Thursday, March 27, 2008

Still Learning...

On Tuesday I filled in for Miss K.'s grade 3/4 class while she was away at a seminar. Since I've taught Art to her class several times during this past year she asked if I would teach them that afternoon. I decided on a very simple project since I wouldn't have a helper. I gave them a short explanation on the life and art of Pablo Picasso (which they already knew a fair bit about, smart kids!) and then they proceeded with the project. We tried to create an imitation of Mains Aux Fleurs which required that they rip out the shapes of flowers and leaves to create a handful of flowers. I really thought this should be quite easy - what child can't rip? Well, I think their moms had sufficiently drilled into their little heads not to rip at a very young age. All afternoon I heard, "Mrs. K, can you help me? I can't rip". In the end we had 14 beautiful pieces of artwork and a very tired teacher....

As I was reading later from "Normal Kingdom Business" by Andree Seu (World Magazine writer) I was reminded of how much I have learned later in life. I think I've gained more knowledge through my children than I actually learned while I was at school. A sentence in her article read, "I don't know what the inside of your head looks like, but mine looks like Guernica". Well, I would not have known what that meant if it were not for that little lesson on Picasso yesterday. Like I said...still learning.

P.S. Some days the inside of my head does feel like Guernica...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bad Day, Anyone?

Just wanted to share with you the fact that I had a bad day today. I'd love to share the details but that wouldn't be helpful and it would incriminate others... Ever had the kind of day that you just expect the next nasty comment, broken something, or upset family member? Well, today was that kind of day. I was in no mood to take any photos to share it with you because I'd rather forget it happened. I will just have to get a good sleep and wake up to a brand, new beautiful day!!

Oh, by the way, we won both of our volleyball games last night and it's still lots of fun & good exercise...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Invention Convention








After much preparation, the planned Invention Convention at Cornerstone came together this past Friday evening. Our Science Teacher, Mr. M. introduced the idea to the students & parents several months ago. The grades 1-2 could do something really simple - most of them introduced a simple machine they had learned about in class. The grades 3-4 could enter the bridges they designed which is part of their curriculum. The older grades had to invent something that hadn't been invented before or improve on the design of something already invented. They could also produce a piece of original music, write a book, or think of an original recipe. We spent many dinner hours as a family inventing the strangest things - some just made us howl with laughter, others the kids tried to produce but failed, and still others bordered on simply ridiculous.

Here's the photos that would upload today... "A" is very proud of his beam bridge - it's stronger than it needs to be & it looks great too. Hannah and her friend published a children's book. It is entitled "I Do Believe in Fairies" and it is really good (unbiased mother...). "H" wrote the story and her friend painted all the pictures - it almost looks like a professionally published soft cover complete with made-up ISBN & barcode. We asked her to remember us when she becomes rich & famous... The other inventions we can't disclose because we don't want to endanger the patents that are pending....

The entire gym was filled with tables and trifolds explaining the inventions - it was amazing to see the variety & ingenuity. The evening was definitely a great success!

Sunday, March 09, 2008

A surprise arrives from Ontario!!





On Thursday morning, as secretly planned, I went to the Abbotsford airport to pick up Kelly and Nikki. I knew for the past month or so that they wanted to surprise our girls - on the weekend of Lorelle's 17th birthday. It was great fun waiting for them to come home from school. They popped up from behind the counter when they came into the kitchen & shocked them all. So started a great weekend. The weather was decent - about 52 degrees F. and a few threatening clouds in the sky. While they were here they went to the ocean and spent time at a park there, went toboganning on Mt. Baker and had a fun time with friends celebrating Lorelle's birthday.

Some Hawaii Pictures...