A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

hands-on learning

Art Series: Zentangle – anything is possible one stroke at a time

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Zentangles…I had never heard that term before until I received this book.   The cover made me think of the colouring books that I enjoy doing.   I always thought those were called mandalas though, which of course led me to research that idea.

A mandala is a piece of art made in a circle. Mandala means “circle” in Sanskrit.   In Buddhist and Hindu faith systems they have spiritual significance.  Outside those circles they are just circular drawings that can used to help you relax.

A zentangle is any design made from repetitive patterns.  Does not have to be in a circle shape.

There are some people who use the words interchangeably, but mandalas are supposed to circular, zentangles can be anything.

Good to know eh?

Anyways, all that to tell you about this book I have in my hands here.  Zentangle: the inspiring and mindful drawing workbook.  This workbook has over 70 practice tiles to play around with.  It has been put together by Jane Marbaix.

Zentangles are a way of doodling, it’s making a variety of shapes and designs on purpose.  Mostly done to fill in a space, but sometimes they just become an art form.

What I thoroughly appreciate about this book as it walks you through right from the beginning how to doodle with purpose.   It always amazes me when I see doodles come to life.   Take for instance this video.  Simple lines and shapes, but suddenly they become something.

Just fascinating to me.

Ms. Marbaix provides the space right in the book to practice the techniques that she shows the reader how to do.

She starts with the very basics, how to make the most basic of doodles and what they are called.   Doodles like tipples, crescent moon, static, zander, poke root, hollibaugh and msst.   We then proceed to the use of string and more advanced doodles.

Each step leads to more advanced techniques.

Before you know you it you’ll be filling in shapes and making rubber stamps and all sorts of interesting items.

A whole world is waiting to be drawn and doodled.

Chapters are:

  1. What is a Zentangle?
  2. First Steps
  3. Zentangle Inspired Art
  4. Tanglenhancers
  5. Zentangle Friends
  6. Tangling Fun
  7. Using Stencils
  8. Zendalas
  9. Shapes
  10. Letters and Numbers
  11. Rubber Stamping
  12. Kids Time
  13. Directory of Tangles

 I really like the lay out and the sheer amount of technique in this book.   I like to doodle, but would never call myself an artist.  I love art, but the know-how is often lacking.  If I were to work through all the lessons in this book, I would be able to make my own zentangles.   Perhaps then I could call myself a zentangle artist.  🙂

Of course as I go through this book I keep thinking to myself… wouldn’t this be fun to do with a group of interested youth?   The lessons in the book are straight-forward, they could all bring lots of paper to practice on, ideas to spur each other to doing their doodle drawings better, and can you imagine the lovely zentangles they could come up with?    To have fun deciding which of the more complicated designs they might wish to learn.

 Each of these more complicated designs comes complete with a green box describing it’s name and what the pattern is.  I just love how this book starts with easy and gradually works it way up to tougher designs to create. 

This is a great book to learn the how and wherefore’s of doing good doodling as you learn to draw zentangles.  Well-written, with lots of information and examples to draw from.  Inspiration awaits!

Use it to relax, to focus your mind, to release your creative talent, to refine your doodling abilities and more.   It’s a great book to learn from, check it out today, really.

 Zentangles: the inspiring and mindful drawing workbook with over 70 practice tiles.
Author: Jane Marbaix
Publisher: Thunder Bay Press
size: 9.11 x 10.72
  176 pages

Practical Math

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My son and I have … A struggle with math and I have to admit that I am not always sure what to do with it.   He’s been getting a bit weary with the struggle (as am I). 

We had picked up a math program last year that I thought would work well for him but it has proven, over time, to be far too easy for him, yet I know he has gaps in his learning (as evidenced today when, to my surprise, I learned that he doesn’t really get what fractions are)…yet he has done lots of fraction work and done it well!   So… I’m currently feeling a bit floored and flummoxed.

So anyways, the point of this post is about math.. practical math as you can see from my post title, and how needful taking a day away can be.  Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds is hosting the Virtual Curriculum Fair this month and math is the focus this week.

Recently I had to bring a bunny to London, a person from Toronto was planning to come by to get the rabbit, but we live in South-western Ontario where we are prone to winter storms, so bunny needed to travel in something that would hold for a few days, if their person couldn’t make it.

ERGO enters a practical math problem.

Our issues:

  • Normal rabbit carrier is frozen solid from an unexpected leak
  • Bunny will be staying at gramma’s so tidyness is very important (measuring lower side height)
  • bunny needs sufficient room to move around for health and mental outlook (area)
  • Needs to hold food and water dishes for continuity of care (perimeter)
  • needs to open and close easily to avoid confusing gramma.

