Our Three Girls.

A day at the Art Gallery

2012-02-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

The art gallery is a fabulous place for kids and it's free! We spent an hour and looked at only 5 different art works. Each art work tells a story and the kids love the stories behind art.

Giulio Paolini L'altra figura

We discussed the emotions on the faces of the plaster casts of the Roman Hellenistic bust, shapes, what a plinth is and how the busts show the heads slightly at an angle to the body, their faces turned to reflect each other precisely.

In this painting we discussed colour, paint effects, emotions on the faces and what the red lines may mean- perhaps their bloodline.

I will follow up our visit with art at home, perhaps some plaster of paris!

Junk table=great imaginations

2011-09-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Junk table=great imaginations

Materials we used:
glue, sponges, stamps, ink, tape, cardboard, google eyes, pipe cleaners, glitter,coloured lentils,scissors,egg cartons, crepe paper and textas. The girls crafted for about 2 hours together!

Experimenting with our homemade light box...

2011-09-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

Cost:$10 from Bunnings.

Keeping up with reading in school holidays

2011-09-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Linking books with craft always keeps my little one interested in books.

How Elephants lost their Wings. Retold by Lesley Sims

A TOOLKIT for Families

2011-09-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

Inspiring Children’s Spirit of Stewardship:Click on link to read the wonderful inspirational ideas from world forum foundation.http://ccie-sharing.s3.amazonaws.com/NatureActionToolkits/Family_Toolkit_ENG.pdf
worldforumfoundation.org/nature

Quotes and imagination/discovery boxes.

2011-09-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

“A child can learn specific skills but if they don’t have the ability to secure a relationship with another individual, or have adaptability or have reciprocity with another person, then all the skills in the world won’t be of much help”
Stanley Greenspan

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein

Today while cleaning out cupboards I found a wonderful assortment of bits and pieces. I decided to gather these on the lounge room floor and sort them into 'Imagination and discovery play boxes'. The girls absolutely love them! So far we have :
The sea
The farm
Dinosaurs
Frogs
Dolls and doll house furniture

More ideas:
Think I may do a prayer box for bedtime and one for the beach with shells, a jar of sand, some pictures/photos, a book about the beach, pencils, note pad and the questions the girls asked us about the beach.I don't want their valuable questions to disappear into thin air.

It's just another nice way for the children to play,imagine and wonder.

Newsletter | World Forum Foundation#.TnYl1bqw9Xo.facebook

2011-09-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Newsletter World Forum Foundation#.TnYl1bqw9Xo.facebook

Still exploring the beach and lot's of questions.

2011-09-18T02:42:00.000-07:00

The girls love the beach and we often spend time relaxing on the weekend at the beach. We are beach explorers and swimmers and prefer early morning or late afternoon. The girls are full of questions so lot's of possible learning opportunities. I just have to brain storm as to how to lead this exploration/investigation...

Questions the girls asked on the way to the beach today :

Where does the sand come from?

Why does sand hurt your legs when the wind blows?

What shape is sand?

How do the tides work?

What do you think is past the horizon?

Beach and beyond...

2011-09-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

Our favourite place as a family is the beach in the cooler months. We always have a bag each to gather our treasures that we find. We have many beautiful little pebbles, shells, drift wood etc speckled throughout our gardens at home. Lately, I have photographed the beauty that we see at the beach. The girls loved seeing this as a slide show on 'photostory'. I would like to extend their knowledge, interest etc of the beach and beyond. I am thinking of the using the pics, paper and pencil to see where this interest and love of the beach leads.

Fairy Gardens... I remember the awe of believing in fairies.

2011-09-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

With fairy gardens in mind we gathered what we could find in the craft box: glitter, paints, brushes and glue. Our three girls and their friends went on a nature hunt around the garden and found twigs, pine cones, shells, old tiles (that we smashed up) and pebbles.I have a lot of succulents growing so we were able to pick a few to plant in the fairy gardens. Succulents need very little care, just a bit of fairy love!

The girls had so much fun filling their pots with soil and then making their own little fairy village.

We cut up a pine cone and painted the tips red and dotted with white paint. These made beautiful little toad stools!

The girls placed their gardens onto the deck, the next morning they were sure the fairies had visited because a few little stones had been moved!