The kids had a memorable experience at the temple groundbreaking.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Updates
With our temple groundbreaking only days away...
They announce another temple even closer to home. What a deeply thrilling prospect that is. When J was two he used to always ask to go into the tabernacle for a tour and I told him we would go inside some day. (It always surprised me that he was so interested in the building at age 2). When it burned down I was reminded I had never kept my promise. I truly look forward to taking him there now when the restoration is complete and it is ready to function as a holy temple. (photo from Daily Herald)
A walk down mainstreet in August
Look mom! Glasses!
Her birthday was on the book release date for book 8 in Sisters Eight her favorite series, she has read the books ragged!
I'm helping teach violin for 4-H at the school this semester, D can't wait to learn to play himself. Violins everywhere, so much fun.
They announce another temple even closer to home. What a deeply thrilling prospect that is. When J was two he used to always ask to go into the tabernacle for a tour and I told him we would go inside some day. (It always surprised me that he was so interested in the building at age 2). When it burned down I was reminded I had never kept my promise. I truly look forward to taking him there now when the restoration is complete and it is ready to function as a holy temple. (photo from Daily Herald)
A walk down mainstreet in August
Look mom! Glasses!
Her birthday was on the book release date for book 8 in Sisters Eight her favorite series, she has read the books ragged!
I'm helping teach violin for 4-H at the school this semester, D can't wait to learn to play himself. Violins everywhere, so much fun.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Housekeeping Class
Ages 5+
This is the sequel to the LEGO Art class.
I have a great appreciation for fine art and education, but I believe a man (or woman) isn't truly educated until he knows how to do mundane, basic, everyday work. If you can do the mundane, you can do the brilliant. When one of my kids asks for permission to go play, I used to say "is your homework done?", but that really bothered me. Homework is only about third or fourth or fifth in priority.
What I wanted to say was, "are your chores done?", but they didn't really have chores. So I assigned a few, only to discover they never did them, because they didn't really know how. Also, there never seemed to be a spare minute to show them. So now that it is Summer, I can finally truly educate my children.
My new class that started when LEGO Art was over, was "Housekeeping". The preparation phase was about 20 minutes. I took a blank piece of paper and jotted down all the housekeeping jobs that my 6 and 8 year old are capable of doing. The final list had 63 items. I starred about five of them as being a bit too complex for my children to master at this age and saved those for the end of summer.
Then I told my kids that we had a new class called housekeeping and that it would last for two hours each day just like LEGO Art. I showed them that I had a list and asked them to each pick a number. This was a novelty-- chores where you pick a number between 1 and 60? And so it began.
The first item picked was
"How to set everything on the table for dinner that is needed for salad."
I showed them where salad greens are kept, where the salad condiments tray is kept, where the salad dressing is, the vinegar, and oil. Five items. They had to memorize them and then they took turns setting the table for salad as fast as they could. Then as a bonus, they learned "how to put salad away". Housekeeping class is all about training. I show them carefully exactly how to do stuff and then we practice, practice, practice. Sometimes my kids love housekeeping and sometimes they hate it. It takes a lot of energy and when I don't feel well we don't get it done, but they are learning a lot. So far we've done about 40 of the items on my list at least once.
I never know what housekeeping adventure will come next. I've kept my list a secret and its always luck of the draw. My kids did have a tendency to pick 1-10 and 50-60, so halfway through the summer I had to renumber the list to mix things up a bit.
Some days we are in the kitchen, other days we are in the bathroom or cleaning in other various rooms of the house, but its been amazing to see my kids' housekeeping skills blossom.
Another amazing thing is the whining and excuses. I've heard a lot of it. I'm "the meanest mom in the world!", Am I trying to make them puke? I'm a slave driver! I'm lazy and never work myself, etc. On the other hand they brag to their friends about the things they have learned and on the occasion I had a friend join us for "housekeeping" the friend had a blast. I believe we were cleaning butter knives that day and he thought it was hillarious that we kept making the knives dirty on purpose just to wash them. Then we broke cracker crumbs and put them all over the table with peanut butter blobs to practice washing the table. We did it again and again. Yep he thought I was bonkers. So then it was off to scrub bathtubs and clean carpet stains. It was high entertainment and he said he'd be willing to join anytime.
