I found this free printable at Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business. For our "brushes," we picked up cotton balls with clothespins- great for building hand muscles! We made one "brush" per color, three per student, then I put a little paint on top of each jar to let them mix in the puddles. It was so fun to see their joy as their colors mixed together (smile).

We then drew winter scenes- using pencil first, then coloring it in with colored pencils and tempera paint. After the coloring was done, we added some "snow" as a final touch. We've been using this simple "snow paint" recipe for years, and the kids still love it every time. The best part is that it dries fluffy! 

This bottom picture is the artist sledding in a round plastic disk down the hill. Isn't it lovely in the middle of all that "snow"? I love seeing where their imaginations take them! 

We had one more day of snow painting- with another recipe that I'll share tomorrow!- and also filled in our notebooking page (free pdf). I always have the students brainstorm the sentences together, which I write on our blackboard for them to copy down. 

It's fun to hear what they come up with! And I love seeing their little pictures, depicting either a work by the artist or- as with this one- a picture similar to what the artist would paint. 

Other Artists we've studied: 

Henri Matisse 

As we continue this homeschool journey, I'm realizing the benefits of reflection more & more. So much that I no longer pen in a formal curriculum day to day. While this worked in the classroom, I've recently realized it's not helping our home lessons. It becomes easy for me to get task-focused and frustrated/defeated when we don't accomplish everything in our day. It also doesn't leave room for student-led days- which are easier when there are two students in your class versus twenty-five or thirty (wink). So I have begun writing weekly goals instead, with post-it notes on our days with tentative goals to get us there. Then, at the end of the day, I revisit our day and pen in what actually happened. A couple weeks ago, I had some word family and copywork planned- but ended up abandoning it to study Isia's question of "Why hasn't our lake frozen yet?" We ended up with an Isia-led experiment of two glass jars- one with tap water, the other with water & salt (because the ocean has saltwater, she said) set outside to freeze- and the majority of her writing & math for the day centered around her observing the jars throughout the day.

So here are some things last week that actually happened!

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As we continue to work on Isia's wonderful strong will together (ahem), I keep getting pointed back to form drawing. She's also interested in cursive, so I introduced a few beginning forms for that. All of our form drawing has been very informal, but I've discovered a free online Waldorf form drawing curriculum I like, with stories, that we'll begin this week with Billy. This will, hopefully, prepare him for more formal letter writing next year, and harness a bit of his strong will as well! 

We've been working through the Burgess Bird Book for Children, per her request, and enjoying it a lot. Last week found us gluing the materials we've created so far in her lesson book. I have to admit that my bargain lined books haven't held up as well as I thought they might. I began the year thinking we'd be writing more so it wouldn't matter, not realizing we'd be drawing and gluing as much into it. We used this blank book last year, only $6 through Amazon, which it held up wonderfully and didn't bleed much (especially for the price). So we'll be finishing up this notebook, and likely ordering another one of those next. 

For our Burgess Bird Book materials, we're filling out a information sheet together for each chapter's bird(s) from Cornell's Bird Coloring Book (free pdf). Isia is using our Peterson Field Guide to reference each bird's coloring. We're also using these free bird lapbook activities to store information on each bird, which are fun to cut out & put together. 

Billy's preschool is going well. I've found around each half birthday each child usually makes significant gains- and this winter's been no different for him. While we've been working on his letters for awhile, they haven't been "sticking." He's suddenly able to remember most of the alphabet, and doing much better writing. We use this wooden alphabet puzzle everyday for singing the alphabet, letter review, and "hunt for that sound" (Which letter goes "N"? Can you find the "N-N-Nest?")

And this wooden number puzzle to practice number recognition. We've also been using it for simple addition- "What is 3 + 6? Let's count all the animals and see." Very easy, low prep fun. I use the addition out of our magnetic number set, but you could easily just jot it down on a piece of paper. Since we'll continue using the magnetic numbers, I wanted to introduce them now so he's comfortable using them.

Wishing you a great start to your week!

Click for Free Printables!

1. Spray cookie cutters with nonstick spray and place on baking sheet. Lay newspaper on a flat surface, large enough for all ornaments. 
2. In a large bowl mix the flour, water, gelatin & corn syrup until combined.
3. Add all birdseed to the wet mixture at once. Stir until birdseed is coated well.
4. Spoon birdseed mixture into cookie cutters, using the back of the spoon (fingers work, too) to press mixture down and pack it smoothly.
5. Poke a hole through top of each with a drinking straw. To use one straw over & over- poke a hole, then pinch that bit of birdseed into a bowl to throw outside. Small sections of straw can also be used, which is helpful when making them with kids.
6. Carefully move cookie cutter to newspaper and gently press ornaments out. If they're not sliding out easily, you can let them set-up on the counter for a few hours first (although we don't usually need to).
7. Let ornaments "cure" overnight.
8. Pack in lidded airtight container until ready to gift. We will thread with yarn or ribbon for gifting and place in small plastic gift bags.