Fall

Today is back to school for the Flanagan Family (homeschool that is).  I'm kind of mourning the early loss of our summer here in Oregon.  We didn't have all that hot of an August....it has actually been quite chilly the last few days.  I do enjoy the start of school, my kids are excited (for at least a little while longer) and I have to say that I am addicted to school supplies!!!!  We will be starting the morning off with homemade apple, cinnamon oatmeal that has simmered in the crockpot all night and of course a pastry to celebrate the 1st day of school!  Of course, we need to do part of our school today in our pajamas to celebrate that we don't have to get on the big yellow bus!!

With the start of school, brings the thought of fall....I love this time of year!   You will see lots of creations from me this time of year as, you might have guessed, I love pumpkins!!!  Actually, I named my business and blog after my father, who affectionately called me "Punkin Seed" when I was growing up.  He passed away when I was 21 and I have so missed getting to be with him and know him as an adult.  He was a wonderful man and Punkin Seed Productions is a way to honor him and remind me of him daily.  =0)  With that, here is one of my latest fall creations:  Fall

  




 

Side Trip Post #4-Our Vacation Across the U.S.

I'm taking a side trip away from crafting posts this week to share our vacation across the U.S.  I'll be back next week with the regular crafting posts, but for now come see what we've been up to! 

After our visit at the Laura Ingalls Homestead, we had to put the pedal to the metal and travel through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and on to Ohio. During our travels through these states we had our first sitings of fireflies – what an amazing creation!!! God is so creative and fun….fireflies are just an example of His creativity!


We used our hours in the car to learn more about the states. Another great resource we used was this book: The Man in the Map.

 It is so cute! It uses the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana to form a man:

The books uses rhymes and pictures to help you remember the names and location of the states. We learned that Ohio is a drinking cup that is filled up by a never ending supply of water from Lake Erie!

Another neat little tip about learning U.S. geography -  specifically the Great Lakes.  The acronym HOMES stands for the Great Lakes:  Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. 

We ended up in Mt. Vernon, Ohio where Jordan competed in the National Bible Quizzing Competition at the Nazarene College. He did wonderfully, placing 12th out of 232 teens ages 13-18 in his age division. A very big accomplishment for anyone, let alone someone in their very first year of teen quizzing.

Jordan's name on the big screen during the awards ceremony.  The top 20 individuals received awards.

During the week of competition, we had a few afternoons to explore the Amish Country. It is beautiful, with lush green, rolling hills. We found it funny that in Ohio most people here have HUGE lawns….actually acres of pasture (I’m not exaggerating) that they mow for lawn and no fences. We even saw a guy mowing the field, where he actually had a horse, with his riding lawn mower. In Eastern Oregon we would fence those pastures and put livestock in them, or at least mow it and sell the hay. But in Ohio, everyone is mowing….all the time….. curious!

Come back tomorrow and see where we go next!

Side Trip Away from Crafting - Coming Along With Us on Vacation - Post #2

This is my second post that takes you on a side trip away from my crafting and with me on a vacation with my family where we are road tripping across the US – the ultimate way to learn the geography of the U.S. You can see my first post here where I showed you some of the resources we used to learn about the United States on the way.   I promise to be back next week with my regular crafting posts!

After Independence Rock (see this post to learn more about it) , we then headed on through Wyoming to Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota.

Wow – what a neat place! If you ever have a chance to go there, make sure you plan to spend plenty of time. We had the kids do the Junior and Teen Ranger Program which is basically a booklet that you fill out that sends you on a scavenger hunt throughout the park to find out information, including requiring you to talk to the rangers and read/watch/experience various exhibits. We all learned a lot more doing the booklets as we had to “research” to find some of the answers. Even the my little girls (7 & 9) now understand what presidents are on the monument and why. The area around Mt. Rushmore has a lot to do and see…we wish we could have spent more time there but we were on a schedule to get to the quizzing competition. One other neat monument really close to Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Monument that is being built.

This one is being done with private funds and being built by a family. One of the neatest things we found about the monument is the story of the late sculptor, his wife and his 10 children who are carrying on the process of building the monument. There is a lot to see and do there….the sculptor’s wife is now 80 years old. It was her birthday when we were there…..she continues to run the “show”.

I have to tell you that we loved South Dakota! When we headed from Mt. Rushmore, across the state, we ran into a big thunderstorm! I’m talking BIG! We had never seen hail so big:

We found out later that a few miles away the hail was even bigger…..tennis to soft ball size….which broke people’s windshields! We were blessed enough to be under an awning at a gas station, filling up, when the hail came….no dents for us!

(Braving the elements to collect giant hail)

Come back tomorrow to see where we headed to next…….one of the real surprise highlights of our trip…..any guesses?

A Little Side Trip Away from Crafting - Come Along with us on our Vacation

As many of you might already know, I have been away from my home…..away from crafting….on a road trip with my family. Consequently, I haven’t been able to do many crafting posts on my blog! I thought I would take you on a little side trip away from crafting……and take you along with me on my trip! I promise I’ll be back next week with crafting posts….but come along with me now if you want and see what we’ve been up to!

