Is this education working?

It seems, in our society, that the only measure of educational success we can understand is based on academic testing – SATS, GCSEs, targets for this and that and the other.

In the Live Grow Nourish Create home “school”, we think of educational success rather differently. In a time period that has seen us learning about kindness, and about sanitation, this letter and accompanying sentiment from Waif tells me that something here is working:

Waif has chosen to send £10 of his saved-up pocket money to a charity that helps provide toilets to people in developing countries. I am proud of him, and glad that he is learning to be compassionate and generous.

It’s a Family Affair

There’s something quite lovely about the times when all the family sit down together to draw together. Would it be too cheesy to say that drawing together draws us together?

This week we all tackled the Sketch Tuesday assignment “Something Beginning with N”.

Daddy and Gman drew a plate of nuts:

And Waif and I went for necklaces:

I recommend popping over the Harmony Art Mom’s blog to see the slideshow of entries from other homeschooled kids and some parents!

Day Three: Opening the Toybox

Day Three of the challenge sees me doing some drawing with the boys. It’s been a while since we took part in Sketch Tuesday, but we were all quite keen to tackle this week’s assignment, which was to draw something you find in a toybox.

Gman (12) went with some Lego minifigures:

Waif (7) pulled out some cuddly toys:

And I drew part of a toy castle:

I made use of the Inktense pencils plus water again, and I love the effect. Inktense pencils are the new love of my life

Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe

Yesterday, we did some art inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe‘s flower paintings. Instructions came from the rather fabulous book Adventures and Activities in Abstract Art (as an aside – I thoroughly recommend this series of books for anyone interested in art with kids). The idea was to draw a rather abstracted close up of a flower, using the whole page, and then paint with watercolours. Here is Gman’s:

And Waif’s rose:

And yes, I did join in, though mine looks more like an alien than a flower

How have you celebrated flowers today?

May Flower Challenge – Abstract Flowers

Today’s May Flower Challenge activity was drawing some abstract flowers, inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. We got the idea from Kinderart.

The boys drew one flower each – one in cool colours; one in warm colours. Here are Gman’s:

Here are Waif’s:

Mine is in cool colours. I only did one, cos someone had to make the lunch

Do pop over to Lori Moon’s blog and see what other May Flower Challenge participants have been up to!

Signing up for the May Flower Challenge

Ooh, an exciting new challenge!  It’s the May Flower Challenge, over on Lori Moon Studio’s blog.  The idea is to do something to do with flowers throughout May – I’m thinking drawing flowers, painting them, photographing them, writing poems about them…and the boys are joining in too.

I enjoyed the Index-Card-A-Day Challenge last summer over at Daisy Yellow, so thought I might create a month of flower-themed index card art.  Here’s the first:

Waif wrote a poem about flowers:

Don’t you just love the idea that flowers are giving hugs to bugs?!

We then spent some time gathering dandelion flowers ready to make some dandelion massage oil:

Waif is pretty pleased with it:

We now have to wait six weeks for the dandelion flowers to infuse the oil, before removing them and refrigerating the oil. Apparently it will be very good for aching muscles!

Gman has joined in by taking photographs of flowers – I expect these will pop up on his blog any day now! Edited: yep, here they are!

Ter-wit Ter-woo

Inspired by Mina’s love of owls, we have been drawing and making owls. First up these drawings (with a little bit of help from Art Projects for Kids). Waif drew a very wise owl:

I drew a cute owl:

And Gman went for something a bit more psychadelic:

The boys have also had a go at making clay owls. They fashioned these last Friday and then, making the most of the first sunny day in weeks, yesterday took them outside to paint:

Here they are, all painted. First up, Gman’s:

Then Waif’s:

Even the ladybirds came over to check them out:

It was lovely to have some sunshine and be back outside. Waif in particular was happy about it:

Alas, today it is raining again!! Perhaps some owl poetry..?

More Fun with Mina

As I thought, My Name is Mina is proving to be a source of lots of learning, and lots of fun.

Mina talks about different beliefs about death and the afterlife, which was a springboard for learning about funeral rites in different cultures. We read about historical views on the afterlife from the British Museum, and the boys did one of the suggested art activities, which was to design a tombstone for a historical or fictional character, including symbols related to their life. Gman did one for Bilbo Baggins (of Lord of the Rings):

Waif chose Buddha for his:

Mina also talks in the book about a Tibetan creation myth, whereby the universe emerges from an egg. This inspired some super pictures. Gman did two interpretations:

And here’s Waif’s interpretation, complete with all the planets:

Next stop: poetry. My Name is Mina is peppered with “extraordinary activities” for readers to do. One of these is to write a poem “that repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word until it almost loses its meaning. (It can be useful to choose a word that you don’t like, or that scares or disturbs you.)“  It’s a measure of how squeamish the boys are that Gman’s word was “fracture” and Waif’s was “needle”!! This is the first time Waif has written a poem and I think he did great:

If you’d like to read Gman’s poem, he has posted it on his own blog here: http://thebatamonblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/fractured-bone-poem/

I think it’s safe to say that we are enjoying this read and all the activities it has inspired.  Who needs a curriculum when you can be a free spirit like Mina?

I *am* still sewing (a bit)

Readers who have followed me over from my old sewing blog are probably wondering where all the sewing has gone!

So, just to prove that I haven’t abandoned the needle altogether, here’s some evidence:

These are regular nine patches waiting to be sliced up and spun around and turned into disappearing nine patch blocks like these:

I know, it’s not a lot, but still!!

I think I only have so much creative energy, and just lately that energy has been directed towards food – like making homemade beefstock:

Yummy.

And learning about nutrition with the boys, who have done a couple more months on their produce calendars. Waif’s:

Gman’s:

I am sure my sewing flame will be re-ignited soon and I will have some exciting projects to share

Raising Renegade Kids

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can make sure your kids get an education in the things that really matter. And what could matter more than food? We very rarely use purchased curricula in our homeschooling, preferring a more fluid approach, but have made an exception for Food Renegade’s Real Food Nutrition for Kids. We are working our way through the chapters, doing the activities and making lapbooks presenting the information. Here’s the boys puzzling over what is real food and what is fake food:

We are now up to the chapter on produce and the boys have been really inspired by learning about what fruits and vegetables are in season. With a bit of help from this website, they have put together a chart of what’s in season when (in the UK). Then we discovered some unused blank 2012 calendars, and so they decided to use this information to make pictures to go with each month. Even though it is already February, they were keen to include January! They have completed the first three months and will continue with the others over the next few days. Here are illustrations from Waif (just turned 7):

And Gman (just turned 12):

And we all enjoyed watching the Way of the Vegetable Assassin:

This post has been submitted to Food Renegades Fight Back Friday