Thunder Cake

This morning, Linus was afraid of thunder.
Tonight, he is not.

He didn't have to go up against Nellie Peck Hen or old Kick Cow, but he did go out to the garage for butter and tomatoes, and brave the hand mixer and food processor.  He learned to separate eggs, beat the whites into stiff peaks, fold them in, and operate the hand mixer all by himself.

He is brave.  He is skilled.  He has chocolate crumbs all around his smiling mouth.

Beautiful Day Out

Our recent artsy week -- talking about famous artists, watching a few movies about their lives, getting our hands messy -- reminded me to check in on current exhibits at local and local-enough museums.  When Sela saw the we could see a painting by Raphael, she was dazzled.  Inspiration had struck at just the right time...

One of the joys of homeschooling is the freedom to pack up snacks and escape for the day without a lot of planning.  So, we popped over to San Francisco to catch "Portrait of a Lady With a Unicorn" by Raphael in its final week at the Legion of Honor Museum of Fine Arts.

What a view outside the museum!

The "bonus" exhibit, in this case, was a collection done by Pierre Bonnard.

And in the permanent collection, (wow) we saw works by these guys:
Monet
Pissaro
Degas
Renoir
Cezanne
Manet
Seurat
Van ault
Rembrandt
Rodin

Puzzle souvenirs from museums are my FAVORITE.
We saw this work by Pierre Bonnard.

best of all-
this was my tour group <3

No-Fuss National Poetry Month

A quick walk-by grab at the library

An acrostic poem scrawled on scrap paper 

to bring kids into an exhibit titled "Bloom 2"

An add-in to last's week geography class (North America) --

Poetry Tea Time with a Twist (minus the tea, plus the avocado milkshakes)

Inexpensive recent gifts

Game Spotlight: Solitaire Chess by Thinkfun

We started with Attila (by Blue Orange). Clever little game where all of the pieces move like knights in chess.  What a nice entrèe for those who don't know how to play chess!

We just picked up Solitaire Chess (by Thinkfun), and both kids are really enjoying the challenges and learning some chess basics at the same time.  Me, too!  Also making it a great family choice: it can be played alone.  Sometimes we get at a loose end here, with one child assigned a task and the other not...

Linus likes to make up his own boards -- a little more math and some letters thrown in to boot!

It's For the Birds

A pair of mated bald eagles is raising two eaglets in the U.S. National Arboretum, and we can see it all via the live cams that have been set up!  Now THIS is reality television I can get into!

In our little arboretum (i.e. our backyard), we're busy with birds, too.  We've made our own bird seed blend by picking and choosing through the bulk bins at the feed store -- we went with thistle and black sunflowers to woo our goldfinches back.  The chickens love the black sunflowers, too, so that's a bonus!

The hummingbird feeder has been washed and refilled with a new formula.  I have given up on the homemade versions.  It gets syrupy in the feeder and mildews quickly.

And I'm daily trying to unravel the mystery of who is pecking the chicken eggs and for what reason (for the love of Pete!).

Art with the Masters -- And Some Famous Ones, Too

Last week we hit the pause button on our regularly scheduled activities and made room for something different.

We warmed up with this Paul Klee-inspired project.  Because: books and paints.

Dale Chihuly sparked our creative fires for this Bakit & Makit project we were gifted (those little plastic pellets you melt in the oven).  We may buy more -- it turned out to be a dazzlingly-fun project!

I have never made a more fun sculpture than this Giacometti project.  The materials are so fun and easy to work with, and I think the aged metal effect is stunning.

Henri Matisse -- we had to go with his cut-outs this time.  Mixing up our artist exploration with scissors and Mod Podge was a must.  They make lovely tealight globes (battery-operated).

Good.
Better.
And a well-deserved rest under A Starry Night.

We read that although many believe that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel on his back, he actually painted while standing.  Linus didn't care one bit.  Laying down and drawing under the table was definitely the way to go.  That's cool; why not?

We painted, sprinkled, melted, shaped, snipped, taped, bent, sculpted, cut, blew up, glued, drew, and worked from a new angle.  And -- found two museums with some pretty famous works that we're heading out to see.

time + materials = inspiration