Saturday, February 12, 2011

CA ScienCenter Field Trip


Not only did we get to go and explore the California ScienCenter for the first time and see the IMAX Under the Sea movie, we also had a tour of the Paleontology Lab at the Natural History Museum.

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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Quilt #3


















Hannah did a marvelous job with Catherine's quilt.  This time around, she helped a lot more and wanted more independence where she has gained more confidence.  Catherine was thrilled with her blanket... I just loved hearing her draw her breath in excitement over it!



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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Art Class

It's a detail that can be easily missed if you weren't the art teacher of your daughter's coop.  I've been using the Mona Brookes, Monart method for teaching kids (and grown ups too) to draw.  They have just started drawing cubes and cylinders.  I'm not teaching perspective, but observation of lines.  Hannah had drawn this angel on her own.  It's our tree topper.  Normally, she would have simply drawn a straight line across the bottom of the angel's skirt.  I only noticed it because we had just been talking about it in our drawing class.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Book Club - Pippi Goes on Board


We get to participate in a book club with one of our home school groups.  Along with a discussion about the author and the book, we learned about some of the Christmas traditions from Sweden.



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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!





I was inspired by an article in a member's mailing from the Huntington Library called, "An Artwork Blooms in the Garden."  Using materials from nature, they used the lawns at the library as their canvas to create their artwork.  Hannah is always collecting leaves, rocks, sticks, etc.  She is also very creative and I thought this would be a wonderful outlet for her.  I must admit, she wasn't that interested in this activity when I first suggested it.  She squabbled with me as I tried to talk her through some basic elements of layout and design.  When she finally ran off to play, I busied myself with the vision of what I could see coming out of the materials we gathered.  After noticing me taking the time to make a picture, Hannah came over and became inspired.  She loved my turkey and suggested to make the other twigs we found trees.  Alyssa then wanted to help, so I directed her to put pine needles down for grass.   

I am curious to see how Hannah uses this experience...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Counting Pepitas

Daddy helped the girls clean out the insides of this pumpkin so that we could roast the seeds.  Hannah and Gramma counted pumpkins a few weeks ago, so I thought it would be fun to extend that learning activity.  

Gramma and Hannah counted 393 seeds.

We counted 567 (three more were found later, but were not used in our math exercise).  Hannah began by counting one at a time, but putting odd numbers in one bowl and even in another.  VERY confusing way of counting , at least for mommy!  Then when we recounted after she reached 100, we found that she had 44 in one bowl and 46 in the other.

I introduced the symbols of < and > as we compared which count was greater.