Well, I had other plans for the summer that we never got to, but this has been a good one so I thought I would share.
This is the sequel to the LEGO Art class.
I have a great appreciation for fine art and education, but I believe a man (or woman) isn't truly educated until he knows how to do mundane, basic, everyday work. If you can do the mundane, you can do the brilliant. When one of my kids asks for permission to go play, I used to say "is your homework done?", but that really bothered me. Homework is only about third or fourth or fifth in priority.
What I wanted to say was, "are your chores done?", but they didn't really have chores. So I assigned a few, only to discover they never did them, because they didn't really know how. Also, there never seemed to be a spare minute to show them. So now that it is Summer, I can finally truly educate my children.
My new class that started when LEGO Art was over, was "Housekeeping". The preparation phase was about 20 minutes. I took a blank piece of paper and jotted down all the housekeeping jobs that my 6 and 8 year old are capable of doing. The final list had 63 items. I starred about five of them as being a bit too complex for my children to master at this age and saved those for the end of summer.
Then I told my kids that we had a new class called housekeeping and that it would last for two hours each day just like LEGO Art. I showed them that I had a list and asked them to each pick a number. This was a novelty-- chores where you pick a number between 1 and 60? And so it began.
The first item picked was
"How to set everything on the table for dinner that is needed for salad."
I showed them where salad greens are kept, where the salad condiments tray is kept, where the salad dressing is, the vinegar, and oil. Five items. They had to memorize them and then they took turns setting the table for salad as fast as they could. Then as a bonus, they learned "how to put salad away". Housekeeping class is all about training. I show them carefully exactly how to do stuff and then we practice, practice, practice. Sometimes my kids love housekeeping and sometimes they hate it. It takes a lot of energy and when I don't feel well we don't get it done, but they are learning a lot. So far we've done about 40 of the items on my list at least once.
I never know what housekeeping adventure will come next. I've kept my list a secret and its always luck of the draw. My kids did have a tendency to pick 1-10 and 50-60, so halfway through the summer I had to renumber the list to mix things up a bit.
Some days we are in the kitchen, other days we are in the bathroom or cleaning in other various rooms of the house, but its been amazing to see my kids' housekeeping skills blossom.
Another amazing thing is the whining and excuses. I've heard a lot of it. I'm "the meanest mom in the world!", Am I trying to make them puke? I'm a slave driver! I'm lazy and never work myself, etc. On the other hand they brag to their friends about the things they have learned and on the occasion I had a friend join us for "housekeeping" the friend had a blast. I believe we were cleaning butter knives that day and he thought it was hillarious that we kept making the knives dirty on purpose just to wash them. Then we broke cracker crumbs and put them all over the table with peanut butter blobs to practice washing the table. We did it again and again. Yep he thought I was bonkers. So then it was off to scrub bathtubs and clean carpet stains. It was high entertainment and he said he'd be willing to join anytime.
Well, I had other plans for the summer that we never got to, but this has been a good one so I thought I would share.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Favorite Places
As I have been reading all these summer vacation blog posts, I asked myself what are the 10 favorite places I've seen? So, here's a list of 10 places I've really loved, I'm sure there are some really great ones I've missed, but here's a quick list off the top of my head, I wish I had pictures, but these are mainly in my head and I think of them often so I don't forget.
1) Philmont, New Mexico-the rain, the lightening storms, the meadows, the flowers, the meteor shower on Aug 14
2) Zion Narrows, Utah- the pool somewhere in the middle of the hike with enormous red flowers vining up the canyon wall and crystal clear water.
3) Fairview, Wyoming-the Hale Farm
4) The view of the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island from my childhood home in Bountiful, Utah- the sunset there every night was extraordinary, truly one of the most amazing sights of my life and I saw it hundreds of times.
5) Firehole River, Yellowstone, Wyoming In the winter when its frozen and smokey looking, wow!
