They were so sweet. Each came forward and sang little solos, including "God Bless America."
I loved it, but it also made me cry.
These are kindergarteners.
This is the way kindergarteners should be spending a Saturday before Christmas.
cindy
Showing posts with label Weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekend. Show all posts
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The Way It Ought to Be
My son participates in a an extracurricular school for the arts and every year about this time they do a revue with the various age groups. The theme this year was America, and this little group did some great little numbers
They were so sweet. Each came forward and sang little solos, including "God Bless America."
I loved it, but it also made me cry.
These are kindergarteners.
This is the way kindergarteners should be spending a Saturday before Christmas.
cindy
They were so sweet. Each came forward and sang little solos, including "God Bless America."
I loved it, but it also made me cry.
These are kindergarteners.
This is the way kindergarteners should be spending a Saturday before Christmas.
cindy
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Art of Learning
On Saturdays, it's my job to teach my 11-year old son, because my husband does it all week. I teach Language Arts and Art. Language Arts is fine - I'm pretty comfortable with that - but Art is another issue. I am creative, but not artistic. I can craft, but don't make me draw a picture. There is a lot of picture drawing involved in this class. There are no patterns involved.
As part of this teaching gig, I'n learning about elements of art. Line, color, shape, texture, are part of my vocabulary now, but only to the extent of appreciation. Today we were learning about balance. The easy type of balance is "formal." It's the easiest to understand because it's simple symmetry. We also learned about radial balance, in which items "radiate" from a single point, frequently unseen. The best example I can give is a fan. Finally, the last form of balance we learned about was "informal" or asymmetrical balance. That one was the most interesting, but also the most difficult to understand.
As part of the lesson, Christian and I had to walk around the house looking for examples of each type of balance so he can sketch them. Here's his example of formal balance (symmetry):
What I realized is that there is a natural sense of balance in all kinds of things. I didn't realize that what I find myself doing when I take pictures is trying to achieve a type of balance, especially asymmetrical balance. (Photography is the closest I get to being an artist, and I'm hardly a good photographer.) But, I will say that learning some of these elements of art might make me a better photographer, so at least my scrapbooks (if I ever make them), will be more interesting.
One of the best things about working with my son is that I get to channel my inner teacher. I've taught a bit, mostly informally. I really like it. If I weren't a lawyer, I would like to be a teacher. But doing this one-on-one with my son is a great opportunity to connect with him on a totally new level. It's awesome to see the lightbulb go on when he grasps a new concept. So, with something like art, we're learning together. Cool.
cindy
As part of this teaching gig, I'n learning about elements of art. Line, color, shape, texture, are part of my vocabulary now, but only to the extent of appreciation. Today we were learning about balance. The easy type of balance is "formal." It's the easiest to understand because it's simple symmetry. We also learned about radial balance, in which items "radiate" from a single point, frequently unseen. The best example I can give is a fan. Finally, the last form of balance we learned about was "informal" or asymmetrical balance. That one was the most interesting, but also the most difficult to understand.
As part of the lesson, Christian and I had to walk around the house looking for examples of each type of balance so he can sketch them. Here's his example of formal balance (symmetry):
What I realized is that there is a natural sense of balance in all kinds of things. I didn't realize that what I find myself doing when I take pictures is trying to achieve a type of balance, especially asymmetrical balance. (Photography is the closest I get to being an artist, and I'm hardly a good photographer.) But, I will say that learning some of these elements of art might make me a better photographer, so at least my scrapbooks (if I ever make them), will be more interesting.
One of the best things about working with my son is that I get to channel my inner teacher. I've taught a bit, mostly informally. I really like it. If I weren't a lawyer, I would like to be a teacher. But doing this one-on-one with my son is a great opportunity to connect with him on a totally new level. It's awesome to see the lightbulb go on when he grasps a new concept. So, with something like art, we're learning together. Cool.
cindy
Monday, September 24, 2012
Back in the (School) Day
At the risk of looking really old, I've been thinking back on my high school days in the '80s. It's September now, and I'm reminded of all those Friday nights when we went to the football games. I went to a Catholic high school in southern Illinois and we didn't have our own football field, so we used the stadium of the big public school about 5 miles away. (For those of you still in Belleville, that's my best guess.) I specifically remember those games as a freshman, because we didn't have cars or rides from anyone but our parents. God forbid our parents would drop us off at the stadium - NOOOOO. We would have them drop us off about a mile or two away and then we would walk down West Main Street. Now that I think about that, we were kind of stupid because that was a long walk and sometimes it was cold.