 I’d heard about rabbit carriers being made out of rubbermaid containers so thought that might be the route to go.

Canadian Tire had a sale on containers so off I set.

We came home with two containers (in case we made an oops).

 What we needed:

  • a drill with two different sized bits
  • jigsaw
  • wire for the side
  • wire cutters
  • zipties
  • rubbermaid container
  • very sharp knife
  • markers
  • straight edge

My son asked me “How is this practical math if we aren’t actually doing measuring mom?”

I said “Math is more than measuring, it’s doing estimation and lines, learning how to use a straight edge and stuff like that”.     So we used line of sight, hand measurements, estimation and approximation, and so forth.

He was happy.. he got to use a drill once I showed him how to do a quick up and down with the bit.  He learned how slippery plastic was to cut and so learned to slow down so he wouldn’t take mom’s fingers with it.

I have to admit, that even though my lad is very good with knives I didn’t allow him to do any cutting.   Cutting plastic can be temperamental and using a really sharp knife is a must.  As it was I got nicks taken out of my fingers.

First up.   Taking one piece of wire (taken from an old bird cage) and eye ball it to see what we have to cut back.  It was too wide and a touch too long.

We needed to consider having room to connect it, maintain the stability of the container, and not waste the wire we had.

Using the wire cutters with the wire was pretty easy though dad had to lend his strength to cut through the thick wires.

Cutting through the plastic had dad helping with drilling holes into the corners.  We learned quickly that regardless of what markers I used they didn’t hold well on the plastic making it difficult to see the lines, so after helping cut one line with the jigsaw and not being able to see the lines he left me to cut the rest with my sharp blade.

We needed to put two holes close together to hold the wire onto the sides.

We discussed if it was better to put the wire on the outside or inside and had differing opinions until Dad called from across the room.. put in on the inside…keep the rabbit from nibbling on the plastic.  That cemented the decision-making for us.  🙂

It proved to be a two person job to attach the wire.   Working from opposite corners we managed to get the job done.

The lad completed the job by trimming off the excess ziptie (to keep bunny from thinking…ooh.. free nibbles here!)   Yes, bunnies can be silly.

This took us about a half hour from start to finish, including installing bunny in her temporary home.

Does she look content?   Hay given, water and pellets when she gets to gramma’s.   She should do well eh?   Opens from the top as well as the sides for ease of access.  Turned out to be a good thing as gramma couldn’t figure out the side panels at all.

The bedding for those curious, is a mixed shaving and straw bedding.  Safe to use with small animals.

My math weary child was so delighted to use this project for his math work, it inspired him back to doing “regular” math… even though fractions proved more problematic than we thought they would.  🙂   go figure.   Sometimes taking a day to do practical math.. even without actual numbers .. is just what a lad needs.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair, it’s math week .. having fun with numbers.

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about
Discovering Patterns: Math and the Mathematical Sciences this week:

Finding Our Math Equilibrium: Our Plan for 11th, 7th, 5th, and 2nd Grades + Free Printables! by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Math Resources and Programs for All Ages by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Math (doesn’t) Stink! by Jennifer King @A Peace of Mind
When Math is NOT Your Thing by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays
Math U See and All the Supplements by Laura H @ Four Little Penguins
Discovering Patterns in Our World: STEM Studies by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Junior High Math by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
Science & Math for Struggling Learners by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
Maths: a subject in progress by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Taking Mathematics out of the Textbook by Dana Hanley @ Roscommon Acre
Maths for a Very Maths-y Boy by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Practical Math by Annette @ A Net in Time
One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Math, How I Loathe Thee by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Math and Logic in Early Elementary and Preschool {virtual curriculum fair 2017} by Meghan W @ Quiet In The Chaos
Low Stress High School Science and Math by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Are these toys or manipulatives? This is math? by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully
When You Don’t Have a Math Plan by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
Clear Horizons by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
A Few Thoughts on Teacher Math by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

An InLinkz Link-up

This post will also be linked up on January 25 with the Canadian Homeschooler. 

Field Trip: Ontario Science Centre

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One of our favourite places to go is the Ontario Science Centre.  We don’t go as often as we’d like, but we do go and have fun.   Our most recent trip we brought along our International Student.

Highlights of our Time

Our competitions against each other with the row boats.   We all competed against each other in different formations.   It was a hoot.  🙂   I had video, but it turned out blurry.

