Cave Paintings

Emma had such a great time with her cave paintings and I think they came out really good.

Before she got started, we sat down and looked through some books that had pictures of actual cave paintings. We also went to the Lascaux Cave website and "wander" through the caves virtually. (I tried to link the site, but the site isn't working now).

Anyway, here are Emma's cave paintings.

The Cave

(located in the laundry room between the washer and dryer)

She was excited to discover the tools used in the making of these ancient cave drawings!

My favorite

A hunting scene

The complete collection. 

She really had a blast with this and I am super excited about some of the other SOTW projects that we have coming up. 

Hope you all had a fantastic week!

Bedtime Reading

I love reading out loud to Emma. We don't read out loud a whole lot during the day, as we are typically busy creating, playing, and listening to audio books or music. But every night at bedtime, we read out loud. Some nights Emma will read a book to me (she really loves the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems) before I read a few chapters to her.

We just finished the third book in the Wolves of the Beyond series. It is the second series by Kathryn Lasky that we have read/listened to. Emma loves the Guardians for Ga'Hoole, and this series ties in with that one, but from a wolves perspective instead of the the owls.

One of the things I love the most about this series is it teaches Emma that even a creature (or person) with a disability can achieve wonderful things if they keep trying.

Anyway, this isn't really a post about a book review ('cause I am terrible at giving book reviews, just ask Jared), this post is about what Emma does while I read.

Until a few nights ago, Emma would fidget, braid her dolls/horses hair, squirm, and just generally annoy and distract me while I was trying to read to her. I love this series, but some of the words are pretty tough because it's a made up language (wolf language, bear language, owl language- they are all hard to pronounce).

I finally had a bright idea. Why not give her a little notebook to draw in while I am reading to her. She can draw about what we are reading, or about anything she wants. The first night I gave her the book and pencil, I was slightly amazed at her drawing.

Faolan

Here are her drawings from the rest of the book (the last 2 or 3 nights).

The Whistler

Wolf hunting a Caribou

"The Wolves of the Beyond"

Horses (not in the book)

A Spotted Collier Owl going to gather embers from a Volcano. The pile of bones is what Faolan stands on to keep watch of the volcanoes. 

another horse (not part of the story). 

I love watching her drawing evolve. Lately she has been using her model horses as models for her drawings and I have to say (not that I am biased) that her drawings are amazing. I love each and every one.

What else have we been doing, education wise... Noting specific or concrete. We have decided to start up our horse geography again (apparently I never mentioned it). Each time she gets a new model horse, we will research the breed (size, color, temperament, etc.) and where it originated (people, culture, food, language, etc). Emma seemed to enjoy the work in the past, and I think if we tie it in to any new horses she gets, the research will be even more meaningful.

Well, in three days we head out for Montana. We will be stopping at Mount Rushmore as well as Devils Tower on the way, so lots to learn in our immediate future!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that this coming week treats you well!

Emma's Watercolors

Emma has been enthralled with watercolors lately (check here and here). She likes working on a smaller scale, and her latest work was created on 1.5"x1.5" pieces of watercolor. On her own, Emma decided to do an alphabet set. Here is the "A."

To see the rest you will need to pop over to our flicker site.

Have a great day!

This week in Photos

Here are a few photos from this past week. 

Emma making clay creatures for her Ocean Diorama Art Class

A beautiful leaf discovered on our way home from the park

Goofy photo from an old camera- We are standing in front of a Grampa Ott flower.

Emma working on her bike skills

Walking home from the park. 

One of Emma's favorite things to see on our walk home

Horse! This horses name is Cash. We think.

Emma's horse made from clay. His name is Midnight. He was created from a hunk of clay by Emma with the help of Christine from The Smoldering Bowl. It took Emma about 3 hours of steady hard work and concentration to create Midnight. Emma's first time working with clay that requires firing.  

Emma's reading is going really well. She is finally convinced that she can indeed read and so she reads, or tries to read, just about anything. At this point she doesn't like to read for very long- it still takes a lot of concentration so her brain gets pretty tired, but she will read an entire Elephant and Piggie book. I love listening to her read them. She reads with such enthusiasm and spun! Totally fun. 

That's it for now. I will try to do another post next week or so. 

Have a fun weekend!

Schools Out For Ever!

Well, school is about ready to get started here in NE Iowa. I believe the kids go back on the 26th. I think it's the 26th because that is when my paperwork is due to the school indicating my intent to homeschool Emma.

I should probably get that done. Soon.

I think I have been holding off for a few reasons, the biggest being I wanted to be able to attach a copy  of Jared's orders to the form so that the school knows ahead of time that we will only be part of their school district for a little over a month.

But we don't have orders yet.

A little (o.k. a LOT) frustrating, not having orders, but we will survive. For those who don't know, orders are the OFFICIAL papers telling us where we are going and when we are expected to be there. I can't schedule movers until I have orders, I can't really look/acquire housing without orders, I can't really do much to get ready for our move without orders.

Sigh.

I try not to stress over it too much. In the mean time, here is what we have been doing.

More Horse Photo Shoots...

in the garden.

Art Class at The Exchange 

Finding bats (this is the second one in 2 days)

Playing with forgotten toys.

Swinging

Monkeying around

Playing with LEGOS

Experimenting with the camera 

(photo through a paper towel tube)

More photo shoots in the garden

Checking out Seed Savers

Picking flowers for Gramma

Road Trips...

Visiting The Little Brown Church in the Vale

Emma is in charge of the camera 

(unless Da has it on a bike ride with him)

And creating art. 

What have you been up to this summer?