If you are not a homeschooler, you may not know that we are notorious for making anything and everything a learning experience. Our summer vacation is no exception! My son was fortunate enough to be able to compete in the National Teen Bible Quizzing Competition in Mt. Vernon, OH . Hey, this sounds like an opportunity to travel across country and learn about the United States! The ultimate geography lesson, right?

I thought I would journal our trip for you in hopes of showing you some fun things to do with kiddos, and if you are a fellow homeschooler or just a parent who likes to teach their children, a few fun resources we used to educate our children about the United States.

Our trip started in Eastern Oregon on a Wednesday evening. We traveled through most of Idaho…..mapping our route as we went using a few great resoures. First, a road atlas, highlighting the route as we went. You’d be surprised how this simple exercise can help your kiddos read maps. The second resource we used was this little gem:

 The Star Spangled State Book. It comes with a color reference book and a student workbook and cd with reproducible pages. Each page of the resource book has interesting facts about a particular state as well as information on the 3 largest cities, capitol, etc. The student workbook contains copies of these same pages but with blanks for the students to fill in as well as portion of a blank United States map for the students to find the particular state and shade it in. It also picks a few states for you to review in the process. The bottom of the page of the reference handbook has a fun game to play that gives you clues about previous states you have studied for you to test what you have learned.

I have no idea why this picture keeps rotating this way - sorry!  But you can get the idea of what the inside looks like.

We also used a children’s atlas to learn more about the states we were traveling through and various books about each state that we had checked out from our library. I will also show you another really cool resource we used in a later post, so stay tuned!

Since we had traveled through Oregon and Idaho often, we just put the petal to the metal to get as far as we could that first evening. Our trip then took us through a short jont thru the Beehive State…..can you guess which state this is???? If you guessed Utah you are correct – and no it is not nicknamed this because it has a lot of bees….it was to represent the resourcefulness of the people who live there.

Our first real destination was to stop at Independence Rock (sometimes called Register Rock) in Wyoming.

 This was a common meeting place for the pioneers to stop on their journey west. They would sign their names on this HUGE rock, its mass being equal to an area of 24. 81 acres and standing 136 feet above the ground at its highest point.

The pioneers also would look for friends’ and loved ones’ names who had passed previously. We climbed up on the rock and found lots of names and dates….some new and lots old. Here is a sampling of some of the “signatures”.

Pictures don’t do it justice. Just an amazing place to take you back in time and help you think how the pioneers felt, searching to see if their loved one who had went ahead of them, had made it that far.

Ok, that’s enough for today. Where do you think we headed next? Come back tomorrow and see!

Teaching Art to Kids - Learning about Foreshortening

As you might know already, I homeschool my three short people.  =0)  I love to teach hands on learning activities and do all kinds of creative things with them, it just sometimes gets put on the back burner for the more important stuff like math and English (yawn) LOL!  However, my kids won't let me put our week of art during  spring break on the back burner.  Our homeschool group hires an "artist in residence" for a week.  I thought I would do something a little different today and show you one of the lessons the kiddos learned about foreshortening - you know, making thinks that are closer look bigger!

The kiddos were told to sit with their legs and arms straight out in front of them.  What would that look like if someone was standing on the other end of the shoes and hands?  Yep, you guessed it, their shoes and hands would be bigger!  Now, how do you show that on paper?  Yes, you could spend all day with this group of children that were kindergarden through 3rd grade letting them try to draw two shoes that were the same size - oh yeah  and then the hands.  Nope, you let them trace their shoes and hands, talking about where your shoes would cover your hands, and what  you would see behind the shoes and hands.  Here is what I mean, give it a try yourself, its fun!

Take off  your shoes, angle them out on a large piece of poster board and trace around them.  Now think about it, if your legs are sticking straight out in front of you, your feet kind of turn out, don't they?   Now trace your hands as if they were behind your feet - your shoes will cover up some of your hands won't they?  From there, draw a circle for your head, remember its going to look smaller than your feet and hands, that's called FORESHORTENING.   Then you can draw your arms, and legs (angle those legs, bigger at the bottom, smaller on top - more foreshortening). 

One of the exercises they had to do, was to draw the bottom of their shoes - cute huh?  This taught them to focus on lines and shapes, paying attention to detail instead of just drawing what you think should be there.

Here is a picture of what my girls' drawings looked like before they were colored:

They then could get wild with the color, watercolor that is!  My girls loved this.  They experimented with how water color travels and mixes and what salt will do when sprinkled on it.  You've got to try the salt - way cool!  The key here - let your kids do it!!!  Don't try to have them make it too perfect!

Ok ladies - get to teaching and having fun with art with those kiddos - and yourself!

What did you think?  Would you like to see more of what we did with art week?

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