We discovered this beautiful picnic spot.   AND while we were picnicing and relaxing in this green spot we were able to listen to “the maple leaf forever”. 

the music area:

We saw a variety of wildlife.

Two joys.

One: seeing two boys take sheer delight in creating music with touch panels.   This area is a basically a large box with white panels with colour sections.  As you touch the colours different noises at different levels and tones would play.   The boys laugh and bounced around like a couple of young fiends   Good to see them having fun.

Two:
This quiet, unsure of himself yet lad, wasn’t sure about doing much anything else.   I caught him though, playing this drum.  Checking out the different sounds depending on where he tapped it.
This is taken just after I caught a first glimpse of his marvellous smile. 🙂  I regretted moving so that I could get a better picture of what he was doing.

Let’s see what else can I pull out from this trip to the Science Centre…..
I thought this was neat:  Seeing this image of multiple babies in the womb…  🙂

Anyways, we saw and did so many things, I can’t list it all.  
Suffice it to say, we had a great day.

STEM: Tinker Crate – Spy Case

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Kiwi crates sent us a Spy Case to put together. Boy oh boy did it teach us a lot!    Just so you know, affliate links are used in this post, which help us get more crates, and doesn’t hurt your bottom line at all.  🙂

First off .. .they didn’t stint with the spy paper they gave us.   The lad was mightily impressed.


They had us make a periscope, work with invisible ink, and more.  It was a fun kit to make and provided the lad with a reason to be sneaky! 

One of the things I love about kiwi and tinker crates is how they write the directions so clearly.  Unless you are deliberately not paying attention you really can’t mess it up.
 

 My son is becoming proficient enough with these crates that he can generally do them on his own now.  Reading through, making sure he’s laid out all the parts needed ahead of time, and then putting it together.  See?  All put together by one lad.  Mind…he initially put it together backwards, but quickly realized the error of his ways.   I have to admit, even though he can do it on his own, I love to sit with him talking about all the discoveries we are making.

 We were also able to see the affect of blue/red lines. How if you are careful you can hide words in them.   We even were able to write some of our own messages.  Can you see it?

My lad was delighted the invisible ink and the blue light, and immediately correlated it using lemon juice and a heat source.   Good to make those connections and see a lad’s brain at work.

Kiwi crates, making STEM materials around a theme, letting a child explore and create and cement the learning.   Coming once a month to delight, entertain and teach.
You can get your own Kiwi Crates eh?   A monthly subscription or just try a single crate. You can learn more about them here.

Linking up at Homeschool Highlights. 

Art Series: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

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I have to admit, when I first opened this book I thought…okay.. what
kind of a weird little art book is this?  So I read it through, and then
read it again because it intrigued in it’s in weirdness. It’s weirdness turned into a quirky way of  presenting different forms of
art and ended up really intriguing
me.  I think it will intrigue you too.

 You might be asking, what makes this book quirky?

Well, it’s done
in a comic book format, it’s a lovely hardcover book with great colour
throughout from front to back.  The characters are a tad unusual, but
they all have a great attitude and they all work with each other.

Arnold
puts on an art show for his friends.   He is the collector and curator
of the art museum, who wants to share his art collection with his
friends.   He leads them on a marvelous adventure and they all learn
much.

 Imagine if you could go to an art museum where you actually have to
experience the art yourself.. like crawling through a tunnel to get to a
Japanese tea room?  What if you learned how fascinating the colour blue
was and how hard it was to prefect it?

Could you see a urinal as
a piece of art?  Find it interesting to learn why ultramarine was used
so often in pictures of the Madonna?  What about seeing the shadows or
spaces of objects as the intrigue of artists?   I learned so much from
this book, it was very neat.

At the close of the book, images of
the actual art used and where they are found is depicted.   Some of the
pieces were quite interesting, some more so after the reasoning behind
them was given.

 It was so interesting to learn more about the different forms that art
can take and some of the history and thought that go on behind them. 
There is more to art than what you can just see.

I do have to tell you that I used this book with my art class….and they were delighted.  This book really resonated with my art students.   Check out the art project they came up.  🙂

They started with circles and exploring that space, then someone got the bright idea of exploring what they can do with their hands, and then …what if we mixed colours together and swirled them around, and what if we drop lids upside and … it kinda went on and on from there.   It was a great finish off for our art class as the students had learned to work together and feed off each others ideas.  

 Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Written/Illustrated by:
Catherine Ingram and Jim Stoten

Published by: Laurence King

Size: 10.1 x 12.06 ·

64 pages
Ages 7 and up

Reviewed For: Raincoast Books.

