didn't know what my gift was or that I didn't have a gift at all. Some listeners would say, "well what are you passionate about?" My most sincere and honest response was, "I honestly can be passionate about anything and am passionate about most things that I do;" so that didn't narrow down the field. Without a passion for a specific undertaking, I have tremendous difficulty accomplishing it and most often, don't.

I've noticed though, this absolute love for teaching has grown stronger and stronger within me over the past 7 years. I absolutely love presenting information in a way that is grasped and sticks with children. I don't just appreciate the arts and crafts and nature walking side of home schooling (we don't do very much of that anyway) but I love the let's get down in and dig into a concept and add to your knowledge base--I love it! That is so exciting to me. It is how I interact with my children, it is how I passed time and interacted with them as babies. I did it through teaching. I wasn't good at all with the baby-talk and baby games and mommy and me classes. I could though, get down there and stick with a 9 month old until she could point out all 26 letters of the alphabet when asked "where's the J or L or Z." That? That I could do all week long without skipping a beat. And now that that 9 month old is 7 and learning multiplication, I am eager and chomping at the bit to get in there help her"get it!"

Her baby sister, came right behind her and could point out all 26 letters of the alphabet at 10 months old, they both were reading fluently by age 4, doing simple math before going into kindergarten, and whatever else that I could think of to teach them. All before we had a curriculum to speak of. So, in short, I think I have a knack for it and now I am returning back to college to obtain the official knowledge on it. I am excited!

That was not supposed to be such a long opening to this post. On to what went down this week. We visited TELLUS Science Museum. I'm becoming convinced that if you've visited one science museum, you've visited them all. But that's my point of view, the kids all had fun no matter how many science museums they've been to.
Serious about panning for gems

We stopped at a random pony ride "situation" that we saw in a little town south of us. It was sort of funny, we rode by and they were setting up this little corral for the three ponies they were taking out of the trailer while two men hammered posts for a banner that said "PONY RIDES," all in front of a random strip mall. Doesn't that strike you kind of funny? I dont know, all I could think was "makeshift pony rides" while my girls were yelling in the back "ooooooo ponies...ponies rides ooooooooo." So we went to lunch and stopped in on our way back.

In hindsight, I don't know how random it was, they had a long line forming by the time we finished riding. LOL!

Good thing we stopped because we visited the little strip mall behind the set-up and found a good globe for the girls room and our homeschool. We stopped in a piano store and I had the chance to watch our 7 year old become enamored and gleeful as she found herself surrounded by thousands of little black and white ivory piano keys. She was in her zone!!! We tried leaving three times and she always said, "I'm not ready." Most parents may hear that statement from their kids all of the time, but we don't! Our kids are quite compliant with us, especially in public...they've been trained. So to hear that from her, I knew it was coming from a very passionate place within. Of course she couldn't resist tickling those ivory. Here she is practicing an original piece that she's name "Rainshowers."



We were able to get two full days of schooling done before flu-like symptons hit our house. Both girls were sporting temps up to 103 and 104...not fun. On our last good day though, we were able to paint springtime tulips, an art activity that I found at Art Project for Kids. This site is soooo helpful! Please check it out if you've never visited. She has awesome art skills for all ages and freely
shares some of them on her blog.



Chelsea recovering on the chaise with Ellie



Well that about sums up our week. Thanks for reading...

Oh wait! In case you haven't noticed, we finished our 3 song from Silly School Songs, The 5 Senses. Take a listen and let us know what you think. Also if you like it, like us on facebook here. How could I almost forget one of the most exciting things that happened this week...geesh! Thanks for reading, check out my lovely link ups page to find out where I'm linking up this week!

One last thing, feel free to leave a link in the comments if you did some pretty awesome things this week also, I'd love to read about it and comment your blog!

Steph


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful artwork there! I love tulips! And that museum looks like fun!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I visited your blog today will definitely be stopping in again. Great post about fitting in the extras!

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  2. Oooh that is gorgeous Art. I will check it out.
    AND - I'm so sorry you all were sick this week (or ever)! I hope and pray this coming week is stellar in comparison!
    How exciting that you are back in school. GOOD FOR YOU!

    Blessings!
    em

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Em (as I grab a tissue from the kleenex box on my nightstand). :)

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  3. The tulip paintings are beautiful! I think we may need to add those to our plan for next week. :) Sounds like you had a fun week except for the illness. Hope everyone is feeling better now.

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    1. Everyone finally is feeling better. The painting was so easy to do and I was happy to have the girls to do the drawing themselves also. They were very proud of their finished product!

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  4. Very good painting. Good to hear that the children all had fun and learned a lot. That's the whole point right? :)

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