6) San Francisco/Bay Area, CA-Kirby Cove, sourdough bread, Muir Woods
7) Green River Lakes, Wyoming- Slide Lake, the lake as well as the waterfall on the way to the lake where a quick glance took over a half an hour, it was so beautiful
8) Oregon Portland-the flowers at the temple, Astoria-foggy, charming little town, good clam chowder (Becky, I'm curious if you agree with my impressions...), Seaside-sunny, cheerful, hanging flower baskets EVERYWHERE.
9) Gettysburg, PA and Washington D.C.-the feeling I got at Gettysburg was overwhelming, a once in a lifetime experience, it gave me a much more profound love and appreciation for many things.
10) Cache Valley, Utah- the Logan temple-celestial room and how the exterior is lit at night, driving the valley on Sunday afternoons, and Wellesville Canyon when the leaves change color in the fall
wow I was just going to go to ten, but I really loved Evergreen, Seattle, and Lucerne and...
1) Philmont, New Mexico-the rain, the lightening storms, the meadows, the flowers, the meteor shower on Aug 14
2) Zion Narrows, Utah- the pool somewhere in the middle of the hike with enormous red flowers vining up the canyon wall and crystal clear water.
3) Fairview, Wyoming-the Hale Farm
4) The view of the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island from my childhood home in Bountiful, Utah- the sunset there every night was extraordinary, truly one of the most amazing sights of my life and I saw it hundreds of times.
5) Firehole River, Yellowstone, Wyoming In the winter when its frozen and smokey looking, wow!
6) San Francisco/Bay Area, CA-Kirby Cove, sourdough bread, Muir Woods
7) Green River Lakes, Wyoming- Slide Lake, the lake as well as the waterfall on the way to the lake where a quick glance took over a half an hour, it was so beautiful
8) Oregon Portland-the flowers at the temple, Astoria-foggy, charming little town, good clam chowder (Becky, I'm curious if you agree with my impressions...), Seaside-sunny, cheerful, hanging flower baskets EVERYWHERE.
9) Gettysburg, PA and Washington D.C.-the feeling I got at Gettysburg was overwhelming, a once in a lifetime experience, it gave me a much more profound love and appreciation for many things.
10) Cache Valley, Utah- the Logan temple-celestial room and how the exterior is lit at night, driving the valley on Sunday afternoons, and Wellesville Canyon when the leaves change color in the fall
wow I was just going to go to ten, but I really loved Evergreen, Seattle, and Lucerne and...
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Zoom has a birthday
Little D is pretty obsessed with trucks right now, so we took the family to the Cars movie for his birthday and made him this
Haulin' Cupcake birthday dessert.
"Giggle" and "Zoom" testing out the plasma car
Haulin' Cupcake birthday dessert.
"Giggle" and "Zoom" testing out the plasma car
Another LEGO ART class
Mini World: Cabin by a lake
The arts council asked me to teach another LEGO class. This time for 12-18 year olds instead of 5-7 and 8-11. I honestly did my favorite 10 projects last year and think its great for any age, but they requested different more advanced stuff, hoping that something unusual would entice the older kids to sign up.
So instead of basic bricks, I had somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 various LEGO pieces of every imaginable type. The last day I brought a scale and each student got to take home 2 pounds (about 600 pieces) of LEGO, whatever they wanted from the class set. I called it Pick-a-Brick day, that was a big hit.
The projects were much more complex and visually less impressive than the bright basic Lego brick sculptures of last year, but they loved the challenge of building with so many special LEGO elements. One student said the last day, "this is a pricey class but definitely worth it" All the other students agreed. Yay, just what a teacher likes to hear.
Technic Thing-a-ma-jigs
LEGO vignettes
Miniland size 3 1/2 inch figurines:
Ninja
Planets Day: We built Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, the international space station, and Pluto which is not a planet (therefore didn't take many LEGO bricks, heh, heh).
Spaceships and Planes (a LEGO art project back by popular demand):
Youth Arts Festival, Artist Reception
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