BTFC Crafts

We have fond feelings for the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children, which supports kids with brain tumors and their families throughout the Southeast.  Every year they ask the kids and their siblings to paint birdhouses, which are then auctioned off at a golf tournament reception.

This year a bunch of college students from GA Tech came to help the children with their projects:

 After painting, the girls added "jewelry" to the birdhouses:

Reading Confidence

Catherine's reading is improving so much!  She is doing a great job of reading with inflection, using varied voices for different characters, etc.  Her speed is improving, even to the point that she can read well enough that she can actually read a book to Sabrina. 

She also asks to read books now and volunteers to read the whole thing.  For months I had to argue with her about reading, negotiating whcih pages she would read and which ones I would read. 

At night she will even ask to read books in bed:

She loves all the "Bear" books!

Wizard of Oz

Camp Sunshine is a great organization in Atlanta which offers tons of programs for children with cancer and their families.  Recently they hosted a day at the theater and invited everyone to come see "The Wizard of Oz" at the Alliance Stage Theater.  The girls did not know the story beforehand, but loved it.

They were terrified of the Wicked Witch and both hid their faces whenever she appeared.  True to form, Sabrina sat on my lap and narrated the play for me, explaining the scenes like "the witch wants her dog," "the scarecrow fell down," and "that lion is big."

I could not photograph the play itself, but after the play the actors did stay and answer questions from the audience.

The most interesting part of the "question and answer" session is that I think the girls finally figured out what acting is.  Both of them commented on how nice the Wicked Witch was at the end.  As we walked back to the car, however, both girls repeatedly sang "Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead!"

I know they understood the play, because for days they talked about the scarecrow wanting a brain, the tin man wanting a heart, and the lion wanting courage. I don't think they understood what a tornado was and did not "get" that this was Dorothy's dream and the characters played dual roles.  But, they both insist on wearing "Dorothy shoes" all the time now.  Fortunately, we happen to own two pairs of sparkly red shoes.

Dr. Seuss Day

My favorite author as a child was Dr. Seuss.  My mom used to tell me that I learned how to read with The Cat in the Hat.  My girls, like all children, love that book and Green Eggs and Ham.  So, I knew that I had to do something special to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2.  I borrowed tons of Seuss books from the library and searched the Internet for tons of worksheets and crafts we could do. 

Catherine decided that it was "ballerina day" and they would wear leotards.  She spontaneously decides it is "costume day" about once a week also.  Hence, the unusual school clothing in these pictures.

I love this shot, which actually shows the dice in action.  Catherine's basic addition is improving with all these games.

Sabrina coloring a worksheet:

 Making a Cat Hat:

By far the most fun activity we did was act out scenes and pictures from the books, such as the "policeman in a pail:"

 Or swinging tennis rackets while standing on a bed:

Sitting on a cat (we used one of our favorite stuffed animals, who sports several band-aids because it has accompanied us to the hospital many times):

 Sharing a bed with lots of people (or stuffed animals):

Eating cake in a bathtub (we didn't have any cake, so we ate a brownie - Catherine searched the house for her umbrella but couldn't find it):

Catherine actually let a minuscule piece of brownie pass her lips, which is against her "no eating" policy.  But, alas, she did not like it:

Sabrina, however, had no qualms about eating a brownie while sitting in a bathtub.  The girls wanted to take their clothes off and fill the tub with water, but that would violate my "no nudity on the blog" policy. 

The most fun scene they acted out was "dressing up their Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal in a Thing One bathing suit and chasing it up and down the hallway with a butterfly net."

I couldn't photograph an action shot of the chase, so I had to stage our Winnie/Thing One already caught by Sabrina:

We didn't have any apples to try to recreate Ten Apples on Top, so Sabrina put a cat on her head and walked around with it.

In between all these shenanigans, we read the books each about two times.  While we were acting out the scenes, the girls really had to examine the books and pick out things we could recreate.  Having devoted a whole day to Dr. Seuss books, I realized how silly they are.  Many of the scenes were funny, but impossible to recreate - such as a camel walking across a ceiling. 

So, the goal of learning a lot about the books was achieved.  Plus, this was a fun day with lots of giggling!

Car Number 20

Last weekend we went to the monthly Home Depot Kids' Workshop.  I had no idea what the project was and pay no attention to Nascar.  But Robby was pleased to see this project:

I was thrilled that the car parts came pre-painted, as the workshops where we have to paint are very messy. This was an easy project because all you had to do was assemble the car and nail axles in:

 Then, you added stickers over every millimeter of the car:

The girls loved their little cars and raced them around the house when we got home.  Love these workshops!

Eric Carle Art

Ever since we went to the High Museum of Art, the girls constantly ask me if they can paint.  Well, today I finally caved.  We read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, illustrated by Eric Carle.  I pencilled diagrams of the animals onto paper and the girls painted them. 

I told them that this is not "free painting;" it is "copy painting."  They had to try to paint the picture just like the artist did.  Both of them really paid attention to the pages of the book and copied them.

I was so impressed with Sabrina's attention to detail.  Today Catherine had to write an essay for her online school, which took her two hours.  During that entire time, Sabrina painted nine animals from this book.  She really studied the original art work and copied the colors and shapes. She even made different shades of the paint, such as light purple and dark purple.

 Here is some of Sabrina's paintings:

Catherine wanted to paint after she finished her essay.  She only painted for about 30 minutes before she wanted to go outside and play (of course she was tired from having written her essay). 

This was such an awesome activity.  I have never seen the girls just a book so thoroughly.  They kept reading the pages to each other and laughed about the silly animals, such as the blue horse or the purple cat.  They talked about the black pointy claws on the bear, the big pink tongue on the frog, the webbed feet of the duck.

As the activity progressed, they got better at looking at the pictures and telling me what colors they needed to paint it, noting the colors of the small details.  I can't wait to do this activity with some other picture books!

Koi Pond Trip

The girls recently went on a field trip to Splendor Koi Pond with Catherine's Girl Scout troop.  We are starting a "unit" on gardening and I thought a little lesson on water gardening would be fun.  Plus, this store was close to where we normally meet and the owner agreed to give us a free tour.  As it turned out, I am not sure if the girls learned anything about water gardening, but they seemed to have more fun at this field trip than I have ever seen them have.

The owner gave us all a bunch of food and told us to hold a tiny piece of it in the water (which was a very cold 60 degrees).  The fish opened their mouths very wide and took the food out of our fingers.  Apparently they do not have teeth until they are 5 years old, so there was no chance they could bite us (one of the girls asked the question).

 I love these next two pictures.  Catherine leaned over really far to feed the fish a small piece of food:

As soon as Catherine tried to feed the fish, tons of them immediately swam right up to her.  These fish were fairly big, so Catherine and the other girls reacted by jumping back.  However, during the hour that we were there all the girls got over their "fear" of the fish and could not be torn away from the ponds.

 I was also thrilled that none of the girls fell in (I was especially worried about my girls leaning in too far).

 A lot of the girls simply threw the food at the fish, rather than try to hand the fish one piece of food at a time.

Y trying to get her daughter M to hold the food for the fish to take it out of her hand, rather than just drop the food in the pond:

 We also saw a bunch of catfish in some of the interior tanks:

The tour was only an hour, but I think the girls could have stayed there all day!