Back in the day, we wore big hair and clogs. I was never too much into the big hair thing, but I did have clogs. You know, backless shoes with wedge heels. Our heels were never that high, but they were wooden and made a lot of noise when you walked. I can also remember how much my feet hurt at the end of the day - my heels from walking on a wooden block and my toes from scrunching them to keep the clogs on. But as my mother would say "Beauty knows no pain." (Although I definitely don't remember her saying that about those clogs.)
Yeah, we went through some weird clothing trends during my high school years. I started high school at the very beginning of the 80s and went off to college toward the end. We started with the "preppy look." For most of you who were born after my high school years, that consisted of plaid skirts (preferably pleated), long knee socks and loafers. You could wear a button down blouse with a ribbon tie at the collar, with a muted sweater over the blouse. You could always wear clogs instead of loafers. By the end of high school, we were teasing our hair and getting "punked out" with the big shirts/sweaters, bright colors, leg warmers and leggings. Yep, we wore some crazy stuff.
I remember my freshman year at Homecoming. We had a parade down West Main Street and every class (freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors) also had their own floats on flatbed. Everyone used wood forms, chicken wire and tissue paper flowers to make figures for the float. I made so many of those tissue paper flowers, my fingers were cut up by the floral wire we used to keep them together. (See, even then I was crafty!) The freshman float always looked pretty sad. I remember that year the seniors made a giant Pac Man eating a player from the other team - impressive. That year at football games, we saw the appearance of a new mascot - the Crusader. Here was a guy dressed in armor (yep, the real thing), riding a big white horse and carrying a banner. It was very cool. We never knew who the Crusader was until the last pep rally of the football season when it was revealed to be one of our school priests. Oh man, was he awesome!
Yep, the 80s were a very strange decade. We saw the birth of MTV and music videos, very crude video games (remember Pong?), crazy fashions and awesome music. I was there and I wouldn't change that for all the world.
Go Althoff Crusaders!
cindy
I'm participating in the SITS Girls "Fall Back into Blogging" this week.
Back in the day, we wore big hair and clogs. I was never too much into the big hair thing, but I did have clogs. You know, backless shoes with wedge heels. Our heels were never that high, but they were wooden and made a lot of noise when you walked. I can also remember how much my feet hurt at the end of the day - my heels from walking on a wooden block and my toes from scrunching them to keep the clogs on. But as my mother would say "Beauty knows no pain." (Although I definitely don't remember her saying that about those clogs.)
Yeah, we went through some weird clothing trends during my high school years. I started high school at the very beginning of the 80s and went off to college toward the end. We started with the "preppy look." For most of you who were born after my high school years, that consisted of plaid skirts (preferably pleated), long knee socks and loafers. You could wear a button down blouse with a ribbon tie at the collar, with a muted sweater over the blouse. You could always wear clogs instead of loafers. By the end of high school, we were teasing our hair and getting "punked out" with the big shirts/sweaters, bright colors, leg warmers and leggings. Yep, we wore some crazy stuff.
I remember my freshman year at Homecoming. We had a parade down West Main Street and every class (freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors) also had their own floats on flatbed. Everyone used wood forms, chicken wire and tissue paper flowers to make figures for the float. I made so many of those tissue paper flowers, my fingers were cut up by the floral wire we used to keep them together. (See, even then I was crafty!) The freshman float always looked pretty sad. I remember that year the seniors made a giant Pac Man eating a player from the other team - impressive. That year at football games, we saw the appearance of a new mascot - the Crusader. Here was a guy dressed in armor (yep, the real thing), riding a big white horse and carrying a banner. It was very cool. We never knew who the Crusader was until the last pep rally of the football season when it was revealed to be one of our school priests. Oh man, was he awesome!
Yep, the 80s were a very strange decade. We saw the birth of MTV and music videos, very crude video games (remember Pong?), crazy fashions and awesome music. I was there and I wouldn't change that for all the world.
