Family Schooling Summary: Creators and Makers

Our 4H program offered an online painting class last Friday. All of the kids wanted to participate. 

The teacher spoke really quickly (geared towards kids 10 and up). Big Sister A followed the instructions and ended up with a beautiful snowman picture. 

Brother M repainted some sections of his picture because he was not satisfied with them and also ended up with a great painting. 

Miss L messed up on her snowman's face, tried to correct it, and then got frustrated and started over with a clean canvas. 

Brother S marched to his own drum the whole time. He determined from the start that he was not going to follow the prescribed snowman instructions.  During the class he made the painting on the right (shark).  The next morning he made part 2, the painting on the left (squid and dolphin).

Big sister A has excelled in her study of the piano. Her teacher told her this week that it was hard to believe that she has only been playing for a year and a half.  We had a conversation over dinner that night about "talent" vs. practice.  Talent helps, but in the end it aways comes down to practice, as Malcolm Gladwell so clearly illustrates in his book, Outliers. Big sister A loves to practice the piano. I think that makes all the difference. 

Brother S had a cooking requirement for Cub Scouts this week.  He wanted to make fish sticks and salad. He made the grocery list, bought the ingredients, chopped everything up, mixed up the salad dressing and placed the fish sticks in the pan.  He liked it so much that he made salad for us again the following night and has been a fantastic kitchen helper. He also made homemade pizza.  The sauce was our homegrown jars and I made the dough, but he has made a lot of improvement on his ability to roll out dough in  a circle.  He also rolled out the crust for our quiche this week by himself. Miss L mixed and made jello by herself (I poured the boiling water). 

Daddy hosted (in the barn) and led brother M's Cub Scout den in a wood working activity on Thursday night. The other kids were jealous that M was able to make some cool scout projects, so Daddy helped them work on their own projects this weekend. Big Sis A finished hers, a "book" with a secret storage compartment.