Faeries, Pi and Weekend Fun!

 

 

So, I mentioned in my last post that Goose is performing in our charter school's performance of

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  And, on top of lots of other writing

assignments, all the kids were required to turn in some sort of project relating to

Shakespeare or this particular play.

And since Goose is playing the faerie,  Peaseblossom, she chose faeries as her

subject.  I am in love with this project!!! 

 

 

She studied the history of faeries and made this beautiful display,

complete with real faeries!  She used battery-operated tea lights with cotton over them to make

them glow.  I also love the faerie door at the base of the tree.  I am so proud of her!  She did it completely on her own.  She is also very proud of herself! 

 

 

 



Of course, we had to make pie on pi day!

Apple pie, as requested by Binky.  We also listened to some very funny youtube

songs about pi.  Binky and I also drew some circles, measured the diameter, radius and

found pi! And we finished the pie the next morning for breakfast.

 

 



Today was beautiful!

We all hopped in the car, with Cody the dog, and headed to the bay.

The water was warm and very shallow.

Cody loved it!

 

 



 

Is that a happy dog face, or what?

 

 

Daddy, Goose, Binky and Cody had a great time playing

Frisbee in the water.

While I was watching them playing, I thought to myself,

"This is our moment."  It was a wonderful feeling, living in that moment!

We played, laughed, snacked, ran, played catch later with a friend at the park.

Goose and Binky didn't argue once all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was the perfect day. 

Now back to the week ahead. 

 

busy week

 

 

 

Binky is taking a boat building class on Friday mornings.

Their first project was to make their own paddles.

They tested them out in boats made by other students.

Binky is loving this class!

By the end, he will have his own boat.

Very exciting!

 

Goose is performing in our school's production of

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

She is playing the role of Peaseblossom, which is the role she wanted! 

 I am sewing on all of these little

blossoms to her cape and skirt.  Goose is very

excited!  This is her second Shakespeare performance.

She was in Twelfth Night two years ago.  Our charter school

does a Shakespeare performance every year.  We usually alternate

between tragedy and comedy.  I am excited to see all

the hard work these kids have put into this performance.  I am so impressed with

how hard they work and how familiar they are with Shakespeare.

There are two performances on March 20.

 

We are also busy with writing group, martial arts 4 days a week, French group,

art group.  I know there are other things to add to this list, but I can't think of them right now.

We are loving the weather here by the bay right now.

It is so nice to get outside every day and be active.  The bees are very active, too,

right now.  We listened to a very interesting show on Science Friday about bees.

Here is the link.  If you don't listen to Science Friday on NPR, you must

give it a try!  We love it! And we are always sad when we miss it.  But you

can always go to sciencefriday.com to listen any time.

What are you busy with right now?

 



cooking

 

 

Goose has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

She made citrus chicken with kale and rice the other night and it was

delicious!!  There were no left-overs. 

She is always asking to bake something.  Cookies, cake, whatever we happen

to have the ingredients for.  She turns on the music and

gets into her zone.  I can see how it relaxes her. 

It does the same for me!

Peg Dolls and Blog Tour

If you don't know Margaret from We Bloom Here, please check out

her blog and her new book, Making Peg Dolls.

Her dolls are whimsical, fun and playful!

Margaret is having a blog tour and today's stop is Art is A Way.

This is a gorgeous blog, if you don't know it.

And Elsa is having a giveaway, one Making Peg Dolls book

to a lucky blogger who leaves a comment!

Stop by, if you can and leave a comment.

Have a great day!

Weekend

Well, our weekend was pummeled by the "Pineapple Express."

An atmospheric river that made its way here from

the Hawaiin Islands.

Lots of rain, rain, rain.

And since we are studying weather and climate, I thought this would

make an excellent lesson!  So Binky

made a diagram of the "Pineapple Express."

You can read  more about it here, if you like.

 

 



 

So while we were indoors, listening to all that rain, Goose

broke out some holiday decorations.

This is Binky's favorite christmas item.

I bought it for him at the Nutcracker several years ago.

 

 



 

 

 

I made some salt dough ornaments and we

had a blast decorating them!  Grandma came over with her

craft box and we went a little crazy with all that paint, glitter, and beads!!

I love how they turned out! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two ornaments are for my two nephews.

I hope they love them!  I had so much fun making them!

 

 

 



 

 

 

I even made some for us.

It was a nice time.  Holiday memories in the making.

I asked the kids what they would like to do this holiday season

and we came up with a few ideas so far. 

 

Make snowflakes

birdseed ornaments for the birds

solstice walk in the woods

gift making for family and friends

light the lights for Hanukkah

watch Elf

go ice skating

 

Joy, over at You know how we're an art family...

has a beautiful list of advent activities she made with her family.

What special activities do you do with your family this

time of year?

 



Tosca

Wednesday afternoon was a good one!