Amazon affiliate links are provided for your ease of finding this
quirky book.  It doesn’t affect your bottom line and blesses my heart
more than you know.  🙂   No pressure, but if you are intrigued by the
book, get it!  Links are below.
 Amazon.ca: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Amazon.com: Arnold’s Extraordinary Art Museum

Art Series: Art Lab for Kids

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Welcome Wren to my blog today!!!   Yes, she is a total sweetheart to help me out with my art series.  She’s going to be talking about a wonderful book called Art Lab of Kids by Susan Schwake.   You will normally find Wren (and her sister) blogging at FinchnWren.
How do you approach art in your home or homeschool? Are you a
naturally talented artist yourself, for whom art creation just flows
out? Or, are you someone who would love to teach art but have no
ideas of where or how to start? Let me encourage you, if you fit
into this last category: it’s much easier than you imagine! Even
if you are not a trained artist, you really can teach the subject of
art to your own children. There are so many books and resources
available today to help you along in this. I’d like to share a
very well-rounded book to help you in this journey: Susan Schwake’s
ART LAB FOR KIDS. I refer to this book all the time for both
our own homeschool art, and for the art class I teach in our local
homeschool coop. What a resource!
 
ART LAB FOR KIDS is subtitled “52 Creative Adventures in
Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media.”
Practically, that means you could take one adventure per week and
have a year’s worth of art to do in your homeschool! Ms. Schwake’s
book contains practical, step-by-step instructions, lots of photos,
and pictures of completed artworks so that the artist (or mom)
understands exactly how to teach and create each project. The author
also provides a great resource list of recommended media in the first
section, explaining how different ones work and can be used. She is
an artist and art teacher with 20 years’ experience, so she brings
both the ability to clearly teach and a huge depth of art idea
resources to the reader.
ART LAB FOR KIDS has sections which cover the following:
  • How to use the book and how to create art with others
  • Drawing (ink, scribble, pastels, crayon, and more)
  • Painting (miniature, Fauvist, charcoal, watercolor, tempera, etc.)
  • Printmaking (silkscreen, stencil, cardboard relief, gelatin, and
    more)
  • Paper (stamps, tissue, torn-paper, Pop Art, vellum…)
  • Mixed Media (charcoal/watercolor, photos, watercolor and pencil,
    portraits, batik…)

While I think that ART LAB FOR KIDS would be ideal used as a
curriculum, I have personally just read through it many times and
selected specific art projects to teach, based on what my students
were learning or what we found most interesting. Some projects we
thoroughly enjoyed completing were painting an enlarged tiny section
of a painting on a small square; “Painting in the Style of…,”
and “Text as Texture.” And that’s only a fraction of the
projects offered in this book. We’re looking forward to painting
on tiny pieces of wood; reverse landscapes; gelatin monoprinting; and
many more!
 
I recommend this book for anyone who’d like to go deeper into the
world of artmaking, or art teaching, in a variety of art styles.
These vivid, fascinating projects will keep you busy for hours and
hours, happily creating!
Enjoy!
Wren from FinchnWren.
You can find this book through my affiliate links (helping to support this blog).
Amazon.ca
Art Lab for Kids: 52 Creative Adventures in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media-For Budding Artists of All Ages
Amazon.com
Art Lab for Kids: 52 Creative Adventures in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Paper, and Mixed Media-For Budding Artists of All Ages (Lab Series)

Linked up here:

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Recipe: Pizza Dough Apple Strudel

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Pizza Dough Apple Strudel

This is the first time we ever made this and we were just playing around with what worked.

First we tried to cut small squares to fill with apple pie filling but that was a colossal fail.

Talking it through, the lad and I decided to roll it out and cut slits in it to see how that worked.

It took a couple of attempts to figure out how to fold the dough over, but it still tasted good.

Ingredients

Apple pie filling (3/4 can)
Pillsbury Pizza Dough

Directions

Divide the dough in half and roll it as thin as reasonable.   We found the dough very stretchy and that it would bounce back on us.

Cut slits along the side, we made them about an inch wide.   
Put the pie filling between the slits.
then fold the slit up and over on a diagonal.  Kinda stick them to the dough on the other side.
Criss cross your way up to the top. 

I have to admit, I wasn’t quite sure how to finish off the top so we just folded it down back over the criss cross’s.

It passed the muster for two boys.
Hubby and I said “hmmm.. next time we’ll add some cinnamon sugar to the pie filling and sprinkle some sugar on top”.   
It was good, just the added ingredients will make it better.  🙂

If you try your hand at it, let me know your secrets to making it.  🙂  
.