Go Althoff Crusaders!
cindy
I'm participating in the SITS Girls "Fall Back into Blogging" this week.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Verde Canyon Railroad
We were in the Verde Valley area of Arizona during Labor Day Weekend. The Verde Valley is in Central Arizona, south of Sedona and about 90 miles north of Phoenix. It's a bit overlooked in the shadow of Sedona, so I wasn't sure what we would do over the weekend. But we found one of the best gems in Arizona - the Verde Canyon Railroad in Clarkdale.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Labor Day Weekend - Sedona Hike
There's lots to say about this weekend, but let's just make at least some of it easy:
Hope your holiday weekend was great!
cindy
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Watermelon Blues
As the summer ends, there are things that go away. One of those things is watermelon. There are also people who are going away - high school graduates off to college and a dear friend who is off to the seminary. A week ago we had a party to celebrate our new seminarian and I made this recipe.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Another Day in History
The Battle of Cowpens - I know more than I ever wanted to know. Yes, it's another one of Christian's school projects. We have done some book reports and a salt dough version of the State of Arizona (another project I will look forward to next year when Mackenzie is in 4th grade). This time we did a model of a Revolutionary War battle. We chose the Battle of Cowpens because it was the battle we could find on the internet with a schematic. I have to admit it was interesting, but that's because I like history. I'm also proud of this model.
It's not easy to see, but the red and blue sticks represent British and Colonial armies. The trees are made of cotton balls dyed green on brown sticks and the movements of the armies are shown in arrows. Yeah, I did some a lot most of the work. Christian helped paint the sticks, made the cotton ball trees and mixed a bit of salt dough. I don't remember having to do so many of these projects when I was in elementary school. Maybe I do them because I love crafty things and I'm challenged. Now that it's done, I wish I could have spent the weekend doing something else. Actually, I'm just happy it's done.
Bring on Arizona in salt dough!
cindy
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Girl Scout Camp
Last weekend my daughter and I joined some other Brownies in a Fall Encampment at Willow Springs in Prescott, Arizona. It's a beautiful camp with mountains, pines and gorgeous weather. We had about 12 moms and daughters in our troop, and even though it was only 24 hours, we had the best time.
This was only our troop's second camping experience, the first being at the Phoenix Zoo where we slept on a concrete slab and listened to lions roaring all night :( This time we had dorms with real bunk beds (a real hit with the girls) and mattresses (a real hit with the moms). The theme was "Mind and Body" and the activities included making your own lip gloss, soap, lotion and glitter lotion.
The girls also enjoyed yoga! Ladies, this ain't your old Girl Scouts!
Mostly it was a wonderful bonding experience for moms and daughters.
On Saturday night the moms had a glimpse into the future when the rumor around the dorm was that "somebody" was having a party. All the girls wanted to rush out to find the "party" without knowing where or who was having a party. (Doesn't that remind you of some 15 year olds?) One little girl and her mom were bunking next to me and I overheard this exchange:
Mom: Why are you wanting to go to a party when you don't even know if there is a party? Would you jump off a bridge just because someone told you to?
Girl: But Mama, it's not a bridge, it's a party!
I thought I was going to fall off the bunk laughing! When it was over we couldn't believe we were there just 24 hours. We packed so much into one day and we were beat!
Too bad they won't be this age forever {sigh}
This was only our troop's second camping experience, the first being at the Phoenix Zoo where we slept on a concrete slab and listened to lions roaring all night :( This time we had dorms with real bunk beds (a real hit with the girls) and mattresses (a real hit with the moms). The theme was "Mind and Body" and the activities included making your own lip gloss, soap, lotion and glitter lotion.
The girls also enjoyed yoga! Ladies, this ain't your old Girl Scouts!
All the girls had hats with "swaps" on them. I'm going to write another blog on swaps, but the idea is like pin trading with different little items made by the girls. This was definitely a new concept to me, and the girls' first experience. One of our girls proved to be a shrewd businesswoman!
On Saturday night the moms had a glimpse into the future when the rumor around the dorm was that "somebody" was having a party. All the girls wanted to rush out to find the "party" without knowing where or who was having a party. (Doesn't that remind you of some 15 year olds?) One little girl and her mom were bunking next to me and I overheard this exchange:
Mom: Why are you wanting to go to a party when you don't even know if there is a party? Would you jump off a bridge just because someone told you to?