Goose and I joined some friends for the final dress rehearsal of

Puccini's Tosca.

It was amazing!  I loved it.  This was our 4th opera together and

Goose said it was by far her favorite.

During the intermission there were cookies waiting for us and they left the curtain up

so we could watch the set change.

It was very interesting.  So many people working to

put it all together.  And so much larger than I realized backstage.

The San Francisco War Memorial Opera House is gorgeous!!

It takes us 15 minutes to get there from our house!

If there is no traffic, of course.

I am learning to really love the opera.

After seeing The Capulets and The Montagues in September

I was hooked.  The two women who played Romeo and Juliet

were absolutely amazing!!!!!

 

Don't forget about my Giveaway!!

Deadline to leave a comment is tomorrow night!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 



Giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first Giveaway!

I am giving away a scarf of your choice from my Etsy shop, Crochet Crowe!

Please go to my shop blog, Crochet Crowe and leave a comment letting me

know which is your favorite scarf!!

The deadline to leave a comment is Sunday, November 18 at 12pm Pacific Time.

I can't wait to hear from you!!

Happy November!

 

 

Antibubbles

 

 

Have you ever heard of antibubbles?

I had not until last week when Binky came home from

science class and was talking about bubbles.

An antibubble is a bubble underwater.  So it is water surrounded

by a thin layer of air, which is surrounded by water.

A little confusing, I know.

I have a link below that explains it with diagrams.

 

 

 

He also practiced blowing bubbles inside of bubbles.

Both Goose and Binky had fun with this.

At one point, they could blow 4 bubbles inside of each other!

I was amazed at how much fun they both had blowing bubbles all weekend.

And whenever a friend or family member came over they had to show

them how to do it!

 

 

 

 

Binky's teacher talked about antibubbles a little bit, but didn't

really get into it, so I found a great website that

explains what they are and how to make them!

Of course, we had to try and make our own.

It does take patience, but the results are worth it!

I also found this great youtube video.

We have to try this next!

And I thought we were long past bubble play!

Have a great week!

home learning fun

 

Binky is up to his drawing again.

I love this one!

I love seeing him hang out in his room

and come up with these ideas of his.

I want to print this one on a tshirt to give him for

Christmas this year.  He will be so surprised!

 

Goose's science group is studying Earth Science and I taught a class on

volcanes.  We sketched and labeled the main types of volcanes.

The kids labeled a world map with a variety of different volcanoes.

We talked about the silica content of magma and how the more silica in the magma,

the more viscous the lava.

 

 



I poked a tiny hole in toothpaste tubes and the kids squeezed the tubes to watch how the

"magma" oozes down the side of the tube.

This is very viscous lava!  They made a chart of all the different elements

in igneous rocks formed from different lavas, like basalt, andesite, dacite and rhyolite.

It was a great class!  I only had two hours, but we covered a TON of information.

 

 



 

 

Goose decorated this lovely sarcophagus. 

She is still studying Egypt.

We attended a workshop at the local Egyptian Museum last Sunday

focused on Egyptian oils and perfumes. 

She loved it!  One more workshop this weekend and

 she will be able to attend a sleep-over at the museum.

How cool is that!

 

 

 

 

 

Goose has also spent a lot of time crocheting this week.

She made herself a little pouch yesterday.

So cute!  I love seeing her enjoy something I love so much.

 

We are looking forward to a cooler weekend here by the bay.

It has been in the 80s most of the week!

A little too warm for me right now.

I was getting used to wearing my scarves and boots

and then I had to break out my sandals and tank tops again.

But I have noticed a beautiful sparkle to the sun.

Every October the sun seems to sparkle.  I can't find a better word

to describe it.  Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, I love it.

It will be much cooler this weekend.

Hopefully I can break out those scarves and boots again!



Glue Batik

This project has been in the back of my mind ever since I found it here.

I always find inspiration and great directions on this lovely blog!

I had been hiding a bottle of Elmer's blue Gel Glue just for this day.

So I pulled it out and found an old cotton pillow case to cut up.

Binky used a brush with the glue to create his TRON flag.

He is very into TRON right now!

Goose used the bottle of glue to create her pyramid and Eye of Horus design.

Egypt is a big part of her reading, writing and art right now.

After the designs were finished we left them out in the sun to dry.

Lucky for us it was a very warm day and they dried in no time!

After painting our fabrics, we left them to dry in the sun.

After they were completely dry, maybe an hour or so, we washed them in the bathtub.

It took a few minutes to rub off all the glue.

A fingernail brush does work very well.

This is Binky's TRON flag.

If you don't know TRON, this is the symbol for TRON himself.

I was thrilled with how well the glue really worked.

I love this pyramid scene!

I made this flower and Reiki symbol wall hanging.

We made these in a day and it was so much fun!

Both kids were very into each step, from the glue to the bathtub rinse.

Thank you Gail for another great project idea!!