Harmony Art Mom has put together a summer music/art appreciation course. It’s mostly free! ๐
Art
Easter is coming
This time of year is hard in a pastor’s family, especially in a church that celebrates the day’s of Easter…. Good Friday service, Sonrise service and so forth. Means extra work for pastor, and less of having daddy around to help and play. ๐ But I was thinking about it, and as God would have it, so was This Old Schoolhouse, they sent out their Friday Freebie, and it’s all about Easter. So here are some links on Easter to help with the teaching and crafting of it.
Perhaps first I’ll give you an email that was sent to me though on the facts of Easter for this year.
Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008
As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which this year is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
A couple more things you might be interested in! Based on the above Easter can actually be one day earlier (march 22) but that is pretty rare.
This year is the earliest easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives. And only most elderly of our population (aged 95 or more) have ever seen it this early. And none of us have or will ever see it a day a day earlier.
Here are the facts:
The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!) The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22), will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!
ENJOY THE UNIQUENESS OF THIS SPECIAL DAY AND THIS LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY!
Now for other Easter stuff ๐
- Bible in Living Sound is offering The Passion of Jesus Christ as a free MP3 download. This is a enthralling re-enactment with music and “live” sound effects putting your kids in the middle of the action. You will find the free downloads HERE.
- Activities
- bookmarks
- resurrection eggs
- seeing the art work of easter. The Passion of Christ in Art.
- For generic stuff on Easter check out
- Easter Bunny.net – this site has a variety of songs, recipes, traditions, etc.
- Easter Christian Resources by King’s Kids – stories, activities, etc.
- A Glorious Easter – teacher resources
- Cooking for Easter
- stories on Easter
Government Resource Helps
Friday Freebie. The Old schoolhouse.
A US government help for homeschoolers. Federal Resources for educational Excellence.
Covers a wide range of topics : art, music, history, math, science, and so forth. Looks to be a godo resource. I figure that it will be very US based, but for most stuff….who cares? Math is math regardless of where you live, as is art, science and music.
Free Wood Scraps
Able to pay shipping costs?
These folks over at Barclay Blocks will ship you the wood that they can’t use for their products. Check it out here.
Great stuff for teachers, schools, or anybody else that hankers to make wooden crafts, toys, or anything else from hard maple scrap. We pack a 12″ by 12″ by 12″ inch box with scrap (Some un-sanded). It contains defective blocks, unsorted block stock, plank stock, round stock and other cut-offs and trim we have left over from making blocks. This totals about 20 lbs. Every box is different. You pay the shipping costs plus $4.95 for the box and handling.
Actually sounds like a good plan to me. ๐
Paper Doll Site
My thanks to Sara over at the Hemmeke blog for this link. apparently her daughter loves to make paper dolls, and she is able to go to making Friends Paper Dolls. In Sara’s words
I like these because I can print everything in black and white outlines, allowing my daughter to color and decorate them as she wishes. They are big, easy to handle and cut, and not at all the trendy grown-up Barbie-ish dolls. The best part is it’s all free!!
I don’t think that my boyo will be into paper dolls… but I can see that this site could be useful for outlines for making characters to tell a store or two though…… ๐
Craft Ideas
copied over from: 7ValleysHomeschool
1. Paper towel leaf painting- Cut a white paper towel into the shape of a leaf. Put the towel onto wax paper. Then drop food coloring on with a dropper. They turn out beautiful and look amazing stuck to the window. I have also used a paintbrush to drop the paint but watch out for the little ones . They try to rub it around and then tear the paper towel.
2. Nature walk- It wouldnt be fall if we didnt go on a nature walk. Bringing those nature journals along and taking the afternoon to explore all the changes. We also collect things that we see that have fallen. My children are only allowed to collect things that have fallen. If its still attached they aren’t to pick it – they are to draw it. Then we go back and look up the different flowers, leaves, and nuts we found. So we can have fun and learn a little about them too.
3. Leaf pictures and book markers- This craft I did with my kids long ago. So I don’t think the little ones have had a chance yet to try it. So this year we are going to do it again. I cut paper grocery bags into bookmark shape or the size of a picture frame. You could make fall cards too. Then we used Clear contact paper like you use in your kitchen cabinets. This is an easy way to laminate. These bookmarkers lasted us a long time before they began to turn brown. I am not sure I didnt even throw them away and they still werent brown after a year. You want to contact the leaf inside with the paper and cover it solid trimming the edges. You could also use some leaf punches if you are into scrapbooking or stamps.
4. Math Acorns- I take advantage of all those acorns the kids bring in. We use them for math practices. Also for my little one I cut out a squirrel shape. Wrote a number on each squirrel then had the little ones feed that many to the squirrel. We have also used Cheerios since acorns can get wormy.
5. Pumpkin seeds- We will probably also make a fall decoration for our table. Cutting a pumpkin and scrapping out the inside. There is also a bible lesson in there about how something appears to be on the outside or a person appears to be and how it really is. We will roast the seeds . Some we will dry for a pumpkin counting books (since I mentioned them I will tell you about them at the bottom) or for math practices for the younger again. We will add a mum to the inside and some leaves we found.
6. Pumpkin seed books- I cut out the shape of a pumpkin (11) We write the numbers 1-10 . Add that many seeds to the page and white yarn strips about an in long. The yarn represents the stringy stuff in the pumpkin. Continue to do this on all the pages.
Questions to ask when looking at paintings
Three questions that can be asked of any painting:
1. What is it a picture of?
2. What does the picture mean?
3. What meaning might this picture have for the viewer’s life?
You might faciliate a discussion within which students consider these questions.
Ask students to imagine that they are inside of this painting.
- What would it feel like to exist within the painting.
- What feelings would they have?
- What thoughts would they have?
(You could also ask students to develop dramatic presentations in which they answered these questions.)