Math Turkeys

These addition turkeys were a great idea I got from Royal Baloo.

Her blog looks like a real gold mine of home schooling ideas, definitely worth a look, although her kids are a bit younger than most of mine.

The turkeys say =10 on them, and each feather is a different way to add up to 10.  Choclo loved this craft and, although he knew the answers, having the pattern feathers in order was something he found delightful.

Oob, on the other hand, needed the Math-U-See blocks to see the the pattern, but he also liked the project a lot.  I need to do more crafts like this with them!

Easy Art Project

 This was a fun and easy project!

I had the kids draw a tree on black paper and then cut it out.

I pointed out that the trees branches get smaller as the split and that they tend to end in points, but otherwise gave no direction.

I think with younger kids, I'd let them draw it, and I'd cut it out for them.

For the second part, we used watercolors on white paper, but you could also do watercolor on tissue paper and put the finished project in the window for a stained glass effect.

We had been looking at some sun rises and sunsets in real life lately, and we talked about using warm colors for sunsets, and cooler, lighter tones for sunrises.

  I'm finding it interesting to see the kids decisions on these projects.  It was important to Leena that her tree be off center.   Mxyl's tree (top left) looks like an oak to me, while Klenda's (bottom left) makes me think of a maple, and Zorg's (top right) is very much like the elm that was in our front yard at the house where he was born.

Zoomlians in the News

I'm not sure I mentioned that we now have three scouts: two Boys and a Cub. 

Generally, the Troop (Boy Scouts) and the Pack (Cub Scouts) don't cross over that much, but occasionally they do.  This past weekend the Cubs and Boys worked together on a project gathering food for the hungry, and they collected nearly half a ton of food!

They made the local news here.

Stranger

Can you guess which Zoomlian this is?

Leave your guess in the comments!

Update: Yes!  It is Choclo!  Amusingly, Choclo himself thought it was Mxyl, then guessed Zorg, then Leena. 

Clearly it was an excellent disguise!

The Emperor was a great guess because he's the only other person with brown eyes!

Thankfully Before and After

 Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!

Time to get thankful!

So, I made a turkey with the help of Oob.  I had grabbed a roll of builders paper at Home Depot a while ago (near the paint department), and I must say, it's great for craft projects (where you want brown paper), heavy but easy to cut, and super cheap. It's about 3 feet wide and comes in a big roll.

Oob put on the eyes (cross eyed) and gave the turkey buttons.  He also put googly eyes on the wings and a few other random adornments.  He glued a piece of Halloween candy in the turkey's mouth, for example.
 
Still, this was everyone's turkey, not just Oob's, so I felt the need to scale back the surrealism.

We cut out feathers, and let everyone write things they were thankful for on them.  This was last week, and he is still acquiring feathers now and then.

Voila!  A thankful turkey!

All Souls

Actually, we missed All Souls Day during the big sick, but November is the month of the Holy Souls, so we went ahead with our plans.

Who are the Holy Souls, anyway?  They are the people who have died who haven't been officially declared saints.

The Church canonizes people (declares them to be in heaven) who have lead extraordinary lives of heroic virtue and holds them up as examples of how to be holy.

We start November with the feast of All Saints (All Hallows, the eve of which is Hallowe'en), but the next day, and the rest of the month, are dedicated to the rest of the dead, all leading up to the end of the Church Year: Christ the King, in which we celebrate Jesus' return at the end of time. 

We believe that some souls go directly to heaven (saints), some go to heaven but first need purification (those in purgatory), and of course, some choose to be separated from God forever (the damned).

Unless they choose hell, everyone is part of the Communion of Saints.  Those in heaven are the Church Triumphant, those in purgatory are the Church Suffering (sometimes called Poor Souls, sometimes called Holy Souls), those of us with boots on the ground are the Church Militant.

I like the term Holy Souls, because it covers those who are in heaven (but not canonized) and those in purgatory, in other words, all my dead relatives!  Those in purgatory would be holy (they've definitively chosen heaven), and suffering (they have seen God and can't be with Him).  We can help them get to heaven more quickly with our prayers and sacrifices.

Praying at the graves in 40 degree weather and a stiff breeze felt much more sacrificial than our Memorial Day outing!

There is something special about visiting in November though.  The cemeteries are quieter.  The autumn weather, edging towards winter, brings mortality to mind.  It's a season of loss, and a good time to reflect that nothing is lost in God.

And we have beautiful camellias to decorate the graves with!  This year, scrounging through the November garden, I found one perfect white rose to bring to my father-in-law's grave.  He loved growing roses, and I love to bring him some whenever we visit.  I never got to meet him, but we are connected by a love of gardening.  And by the Communion of Saints!

Choclo Says

"Take a picture of my great battle!"

"It's for the blog."

Yes, dear.

Faith and Trust

I am really happy with the way our first project for the Year of Faith came out!

I've been thinking about what to do next.  Ideally, I'd like to do one small(ish) project a month, with a larger, less intensive project that would stretch over the year. (More on that soon!)

For October, we focused on what we believe, as articulated by the Nicene Creed.  This month, I thought it would be good to look at another meaning of Faith: not faith about what, but faith in whom. 

So, Faith as trust in Jesus.  Which brings me back to my continual question as a parent: how do I help my kids build and nurture their relationship with God.  It's tricky.  God actually does all the heavy lifting, of course, but how can I help?  Because, really, it all comes down to this, doesn't it?


One thing I've seen is that kids are very concrete in their relationship with God, and it really helps them to have an image to help them focus their imagination on Jesus when they pray.

 Fessing up here, it really helps me too!  I have this picture in my kitchen, hung at eye level, and about life sized, and it really helps me to remember that Jesus is with me.

But that's the image that helps me.  I have known several people who couldn't stand this image!

So I've been having the kids look at lots and lots of images, and picking one that speaks to them.  We've used Google images' search for Jesus (which does include some non-Christian images), a Pinterest page on Jesus (which was very good, if heavy on the smiles), and a Spanish page on Jesus (fairly diverse styles).  I'll print out each kid's favorite, and put it up near their bed.

Mask Making

 On Halloween, we had three recovered, three still recovering from the stomach bug and two waiting for the next round, so the kids were left to their own devices for large swathes of the day.

By this point, they had watched videos for two days while the grown ups were sick, so they were ready to make their own fun.

Klenda started a mask making business in the home school room.

Here she is modelling her pumpkin mask.

And here is Zorg with the Frankenstein mask.

I think Mxyl's extra-large boots add the finishing touch.

Quite creepily well done!

Recovery

Do you remember in The Princess Bride, in the Pit of Despair: "I've just sucked one week of your life away.  Now tell me, how do you feel?  Be honest."

Whimper.

It's November.  Fifth.  How is that even possible? 

But we are all feeling ok again, and I am very grateful.  I had been stuck in the bemused, "now, what was I doing..." phase over the weekend, alternated with the panicky realization that the holidays are looming, the election is tomorrow, and I have 5 classes left of Chemistry.

What I needed was something amazing to get me going again and this was it:


I don't know that this would hit you the same way if you aren't Catholic and of a certain age (and recovering from a stomach bug), but for me, it was a reminder of everything Papa John Paul told me, the deep spiritual influence he had on me, and the communion of saints.  Just what I needed!