Clay, Tiles, and Paint

Don't know what I got myself into this time. Maybe with just one child some art/craft projects wouldn't be too bad. Having to help three and keep two more out of trouble. Welllllll............ It wasn't horrible, but it didn't go as I planned. (Which every homeschool Mom understands)

 I don't know if I mentioned this, but the curriculum we use is from My Father's World. I can't say enough about this wonderful company. This year Big T, Sweet E and Little E are doing Rome to the Reformation. The children have been enjoying the lessons on Rome. This week we read about some of the homes, gardens, and mosaics the more wealthy Romans would have had. Big T (my history buff) has loved ready through all the books we use. (The Roman Empire, Ancient World, and Streams of Civilization)

So the project for this week was to make a mosaic. This was the type of image we saw in the books we read. Okay....me...the person who has no artistic bone in her body. Is supposed to have the children do this?

I worked last night to roll out and cut the clay into squares (and rectangles and maybe a few triangles). I knew if I left it up to the children we would spend 2 hours just cutting squares.

They look like mints

Since all that work was done for them, the children just had to sketch out an image they wanted to draw and then paint the tiles in desired colors. Here are the finished projects.

Big T's Robot

Little E's Volcano

Sweet E's Flower

This project was more complicated than I had expected, but I am happy with the results. (I think the children are too) We have finished up 3 weeks of school already. Plugging right along. We have also started soccer up again. Can you believe I have 4 kiddos playing this year? And something else to add to our schedule? American Heritage Girls. Our schedule is getting crazy, but in a good way.  Hope everyone else is having a good week. Hope to post another update next week. ;-)

Where have I been?

I let both of my blogs fall to the side. I guess I lost interest in blogging. We have had so much happen in the past few years. I had a miscarriage 2 years ago. Our family has grown to 7. I have had a lot of health issues in the past year. We have changed churches. Plus we are more involved with Upward Soccer and helping start an AHG group in our county.

I don't know. I thought maybe this would be a good time to get everything started up again and share our homeschooling journey. Not only did Big T just turn 10, but we have started our 6th year of homeschooling. Why is it I still don't feel like I know what I am doing? :-) Every single day is different. And that is a good thing.

We are still using My Father's World for our homeschooling adventure. I love the content and so do the children. This year we are using Rome to the Reformation. The biggest bonus of using Rome to the Reformation? I have my 2nd grader doing the same content as my two 5th graders. Of course math and English are different, but all three all learning the same things in history, science, music, art, and Bible. 

The best project this week was making of clay tablets. The Romans would sometimes use a beeswax tablet to write on. This way the could write on it and then use the flat end of the stylus to erase it and start again. We didn't use beeswax, but clay works just as well. The children had so much fun painting their frame and cover this morning. When we finally put it together this evening they were so excited. They quickly used it to write their names or draw a picture. They think it's great that they can keep it in their school box to use when they like. (I didn't realize that I cut off Little E's tablet in the 2nd pic)

Showing off their tablets

 Special K had to get in on the action as well. Not sure if she thought the clay on the forehead was a new beauty routine. ;-)

Silly Girl!

 After tomorrow we will have finished our first official week of the 2013-2014 school year. It will be a busy day as we do our lessons, prepare for the MOCHA homeschool group picnic, and prep for 7 boys to invade my home on Saturday. ;-) What was I thinking?! LOL