Girl: But Mama, it's not a bridge, it's a party!
I thought I was going to fall off the bunk laughing! When it was over we couldn't believe we were there just 24 hours. We packed so much into one day and we were beat!
Too bad they won't be this age forever {sigh}
cindy
Monday, September 5, 2011
DIY - Yarn Mache
I've seen several blogs with demonstrations of yarn bowls. I call it yarn mache because it is the same technique and same paste you use with paper mache. My craft diva is in full swing this holiday weekend and has been wanting to make paper mache. We don't have any newspaper, so I thought it would be easy to try this.
First, you need the paste. I've always used glue watered down, but after trying this recipe for paste, I like it much better. I must give credit to carolynshomework for this recipe:
Combine 1/2 c. flour with 2 cups water
Boil 2 c. of water and add flour/water mixture to pan
Bring total mixture to boil (watch so it doesn't boil over)
Let mixture cool and then add 3 tablespoons sugar
Paste will thicken as it cools completely
You can use balloons to make paper mache or yarn mache, but I like to use a bowl to make a bowl. Cover the bottom of the bowl in clear plastic wrap, so you protect your bowl.
Pick your yarn. I like a regular worsted weight, although a cotton would probably work very well. I used a "homestyle" yarn, which wasn't the best choice because it started to unravel.
Cut the yarn in the lengths you want and dip each piece in to coat completely. I wouldn't recommend immersing the yarn in the paste too much as it makes it harder to remove the paste. As you take out each piece, strip the wet paste off and wrap the yarn around the bowl in any pattern you choose.
Use as much (or as little) yarn as you would like. We tended to use a little more to make the bowl more substantial.
Once you have finished, allow the bowl to dry COMPLETELY, at least overnight. If you live in a high humidity area, it may take longer. Slowly remove the plastic wrap from the bowl and then carefully peel the plastic wrap off the yarn bowl.
We also tried a slightly bigger one in multiple colors:
cindy
Friday, June 10, 2011
Friday - Time to Get to Work!
I look forward to every weekend because that's when I can really get down to work. Work on my passion that is - crafting. This weekend I'm working on a patchwork dress for my Kenzie. It's been a labor of love for a while now - I stitched lots and lots of 4x2" pieces together to make "fabric" so I could cut the skirt out of a pattern. Then I decided I didn't like the top of the dress on that pattern, so I'm trying to improvise by matching it to another pattern's top. This better work!! If it does, I'll be sure to post a picture - when I get a camera.
We've promised redecorated rooms to both Kenzie and CJ, which includes something I HATE to do - paint. Don't get me wrong - I love the results, especially when they coincide with the picture in my head, but gosh, I just hate painting. Kenzie also wants a canopy over her bed, which I want to make, but I may get myself in over my head (no pun intended :). The problem with promising Kenzie something is that she is going to hold you to it, so maybe we'll get started on that this weekend too.
See what I mean about work? It's my passion to make beautiful things, but it is time consuming. Today I saw a blog entry on Stitch Steal's "Feature You Friday". It's about a woman named Anabela who makes beautiful crochet hats. Even more beautiful than her hats are the words she uses to describe how she feels about making things and her children. You can check out Stitch Steal's blog entry about Anabela here, and see Anabela's work at Hats for QTs.
Happy Friday - let the work begin!
cindy
We've promised redecorated rooms to both Kenzie and CJ, which includes something I HATE to do - paint. Don't get me wrong - I love the results, especially when they coincide with the picture in my head, but gosh, I just hate painting. Kenzie also wants a canopy over her bed, which I want to make, but I may get myself in over my head (no pun intended :). The problem with promising Kenzie something is that she is going to hold you to it, so maybe we'll get started on that this weekend too.
See what I mean about work? It's my passion to make beautiful things, but it is time consuming. Today I saw a blog entry on Stitch Steal's "Feature You Friday". It's about a woman named Anabela who makes beautiful crochet hats. Even more beautiful than her hats are the words she uses to describe how she feels about making things and her children. You can check out Stitch Steal's blog entry about Anabela here, and see Anabela's work at Hats for QTs.
Happy Friday - let the work begin!
cindy
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